It does feel like Gilbert's work has become more blatantly fetish-y as the years have gone by.
― Pheeel, Tuesday, 28 June 2016 18:08 (eight years ago) link
Birdland almost feels quaint in comparison.
― There must be some magic clue inside these gentle walls (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 28 June 2016 18:10 (eight years ago) link
Anybody else ever watch the Naked Cosmos?
― dan selzer, Tuesday, 28 June 2016 18:24 (eight years ago) link
Fear of Comics is the best, but now there's a new book that has a lot of the same stuff. As someone who's been reading since issue 18 of the original run, I have to say I can't keep up and am pretty annoyed by all the reprinting and shuffling of stories and duplicating collections. I just can't keep up.
― dan selzer, Tuesday, June 28, 2016 9:18 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
this is a problem and has kept me from buying Jaime stuff lately - that and the fact that it's hard to find individual issues
― Crazy Eddie & Jesus the Kid (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 28 June 2016 22:36 (eight years ago) link
The Jaime stuff is really easy not to duplicate: buy either a thick digest every eight years, or a tall hardcover every 2-3 years.
The single issues have never been easier either, as they've just spent a decade only coming out once a year or less.
― glandular lansbury (sic), Tuesday, 28 June 2016 22:46 (eight years ago) link
and you could buy them in both comic shops and bookshops, which wasn't the case in the first 25 years of the series
― glandular lansbury (sic), Tuesday, 28 June 2016 22:48 (eight years ago) link
more helpful than it used to be: http://www.fantagraphics.com/howtoreadloveandrockets
― Nhex, Tuesday, 28 June 2016 22:50 (eight years ago) link
Yes, from that link, I'd simply recommend new readers buy the Complete Love and Rockets collections (maybe starting with vol. 2 of Jaime's stuff if you want to skip the patchier material and returning to vol. 1 once you're in love with his work) and the annuals (of which I believe there are now eight). Or skip the annuals and wait for the Complete Love and Rockets collections of that material to trickle out over the next couple of years. I'd skip the hardcovers (particularly since at least one of the big ones bafflingly skipped some fairly pertinent material).
― There must be some magic clue inside these gentle walls (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 29 June 2016 00:09 (eight years ago) link
yeah otm, the Complete trade paperbacks are the way to go if you don't mind the pages being sliiiiightly smaller than the OG publishings
― sexy dander (Stevie D(eux)), Wednesday, 29 June 2016 00:11 (eight years ago) link
The jumbo compendium best-of hardcovers don't exist anymore. I would still recommend buying the single-story hardcovers for Jaime's 21st century stuff, because both Bros are much better larger.
― glandular lansbury (sic), Wednesday, 29 June 2016 02:59 (eight years ago) link
sorry if I'm repeating myself but all the scrambling editing has really taken it's toll. Here's what I remember bugging me. The original comics version of Poison River jumped back and forth a lot and was hard to follow, but the collected Poison River simplified by consolidating the flashbacks in a way I thought worked great. But then I bought the big Palomar book and all of Poison River was left out of it...despite characters and events that take place towards the end really only making sense if you've read Poison River!
― dan selzer, Wednesday, 29 June 2016 03:42 (eight years ago) link
So re: Jaime and L&R hardcovers, I picked up something called "The Education of Hopey Glass" for $1 today.
― albvivertine, Wednesday, 20 July 2016 07:50 (eight years ago) link
Late-period collection of L+R v. 2 material, since recollected in the compact digest-y trades. Part of the OG series of trades/HCs (volume twenty-something). I have all of those up to the point where it became clear that they would be refocusing on the digests.
― Night Jorts (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 20 July 2016 11:05 (eight years ago) link
Again, the Jaime collections have not refocused on the digests: the magazine-size hardcovers have continued to collect his L&R material by storyline after vol 2 ended. He even started reworking the material for them, Beto-style.
(I think the latest digest is up to Education Of Hopey Glass - the next will likely cover all the vol 3 Locasverse material in four years or so; I'd guess ten years before there's enough for another Amor Y Cohetes. The Love Bunglers, the most recent hardcover, is one of his two best books ever.)
― Shakey δσς (sic), Wednesday, 20 July 2016 12:12 (eight years ago) link
I dunno, I thought the whole deus/diabolus ex machina solution of introducing a previously unmentioned brother who plays a crucial part in the story felt weirdly extraneous. The brother's story was a well-done bit of soap opera in itself, but IMO it should've been a separate thing, and "Love Bunglers" should've focused on just Maggie and Ray.
