Appearance Pete DiNunzio is the shortest member of the Eltingville Club and has a stocky build. He usually wears graphic T shirts featuring horror movies, comics, or heavy metal bands with jeans and sometimes a jacket. He has a black buzz cut that is often hidden beneath a backwards baseball cap. His defining features are a thick unibrow, a large nose, acne, and an almost permanent scowl. Personality Pete is hot headed, defensive, sarcastic, and argumentative. Like Bill and Josh, he has an explosive temper and is quick to insult or fight his friends over even minor disagreements. While he occasionally tries to act like the most reasonable member of the group or objects to their worst behavior, those moments rarely last, and he usually ends up encouraging the chaos instead. Rather than calming arguments, he often escalates them by feeding everyone else's anger. His greatest passion is horror. Pete is obsessed with horror films, practical makeup effects, gore, monster design, and legendary filmmakers, treating them with almost religious admiration. Unlike Bill's superhero fixation or Josh's science fiction obsession, Pete is fascinated by the craftsmanship behind horror, especially makeup artists, costumes, effects, and classic monsters. Pete constantly tries to appear traditionally masculine. He mocks Jerry for hobbies he considers feminine, calls people weak or pathetic, and aggressively rejects anything that could threaten his image. Ironically, he spends much of his time defending his own interests from ridicule, since even his friends often dismiss horror effects as unimportant or "gay." This contradiction largely comes from his upbringing, where showing vulnerability or unconventional interests was never accepted. Home Life Pete has the harshest home life in the club. According to Evan Dorkin, he grew up in a physically abusive household where violence was common and his interests received little sympathy. His father, Mr. DiNunzio, openly despises Pete's horror collection and repeatedly destroys his belongings because he considers them childish or inappropriate. He even threatens to break Pete's legs if he continues spending time with the Eltingville Club. Pete also endured bullying from several older brothers, making violence and intimidation a normal part of daily life. Because anger was the only acceptable emotion in his household, Pete never learned healthy ways to express frustration, often responding by yelling, fighting, or destroying property. Dorkin has stated that nobody in Pete's family truly understands or supports his interests. Compared to Bill, Jerry, and Josh, Pete is also the poorest member of the club. His limited money keeps his horror collection much smaller than everyone else's, and whatever he manages to buy is constantly at risk of being destroyed by his father. After the comic shop burns down, Pete is forced to throw away nearly all of his horror memorabilia, effectively losing the hobby that served as his primary escape from his miserable home life. Friends Pete's closest friends are Bill Dickey, Jerry Stokes, and Josh Levy through the Eltingville Club. Bill frequently argues with Pete, but the two often reinforce each other's worst behavior. Pete constantly insults Jerry, viewing him as weak while still keeping him within the group. His relationship with Josh is similarly hostile, with frequent arguments and fights fueled by both of their tempers. Despite these conflicts, the club remains Pete's only real social circle, making him fiercely protective of both the group and his own interests. Some interpretations suggest Pete originally joined the club as an escape from the violence and hostility at home, only to end up surrounded by another environment dominated by shouting, arguments, and aggression. Likes and Interests Pete loves nearly every corner of horror culture, including zombies, slashers, survival horror, giallo films, Hammer Horror, Lucio Fulci movies, cannibal films, Asian horror, werewolves, Final Girls, monster resin kits, makeup effects, practical gore, unrated cuts, torture variants, Chiller Con, Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Anne Rice, and anything featuring disturbing imagery. Outside horror he listens to heavy metal of all kinds, especially black metal and death metal, with bonus points for horror themed artwork. His appreciation extends beyond simply watching horror. Pete genuinely admires the artistry behind practical effects, costumes, and monster makeup. Comics such as Unstable Molecules and They're Dead They're All Messed Up show his enthusiasm for creating better zombie costumes and discussing special effects with genuine excitement, revealing a creative side that rarely appears beneath his constant anger. Relatives Pete is Italian American. Although he knows some Italian, he is not fluent. His family consists of his father, Mr. DiNunzio, his mother, Mrs. DiNunzio, a younger sister, and several older brothers, all of whom contribute to an unsupportive and often hostile home environment ITS THE 1990S HES A EXTREME MISOGYNIST HES OBSESSED WITH GORE