Love & Rockets - classic or dud

(3) Post LOCAS. After LOVE AND ROCKETS VOLUME 1 ended, Jaime first did an all-wrestling "Locasverse" spinoff called WHOA, NELLIE! (available as a $9.95 graphic novel). If you love the LOCAS wrestling stories, get it; if not, don't -- at least not as your first pick. Instead, move onto LOCAS IN LOVE and DICKS AND DEEDEES, which pick up the continuity threads right where LOCAS left off. (These stories originally appeared in MAGGIE AND HOPEY COLOR FUN and PENNY CENTURY.) After that, you can either wait for the next volume (coming in December), GHOST OF HOPPERS, or collect all that material in the first 10 issues of LOVE AND ROCKETS VOL. II.

Beginning with LOVE AND ROCKETS VOL. II #11, all the Jaime stories are as yet uncollected, and probably won't appear between book covers until 2008 or 2009 at the earliest.

Beto guide here.

An aside: I think I love Beto's Fear of Comics almost as much as Locas or Palomar.

and

Therefore, if you've purchased and enjoyed PALOMAR, your first stops will be LOVE AND ROCKETS VOL. 12: "POISON RIVER" (the early story of Luba) and LOVE AND ROCKETS X (a story set in then-contemporary L.A. which featured one of Luba's daughters and has since worked its way into post-Palomar continuity).

and

LOVE AND ROCKETS VOLUME 1 has about 60 pages of stories such as "BEM," "Music for Monsters," et al. (Also available much cheaper --five bucks total!-- as LOVE AND ROCKETS #1 and #2.)

and

There are four very early "Locasverse" stories in LOVE AND ROCKETS (Vol. 1) #1 which were not included in LOCAS because they were comparatively crude. As it happens, you can still buy the original 64-page LOVE AND ROCKETS #1 for only $2.50 through the Fantagraphics catalog -- or you can buy LOVE AND ROCKETS VOL. 1: MUSIC FOR MECHANICS, which reprints #1 and #2. Although this latter ploy will give you a duplicate copy of the 40-page "Mechanics" story which leads off LOCAS, the other 80 or 90 pages of comics are not collected in either LOCAS or PALOMAR, and well worth the price (especially Gilbert Hernandez's "BEM," featuring a pre-Palomar Luba.

and

There's about 100 pages of "Locasverse" stories that were cut from LOCAS because they focused on peripheral characters -- Rena Titañon wrestling stories, Penny Century larks, etc.; unfortunately for collectors, they're scattered in Volumes 2, 4, 5, and 6, which otherwise contain mostly stories collected in LOCAS and PALOMAR. (Volumes 7, 11, and 13 are COMPLETELY collected in LOCAS -- well, except for one 3-page story in Vol. 13 that didn't make the cut -- so you can ignore them.)

and

However, LOVE AND ROCKETS VOLUME 9: FLIES ON THE CEILING, while it does contain a number of pages collected in LOCAS, is a relative bonanza in this regard, with 37 pages of non-LOCAS "Locasverse" stories, including two of the very, very best: "Flies on the Ceiling" (the story of Izzy in Mexico) and "Spring 1982" (a haunting flashback to the early days of the Doyle character). Volume 9 also contains Gilbert's stunning "Frida."

He doesn't cover Mario at all, but didn't he disappear from L&R almost entirely after the first few, siphoned off into anthologies and Brain Capers and so forth? I don't remember anything non-Locasverse by Xaime at all, so he's covered. What else is there, maybe a five-page short by Beto every three books, if that? (nb: if at home I would actually check this, no belligerence intended in question!)

three volumes each for Locas and Palomar characters, then one at the end for Mario and Rocky & Fumble* and BEM and Errata Stigmata and all the other oddments. All from v1 #1-50, none of the subsequent series covered.

*(which I totally forgot about in my really-kinda-belligerent post up above)

Anyway I'm not sure what I think of it.