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 20 July 2016 12:32 (eight years ago) link
Wait how is he reworking material for them??
and yeah the latest Jaime digest is Esperanza, which collects the latter half of v2 (I think Penny Century collected the first half). They're done with New Stories entirely though so I'm guessing it won't be long before they release a digest of all of it.
― laraaji p. henson (Stevie D(eux)), Wednesday, 20 July 2016 13:34 (eight years ago) link
Jaime definitely has a weird habit of retconning in characters that dramatically revise the whole Locas storyline. The whole Maggie/Tony Chase story was a particularly bad example of this.
― Al Moon Faced Poon (Moodles), Wednesday, 20 July 2016 13:55 (eight years ago) link
xpost
Both Bros have altered/added material in their collections (I think it was Love and Rockets X which added a huge amount of material to the original story). I think these guys are literally the only ones I give a pass to with that kind of stuff and am still willing to shell out $$$ for edition after edition. God knows they probably aren't getting rich off of it.
― Night Jorts (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 20 July 2016 14:07 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, wasn't it revealed that she was married to him only at the point she was applying for a divorce? And then it was retconned that she and Hopey had known him since they were all teens?
(xpost)
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 20 July 2016 14:07 (eight years ago) link
exactly, it's strange to me that we are supposed to accept that this dramatic relationship has been going on for years and we've just never heard about it
― Al Moon Faced Poon (Moodles), Wednesday, 20 July 2016 14:09 (eight years ago) link
It's valid to complain that Ray and Maggie's relaysh didn't have as much gravitas because we didn't see the full scope of their relationship until late in the game, but it's hardly a retcon. Besides, Ray has been around for a long time at this point, and we've seen him and Maggie's off and on thing since, what, at least the '90s.
― Night Jorts (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 20 July 2016 14:15 (eight years ago) link
We weren't talking about Ray, but T.C, the guy Maggie divorced from... And his brother (forget the name) who was only introduced in Love Bunglers.
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 20 July 2016 14:19 (eight years ago) link
Her brother, not his, sorry.
They're done with New Stories entirely though so I'm guessing it won't be long before they release a digest of all of it.
nah because there's still at least one, probably two mag-sized hardcovers of Jaime material to collect (depending on whether the space adventure stuff gets skipped) first
― Shakey δσς (sic), Wednesday, 20 July 2016 14:37 (eight years ago) link
Both Bros have altered/added material in their collections (I think it was Love and Rockets X which added a huge amount of material to the original story).
Jaime never added new material until God & Science, but Beto has been at it for decades. Poison River and "X" are the most significant culprits: with Poison River, he reordered the story from the serialisation, then added pages and rewrote chunks as an unplanned further part of the revision.
Love & Rockets (X) got expanded twice because of the formats: the first collection was done as a 10" to better sell to record shops, and he had to add panels and tiers throughout to keep the impact of new-page-reveals and specific bits of panel-to-panel timing. Then when they let that version go out of print and put the story into the magazine-size TPB line, he didn't want to throw out the new material, so had to expand once more to make it work at a rectangular page layout again.
The best expansion he ever did, which never gets heralded, was adding pages for the first Birdland collection just so it would end on p. 69
― Shakey δσς (sic), Wednesday, 20 July 2016 14:48 (eight years ago) link
Just read God and Science, loved it
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 20 July 2016 14:54 (eight years ago) link
I stopped after Penny Century (years ago) bcz Esperanza was out of print for so long, so I have to finish V2 so that I can start New Stories so that I can get to Love Bunglers, which everyone is raving abt.
― laraaji p. henson (Stevie D(eux)), Wednesday, 20 July 2016 15:56 (eight years ago) link
I don't really sweat continuity and consistency with Jamie's stories - there are so many characters I've usually forgotten all the relationships by the time I read a new one.
But all that "retconning" (seems kind of gross to use that word here) seems to me part of the point, i.e. Jamie has always been clear we are never seeing the whole story all the time
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 20 July 2016 16:06 (eight years ago) link
*Jaime
I'd agree, and given the drastic shifts in tone and genre from Jaime's earliest pulp-sf parodies to his more characteristic Hoppers stories, it's hard for me to complain if he keeps revising his charaters' world.
― one way street, Wednesday, 20 July 2016 16:19 (eight years ago) link
Yeah i dont consider continuity or linearity important w Jaime's work. I'm familiar with enough major chatacters to be comfortable just dropping in anywhere.
