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 (seven 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 (seven 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 (seven 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 (seven 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 (seven years ago) link
true, true
― a very in-your-face, hard-edged machine bottom (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 7 September 2016 12:34 (seven 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 (seven 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 (seven years ago) link
I fear that I often do.
― Our Meals Are Hot And Fresh! (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 7 September 2016 13:32 (seven 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 (seven 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 (seven 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 (seven 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
That was the story serialised in the New York Times Magazine*. Collected in L&R v2 #20, reprinted again in The Art Of Jaime Hernandez.
*whose The Funny Pages section also serialised Mister Wonderful, George Sprott, and part of Building Stories.
― sad, hombres (sic), Monday, 28 November 2016 19:08 (seven years ago) link
when's that sale start again?
― the notes the loon doesn't play (ulysses), Tuesday, 29 November 2016 15:03 (seven years ago) link
Err, hate to break it to you, forks...I think it's over.
― i need microsoft installed on my desktop, can you help (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 29 November 2016 15:07 (seven years ago) link
what thebut sic said "tomorrow" yesterday!ah well
― the notes the loon doesn't play (ulysses), Tuesday, 29 November 2016 17:22 (seven years ago) link
If sic loses pedantic accuracy, what does he have left?
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Thursday, 1 December 2016 00:19 (seven years ago) link
I feel like I can really see Jaime's influence in the "the lighter side" of Marvel in recent years... artists like Javier Pulido and David Lopez seem to reflect different aspects of Jaime's drawing style (I think DeConnick's "Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps" Secret Wars miniseries, illustrated by Lopez, even had a mechanic character named Maggie who was a clear tribute?).
But even more fundamentally: some of Marvel's more humorous and "low-key" series, featuring plain-clothed characters "at the margins" of the Marvel Universe (often, literally, in Brooklyn) struggling with rent and relationships while the Avengers save the world in the background, feel directly descended from Jaime's "Mechanics" ideas. I'm thinking of the (excellent) Matt Fraction et al. "Hawkeye" series from 2012-15; Charles Soule & J. Pulido's (also terrific) "She-Hulk" run in 2014-15; and some other stuff. I could pick out particular "beats" and panels that feel so Jaime-inflected to me.
Obviously, even Marvel at its most offbeat still features more "conventional" comic-book action than "Mechanics" (in which Maggie was purely a "regular person," and superhero conventions were heavily satirized) -- though, interestingly, Jaime has moved somewhat closer to "convention" when he revisited superheroes in recent years (in his "Return of the Ti-Girls" story).
I also don't want to overstate the influence from "Love & Rockets" alone; as I'm not very familiar with the entire universe of other comics from the past few decades that may be in the mix. But as a longtime Jaime fan, picking up Marvel again in its current renaissance era, I really get the sense that his aesthetic is coming through... (not sure how much good that does him personally, of course!).
― morrisp, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 23:05 (seven years ago) link
(Btw, completely off-topic -- does anyone happen to know why so many great Marvel artists these days happen to be from Spain? Besides Pulido and Lopez, I'm also thinking of David Aja and Javier Rodriguez... maybe others as well. Is there a "story" in the industry behind how this group of Spanish artists broke into the American market?)
― morrisp, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 23:11 (seven years ago) link
iirc there was an appreciative letter from fraction in one of the "new stories".
― new noise, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 23:38 (seven years ago) link
That sounds familiar, now that you mention it.
― morrisp, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 23:47 (seven years ago) link
Cameron Stewart too, at least circa Catwoman
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 9 February 2017 00:12 (seven years ago) link
Turning back to L&R itself -- I feel as though Jaime, in recent(-ish) years, has tried to "wrap up" his main storyline a few times, and move on to other characters; but he keeps coming back to Maggie/Hopey/Ray, even though they're not really doing much.
― morrisp, Thursday, 23 February 2017 18:20 (seven years ago) link
This might be one of the difficulties of taking up a central focalized character for as long as Jaime's worked with Maggie. The other side of this, though, is that even if Jaime's plotting has been a little meandering after "Ghost of Hoppers" and "Love Bunglers," Maggie's one of the most richly developed characters I can think of in comics, especially as a rueful middle-aged punk.