I only got into this last year after reading some of Tom's old books. I found that I preferred Beto's stuff straight away but only this year did I get round to buying the collected paperback Palomar stuff (Heartbreak Soup and Human Diastrophism - a third one is out much later this year featuring Poison River, annoyingly left out of the second volume causing some confusion when readint the final section of that book, and Love And Rockets X tho i don't think i want to wait that long).

So I'm a little obsessed with the Palomar saga at the mo and am disappointed that I can't find any decent analysis or heavy discussion of it online tho I will look harder. I'd love to see a proper timeline of events as much as anything else. A lot of things at the end of Luba Conquers The World/Farewell Palomar/Chelo's Burden (confused by this being final chapter title as it was the title of L&R issue 3 Palomar story also?), particularly why Guadalupe hated Jesus so much.

So I have to read Poison River and then the post-Palomar Luba stuff. Is the Luba's Comics & Stories series good too?

The scene where (kinda spoilerish) Khamo finds Chancla

i didn't get why she looked so sheepish/embarassed as opposed to like completely hysterical/fearful - super creepy tho

i read g hernandez's 'sloth' last night. i'm not sure i have anything to say about it.

Luba's Comics & Stories series good too?

Peculiar - it's kinda Gilbert at his most rarefied and self-indulgent, in my opinion. There are any number of fantastic moments throughout (I've caught up with these via the LUBA trades), though Beto doesn't play anything remotely resembling catch-up with the reader (i.e. Be sure to know your Palomar history).

i didn't get why she looked so sheepish/embarassed as opposed to like completely hysterical/fearful - super creepy tho

That really resonated with me - it didn't follow logically yet felt completely right. I feel it's a massive gamble on Beto's part that payed off enormously.

Peculiar - it's kinda Gilbert at his most rarefied and self-indulgent, in my opinion.

SELF-CORRECTION: See GRIP. But the LUBA books don't fit the "user-friendly" tag, either.

A new “scholarly book” is coming: https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/reading-love-and-rockets

Also coming, and enormous: https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/love-and-rockets-the-sketchbooks

time to pick up the above, or the First Fifty, or hundreds of other books for sorta-half-price

^ eight hours left

I did not know (or forgot?) that Jaime drew Shrinking Violet & Phantom Girl for DC's Who's Who in the mid-'80s (as seen at the end of this piece) – very cool!:

https://www.cbr.com/jaime-hernandez-dc-superheroes-1980s/

Meanwhile, though – if that article (which I found while searching for those images) is correct that this Maggie "pin-up" was the actual inspiration for Carrie Kelley, DKR's Robin... that is **VERY** F-N' COOL(!!):

https://static1.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/jaime-hernandez-maggie-as-robin.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=750&dpr=1.5

I remember that sketch! <3

You can be reminded of it again tomorrow!

pretty sure I have it, I have the two sketchbook volumes?

(There is a LOT more in the new one, and most of it from improved sources, including Jaime’s original sketchbooks)

https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/love-rockets-vol-iv-16
weird ass cover

that *is* a weird ass cover

it was such a pleasure reading through one of the big editions recently, that going back to the smaller-sized collections feels like real stepdown

https://www.kexp.org/read/2021/8/13/throwing-muses-limbo-turns-25-kristin-hersh-gilbert-hernandez-album-artwork-and-more/

I'm intrigued by her comment about reading underground comics in Boston. I spent a ton of time in local comic stores, mostly in Cambridge, right around this same period, which directly led to my becoming a lifelong fan of Love & Rockets. The stores I liked really pushed underground comics right up front, and it makes me wonder if the prominence of shops like that gave many more local kids similar experiences.

she talks a lot about comics in her (great) autobio Rat Girl

I think it took me until early 1987 to discover L&R but the impact on myself and my circle of friends was immense

I’m trying to remember when I started reading L&R - might’ve been late high school, ‘93/‘94? But I feel like Eightball was first - stumbling on an issue at Geppi’s Comic World in Harbor Place in Baltimore and being all “what is this?” at the point in time when Marvel and DC were losing steam for me.

