Love & Rockets - classic or dud

That last issue of New Tales from Old Palomar was weird.

SEE: That story where Bruno Goya had his eye ripped out by a bird. "A Trick Of The Unconscious", I think.

was that story ever followed up? some sort of goverment experiment?

was that story ever followed up? some sort of goverment experiment?

SEEEEEEEEE: That story where Gato, Pintor, and someone else (I forget) get a glimpse of the future - NEW TALES IN OLD PALOMAR #2, I thiiiiiiiink.

Oh I see, I'll have to try and find that old storyline (collected somewhere in Palomar I assume??).

(collected somewhere in Palomar I assume??).

Yup - 's a grand little tale that's basically a Casamira solo (she also gets hints of her own end).

I bought a friend of mine Heartbreak Soup recently; I figure it's a good way to be remembered for life.

read the two new(ish) collections the past couple days. most of the locas stuff i'd read before, most of the palomar stuff i hadn't, or had forgotten.

palomar's chronology seems seriously whacked. it seems like tonantzin's introduction ought to show up a lot earlier, for example. i kind of got the feeling that g.h. had invented a lot of events we see in flashback - israel's dead sister, or luba's seduction of heraclio - a long time after the stories in which they are set, so he could rewrite everyone's motivations.

which is of course very very superhero-comic.

kind of got the feeling that g.h. had invented a lot of events we see in flashback - israel's dead sister

That's in "Chelo's Burden", the very first story! I'm serious - look in PALOMAR and see! Girl missing teeth looking directly at viewer, w/ Israel in the back. Dude!

shit, you're right! it doesn't get mentioned in the next two-fifty pages, though.

the page before the one with the dead sister has jesus in prison, too.

oh well. i was starting to like my theory of hernandez as an inveterate retconner.

my theory of hernandez as an inveterate retconner.

Don't completely dismiss it - he clearly intends Gato, when he first introduces him, to be at least in his thirties, yet (if you go by NEW TALES/OLD PALOMAR #2) he's supposedly a teen, I think. He does something similar with Borro, the pre-Chelo sherrif - he goes from incompetent corrupt drunk (in HEARTBREAK SOUP) to a morally ambiguous, somewhat suave, and cunning detective (in ECCE HOMO/HUMAN DIASTROPHISM).

so, wait, amazon.co.uk lists the second volumes of the new reprints as already out? eh?

that's because they came out last month

the titan books ones are for september. i dunno whether to order the american ones off the internet or to wait as i) an exercise in patience and ii) an exercise in anally making sure my copies have spines that match, sigh.

Based on Titan books past, I'd order the US books as they're bound to be prettier.

The Titan bks are identical to the Fantagraphics ones, apart from the company logo on the spine etc - these are just 'add ons' to the end of the print run, just like the Titan versions of DC GNs

I'm waiting for the Brit versions cos Waterstones discounted the first two volumes

Corrected standing.

is 'blood of palomar' the same as (the story) 'human diastrophism'? ("the process of deformation that produces continents and ocean basins in the earth's crust", word fans.)

i read the girl from hoppers and i'm halfway thro (the book) human diastrophism. i wuv these guys.

is 'blood of palomar' the same as (the story) 'human diastrophism'?

yes - contains three short stories totalling 9 pages, plus Human Diastrophism.

I took out the huge Locas and Palomar hardcovers from my local library eariler this year and completely adore the stories. Can anyone link me to a good guide to what stories appear in what trade and when? I realize a decent amount of material was cut from the hardcovers, and I want to start hunting down the remaining stuff, as well as the newer (post Vol. 1) stories. It's hard to figure out now where to go, even with that linked post way up there, I'm still confused... especially where L&R 1-50 end, collection-wise.

Basically, I want to go forward with both brothers' books after those collections, and maybe go back and find the missing material if I have enough time and/or money. It's possible I might be better off just buying those new softcover collections. Fantastic stuff, all in all, can't believe I never got to this stuff sooner, considering I was a Strangers in Paradise fan for so long.

So the short version:

JAIME: "Locas" = most of the Maggie & Hopey stories from L&R 1-50 (a few, particularly the ones that focus on other characters, are omitted). Go to "Whoa, Nellie!" (if you like the wrestling stuff), then "Locas in Love," then "Dicks and Deedees," then "Ghost of Hoppers."

GILBERT: "Palomar" = most of the specifically Palomar-set stories from L&R 1-50 (again, some omissions). While we're waiting for the third volume of the cheap Gilbert paperback reprints to come out, go to the old numbering system's vol. 10 ("Love & Rockets X"), then vol. 12 ("Poison River"), then "Luba in America," "Luba: The Book of Ofelia" and "Luba: Three Daughters."

Thanks so much for the help, Douglas! I know you actually already posted some of this up there, but I was *really* confused. I gotta start pinching those pennies, now.

I really appreciated those wrestling stories if Jaime's, actually... I always wonder why wrestling or sports comics never became a genre here, as they have in Japan. I found Rena Titañon's stories (as well as the other superhero stuff) pretty charming, the way they fit into that universe, even though Mechanics really is a very strange, semi-inappropriate introduction to the entire thing.

sooo when duz the american ed of the next lot of reprints come out? i dunno if i can hang on the additional however long it'll take for titan books to put their names on the spines, this time.