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 20 July 2016 16:23 (eight years ago) link
Stevie there's 20% off everything on fanta's website all week
― Shakey δσς (sic), Thursday, 21 July 2016 00:19 (eight years ago) link
Cool news:
http://fantagraphics.com/flog/love-rockets-magazine-returns/
I just picked up a bunch of back issues from the original run this weekend. My local comic store was having a 50% off sale for Labor Day.
― Al Moon Faced Poon (Moodles), Wednesday, 7 September 2016 04:55 (eight years ago) link
along those lines:http://www.tcj.com/i-dont-think-about-it-i-just-do-it-catching-up-with-gilbert-hernandez/i mean wtf here
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Wednesday, 7 September 2016 05:55 (eight years ago) link
lol
glad he stuck to black and white for that one
pretty stylish tho'
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 7 September 2016 09:52 (eight years ago) link
i really should have clicked on that second link at work huh
still, before i clear out my desk and join the unemployment line, i don't think i ever told the story about how i was in san francisco last year wearing a bootleg l&r t-shirt and some guy yelled 'nice shirt' at me across the street before running over and trying to strike up a conversation about los bros hernandez. when he realised i was scottish he was nonplussed that i knew about, let alone read and enjoyed, love and rockets, despite my protestations to the contrary
there's no point to this story really i just thought it was funny
okay bye
― a very in-your-face, hard-edged machine bottom (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 7 September 2016 10:08 (eight years ago) link
er, should not have clicked on that link at work
TBF I would probably be surprised if I met someone from San Francisco with an intimate knowledge of The Broons
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 7 September 2016 11:16 (eight years ago) link
true, true
― a very in-your-face, hard-edged machine bottom (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 7 September 2016 12:34 (eight years ago) link
I often get puzzled looks when I parade about town in my Rab C. Nesbitt Underoos.
― Our Meals Are Hot And Fresh! (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 7 September 2016 12:46 (eight years ago) link
i think you're mistaking overpowering sexual arousal for puzzlement
― a very in-your-face, hard-edged machine bottom (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 7 September 2016 13:25 (eight years ago) link
I fear that I often do.
― Our Meals Are Hot And Fresh! (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 7 September 2016 13:32 (eight years ago) link
It doesn't sound like it from the TCJ interview, but I wonder if there are going to be any changes of narrative direction with the switch in format. I respect Beto's commitment to the saga of Fritz and her doubles, but most of my favorite Beto stories this century (like Julio's Day, Marble Season, or Bumperhead) have been outside that continuity.
― one way street, Wednesday, 7 September 2016 15:34 (eight years ago) link
Like, the current Fritz storyline recalls "Poison River" or "Love and Rockets X" in its density, but so far it feels much more meandering than those arcs.
― one way street, Wednesday, 7 September 2016 15:37 (eight years ago) link
I'm hoping that going back to the old format with more frequent issues will help give them a bit more narrative focus and drive, which has been missing from both bros stories in recent years
― Al Moon Faced Poon (Moodles), Wednesday, 7 September 2016 15:54 (eight years ago) link
I stopped after Penny Century (years ago) bcz Esperanza was out of print for so long, so I have to finish V2 so that I can start New Stories so that I can get to Love Bunglers, which everyone is raving abt.― laraaji p. henson (Stevie D(eux)), Wednesday, 20 July 2016 15:56 Stevie there's 20% off everything on fanta's website all week― Shakey δσς (sic), Thursday, 21 July 2016 00:19 (four months ago)
― laraaji p. henson (Stevie D(eux)), Wednesday, 20 July 2016 15:56
― Shakey δσς (sic), Thursday, 21 July 2016 00:19 (four months ago)
Stevie there's 40% off everything on Fanta's website tomorrow only
― sad, hombres (sic), Monday, 28 November 2016 02:06 (seven years ago) link
!!!
― sleeve, Monday, 28 November 2016 02:19 (seven years ago) link
goddamnit, like i didn't spend enough money this weekend
― Nhex, Monday, 28 November 2016 04:10 (seven years ago) link
oh oh oh I have Esperanza now!! Apparently Penny Century was almost ENTIRELY non-L&R Proper stories and it has only one or two L&R V2 things? But Esperanza is more or less the entire Jaime V2 shebang.
― Fluffy Saint-Bernard (Stevie D(eux)), Monday, 28 November 2016 16:51 (seven years ago) link
I think there's a long, full-color (and mostly inconsequential) Maggie story in a squarebound issue of V2 that's still uncollected. I may be misremembering one or more of those details.
― i need microsoft installed on my desktop, can you help (Old Lunch), Monday, 28 November 2016 16:58 (seven years ago) link