I like the new collection... physically, it's beautiful, the paper is really nice and all that (the dimensions are even a little larger than the last few).

I haven't read the Vol. IV issues, so all the material is new to me. I only remember the basics of what happened in the last few volumes, but it wasn't hard to get the gist. There's a "Tonta" story in the middle of the book – involving a comic convention followed by a family dinner – that has the rhythm & snap of classic Jaime... every panel is delightful. The rest of the book is more loose & laid-back, and gets a little fragmentary toward the end (the stories are so brief), but it has a through-line and the story is satisfying.

Jaime's dialogue doesn't feel quite as strong to me as in his prime, and his lettering gets blotchy in spots (maybe it's just his pen?). It's wild how the book covers ten years of material, but not a long stretch of story time... hard to know "when" it's taking place anymore, but I imagine there will be a time jump at some point. It's interesting how he's settled into this new set of characters... some of the intersections with the classic crew feel a little forced, but overall I think I like this era even better than the 2000s stuff.

I wasn’t crazy about the Ti-Girls storyline, but apart from that I’ve found it to be very consistent. I like Love Burglars a lot, and the most recent two books were pretty good, but not great. I’m mainly in it for Maggie.

I picked up the new one yesterday but haven’t really looked at it yet.

I haven’t kept up with Gilbert’s stuff at all. Once his storyline left Palomar I lost interest. Jaime’s art is so good that I can appreciate his stuff even if the story isn’t strong. Gilbert is a fine artist, but eventually I get hung up on the constant big breasts and it doesn’t seem like much is going on.

This is great, intro in Spanish, but interview in English.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHgmA8hiX-w

https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/love-rockets-vol-iv-16
weird ass cover

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, September 4, 2024

It is the first issue published since the passing of Gilbert and Jaime's mother, Aurora Hernandez (this issue's cover artist, in case you were wondering).

Gilbert's daughter Natalia is on the new Roy book, so I wonder if it'll not be the Hernandez Bros anymore but the Hernandez Family

Natalia has been publishing her own minicomics for at least a decade

Oh man, seeing Jaime going through his thought process filling out panels, what a cool thing. Interviewer really gets him to walk through technique that's been deployed instinctively for years, and Jaime even retraces his steps of who influenced him and how he developed that process. Great insights.

Fantagraphics is doing 40% off orders >$75 today

Ugh, I probably didn't need to order the big box but I did.

Does anybody keep up with Gilbert's stuff? I read all of the TP's and by the end of those I was done and it felt like it was in a rut of huge breasted women rutting.

I got the sketchbooks, Reading Love and Rockets, and Queen of the Ring. I considered the big box because $240 is a great deal for it, but have to wait until next time.

Latesploitation: An examination of recent works by Gilbert Hernandez

How do we read Gilbert Hernandez? The question gets harder, not easier, the more Hernandez adds to his body of work, including such recent releases as Lovers and Haters, the debut issue of Roy (with daughter Natalia), and, from a few years prior, books such as Proof That the Devil Loves You and the collected Blubber.

If every ilxor who wished they could get the big box had bought it already, Fanta would have been able to do the expanded paperback version and The Second Sixty box

There are things I liked about the Palomar era, but I don't miss it. I miss his drawings from around the late 90s up to maybe 2010? It looks more physically solid, moody and nuanced to me.
I think the change in style was due to the necessity of producing more work but I've seen some comments by him that suggest he prefers his looser drawn approach.

Blubber was a disappointment for me, really liked the idea of it but I didn't enjoy it much. I was very amused by how horrified some people were, probably by the part of it that I thought was funniest (Shitter).

I didn't know what to make of the repetition of "the artist has lost all credibility", for me this acknowledgment of potential backlash spoiled the fun a bit. I don't know if it's a defensive thing or just a general commitment to putting anything that crosses his mind on the page.