December, probably.

November/December, say Fanta.

That page I was always hoping for, a clear guide to what of the new and old trades to buy finally exists. In particular, "Love and Rockets X" and "Poison River" were reprinted in a third Gilbert volume, Beyond Palomar, and Amor Y Cohetes fills in the blanks.

All I need now is to know if they're going to reprint more of that post v1 stuff into new trades, like the Jaime stuff.

The tentative plan is to do a giant hardcover Locas II and giant hardcover Luba In America before they think about reformatting the later stuff into small books. Since they haven't even started collecting most of Beto's L&R v2 stuff into "old trades" yet, the "new trades" are probably a good many years off.

Amor Y Cohetes is the last book they are putting out in that format? thats fucked up.

hrm. complete vol 2 of l&r is $40 in floppies on the fantagraphics website => you're not going to get a better deal than that for it, however they collect it

I am sticking with the old format books, at least until I have bought all the ones my local shop is selling off cheap.

I like the smaller books, as I reckon that whole Palomar book would be intimidatingly big.

I reckon that you could do what I did and read Human Disastrophism/Blood of Palomar first, and then work backwords. The tragedy of Tonantzin almost works really well that way.

Do the characters from one brother ever appear in the other's stories? I saw Vincente and a woman (Pipo?) knocking around in a Jaime wrestling story, but beyond that they seem to like their own.

Nope, each brother does his own stuff--I think there are a couple of times when they've drawn their characters into the background of the other's as a goof, but that's about it.

I remember that ones in Eightball there was a story where Dan Clowes drew a one or two page strip featuring the characters from Hate ( Eighball-style, both in terms of art and storyline)... I was hoping for something like that from the Hernandez brothers.

but it was not to be.

Because I'm slow at these things, I haven't read the Gilbert stuff yet. If I read the nice new reprints (Heartbreak Soup to Beyond Palomar), will I be missing anything significant out, "Flies on the Ceiling"-style?

And just to baby feed me even more: does Gilbert's run have the same problem as Jaime's? (i.e. takes about three hundred pages to really start cooking).

The nice new reprints of Gilbert's stuff start at the moment he went supernova, so no worries there. (The earlier, messier stuff shows up in "Amor y Cohetes."

I had a dream that I was at a very colorful Palomar-themed amusement park!

I remember that ones in Eightball there was a story where Dan Clowes drew a one or two page strip featuring the characters from Hate ( Eighball-style, both in terms of art and storyline)... I was hoping for something like that from the Hernandez brothers.

But they did do that once! Beto did a Locas story and Jaime did a Palomar story. They were both collected in Hernandez Satyricon (vol. 15 of the original set of trades), and I assumed that they would be re-collected in Amor y Cohetes. Were they not?

Because I'm slow at these things, I haven't read the Gilbert stuff yet. If I read the nice new reprints (Heartbreak Soup to Beyond Palomar), will I be missing anything significant out, "Flies on the Ceiling"-style?

My understanding is that they didn't pull the choke job on the nice new reprints (or the NNRs, as they're referred to by the real fans) that they did on the huge old hardcovers (the HOHs) in omitting a lot of important stuff. I'm a big enough sucker that even I (despite owning all of the original trades) will probably end up buying the NNRs at some point, but I'd advise anyone interested in hopping on the L&R train to give the HOHs a definite pass at this point.

The tentative plan is to do a giant hardcover Locas II and giant hardcover Luba In America before they think about reformatting the later stuff into small books. Since they haven't even started collecting most of Beto's L&R v2 stuff into "old trades" yet, the "new trades" are probably a good many years off.

...darn. Well, considering I've been too lazy to buy any of these trades yet, we'll see... I'll at least pick up the last Gilbert and the odds n' edds books of the new reprints. I suppose I'll have to get Whoa, Nellie! and so on if I can find them (Locas In Love seems to be out of print already).

How do you know this, btw? Is there an official Hernandez Bros. site? Or did I just miss more buried news in Fantagraphic's site?

But they did do that once! Beto did a Locas story and Jaime did a Palomar story. They were both collected in Hernandez Satyricon (vol. 15 of the original set of trades), and I assumed that they would be re-collected in Amor y Cohetes.

eccelente, my local comic shop is selling off Hernandez Satyricon for a tenner.

How do you know this, btw?

Kim's said on the TCJ message board.

At this point, I've probably spent over three hundred dollars on bros. Hernandez work and it's in about four different formats. I think I've got just about everything, it's about cobbling it together.

I actually did read both Sloth and Chance in Hell recently, both of which I liked. They're both pretty dark and veer towards the more dreamy/metaphysical side of Gilbert's work.

The new three-part fantagraphics books of each artist (Locas/Palomar books cut in thirds & softcover) are like $9-10 each on Amazon right now.

So that's, what, $50 for the entirety of v.1? Next to the $2-300 I paid for the original trades? Blerg.

Fanta's deal of the lot of seven for $85 seemed ludicrously cheap already!

MegaLuba hardcover, I'm guessing, coming next February: http://www.amazon.com/Luba-Love-Rockets-Gilbert-Hernandez/dp/1560979607/

(BTW Deric 7 x $10 is $70)

Yes. My maths are good, but my counting not so much (I was thinking that there were only five of the newfangled reprint volumes).