― one way street, Thursday, 23 February 2017 20:04 (seven years ago) link
On the other hand, I wouldn't be sorry if Gilbert wrapped up or abandoned his current storyline about Fritz and her pretenders.
― one way street, Thursday, 23 February 2017 20:06 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, I'm sure it would hard for Jaime to close the books on a character like Maggie. The newer characters, while endearing, aren't on the same level as the classic Hoppers crew; which may be why Jaime's stories with the newer folks tend to involve murder mysteries, etc. And no doubt Maggie will still be interesting even as she continues to age (Jaime's always done really well with portraying older women anyway).
That said, the end of the Love Bunglers storyline really felt like a graceful farewell to Locas (and I assumed at the time that that is what it would be).
― morrisp, Thursday, 23 February 2017 22:32 (seven years ago) link
I'd agree that Love Bunglers would have been an artful conclusion, but I'll also say that comics as a medium is not exactly groaning under the weight of its nuanced representations of middle-aged queer women, so I think I can deal with Locas remaining open-ended.
― one way street, Thursday, 23 February 2017 23:32 (seven years ago) link
I feel you
― morrisp, Friday, 24 February 2017 00:41 (seven years ago) link
Btw (just to be clear) -- I have zero problems with reading about middle-aged characters. My comments were related to the fact that their lives don't have the "drama" that they did when the characters were younger (just like with real people), and so it becomes a new kind of challenge for Jaime to keep focus on them and still keep it interesting. But I'm sure he can meet that challenge. (We've seen most stages of Maggie's life since toddlerhood -- I hope someday we see her gray and happy, whether it's on Rena's island, Vicki Glori's wrestling ranch, or a bungalow in L.A.)
― morrisp, Friday, 24 February 2017 04:28 (seven years ago) link
i will say i miss the moments of magical realism in hopey/maggie's world; that's been mostly missing for awhile now and could use a resurgence. wanna see em save the world!
― removed from the rain drops and drop tops of experience (ulysses), Friday, 24 February 2017 18:12 (seven years ago) link
lol did you read Ti-Girls
― Οὖτις, Friday, 24 February 2017 20:33 (seven years ago) link
lol my thoughts exactly
― a Radiohead album stamping on a human face, forever (sleeve), Friday, 24 February 2017 20:33 (seven years ago) link
that was like 2009! it's been a minute. or are you saying those stories aren't good, because i would disagree.
― removed from the rain drops and drop tops of experience (ulysses), Friday, 24 February 2017 22:36 (seven years ago) link
I liked Ti-Girls a lot but yeah I only read it last year, and then Love Bunglers shortly after. I have no idea when things are originally published anymore.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 24 February 2017 22:44 (seven years ago) link
That's the thing about the timeframe of L&R... it rolls along so slowly, it's hard to keep track of how long ago a particular storyline was. I guess it was always that way, but I'm more aware of it now (probably because the "New Stories" have been published only once or twice a year?).
It's further complicated by the fact that the characters age in "real time," but a storyline that spans only a few days or weeks may be the only storyline in a half-decade. It's somewhat disorienting (I'm not griping here, just commenting).
I feel like the L&R stories are really best read in collected volume form, but it's hard waiting that long...
― morrisp, Friday, 24 February 2017 22:51 (seven years ago) link
At the park today with my kid, I saw a woman around my age (with her kid) wearing a Love & Rockets T-shirt (the design with Hopey playing guitar and Maggie sitting with bongos). Can't recall ever seeing someone wearing L&R gear before; I had to say something. She said she got it around 30 years ago, at Comic-Con. *thumbs up emoji*
― morrisp, Monday, 27 March 2017 01:19 (seven years ago) link
How bout this action?
https://www.pinupgirlclothing.com/collections/wondercon-themed-clothing.html
― Moodles, Monday, 27 March 2017 01:51 (seven years ago) link
That's awesome. I wish there was more L&R merch (I had a poster on my bedroom wall in high school). I'd totally rock a Jaime T-shirt these days... but Fantagraphics seems to offer zero SKUs at the moment.
― morrisp, Monday, 27 March 2017 03:41 (seven years ago) link