Hate, by Peter Bagge (Fantagraphics Books). Comic, $2.95 IT'S TIME ONCE again for hipster slackers to crawl out from beneath their piles of lounge records and 1950s men's magazines and head to the nearest comic book shop: The new Hate is here. This issue marks a slight change of format for Peter Bagge's long running "alternative" comic--it includes a number of other cartoonists and two guest columnists. The added material is a mixed bag; some of it seems to be Bagge's charitable contribution of space to those less talented than he, while some of it is, if not well drawn, at least amusing. One of the prose pieces is by Rollerderby writer/editor Lisa Carver. While this is sure to cause a buzz amongst zine fans (Rollerderby is one of the most highly regarded out there), this is far from her best work--essentially, she just runs down the salient points of last year's episodes of Days of Our Lives. Somehow, this isn't as amusing as it sounds. The other column is a trying-too-hard-to-be-hip-and-ironic embarrassment by zinemeister Aaron Lee (of PUPPET SHOW and BLUE PERSUASION "fame"). Still, the meat of the comic is the continuing saga of grumpy, 20-something loser Buddy Bradley, who now finds himself struggling to prevent his brother from turning their mother's house into a crack den. Having reached its 26th issue, the storyline has lost some of its newness, but it's still engrossing and repelling because, as one jobless, ambitionless, scenester reader told me, "Everyone in that comic acts too much like everyone I know." So, if you're feeling too tired to hang out at the Airport Lounge and eavesdrop on bowling-shirted boys and over-lipsticked girls, why not get your schadenfreude ya-yas from Bagge's amusing, squiggly drawings and overly accurate word balloons.

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