It’s the return of Buddy Bradley & Co.!  Taking a page out of the Love and Rockets playbook, the core story is bracketed by / intercut with flashbacks to the early Hate era (aka the ‘90s), showing the presence of the tangled lines of the past:  Buddy/Lisa; Buddy/Valerie; Buddy/George; and (in flashback only, obviously) Buddy/Stinky – are drawn into the present as Tacoma-dwelling Buddy & Lisa visit Valerie & George at their Seattle digs for a dinner cum throwdown where values and tastes collide – in exactly the ways that longtime readers would expect.  Appropriately, the flashbacks have been created in the black & white of the Hate-era in which they are situated, while the contemporary story is i the full color that Hate has been produced in for the last 20+ years (And, yes, the entire issue is all new material).  Bonus cameo of Buddy and Lisa’s now-adult son, Harold!

For longtime followers of the Buddy Bradley saga, reading this issue will be like catching up with old friends.  2024 feels like the right time to reconnect.