Love and Rockets (comics) explained

Love and Rockets
Schedule:irregular
Ongoing:Y
Publisher:Fantagraphics
Date:
  • Vol. 1: September 1982 – April 1996
  • Vol. 2: 2001–2007
  • Vol. 3: 2008–2016
  • Vol. 4: 2016–present
Issues:
  • Vol. 1: 50
  • Vol. 2: 20
  • Vol. 3: 8
  • Vol. 4: 15
Creators:
Sort:Love and Rockets (comics)

Love and Rockets (often abbreviated L&R) is a comic book series by the Hernandez brothers: Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario. It was one of the first comic books in the alternative comics movement of the 1980s.[1]

The Hernandez brothers produce stories in the series independently of each other. Gilbert and Jaime produce the majority of the material, and tend to focus on particular casts of characters and settings. Those of Gilbert usually focus on a cast of characters in the fictional Central American village of Palomar; the stories often feature magic realist elements. The Locas stories of Jaime center on a social group in Los Angeles, particularly the Latin-American friends and sometime-lovers Maggie and Hopey.

Publication history

The brothers Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario Hernandez self-published the first issue of Love and Rockets in 1981. In 1982, Fantagraphics Books republished this issue with a color cover. The series was published at magazine size, larger than typical American comic books. Either Gilbert or Jaime, the series' main contributors, would provide the front cover for a given issue, and the other the back; they alternated these duties each issue. The first volume ended with the 50th issue in 1996. The second volume ran for twenty issues from 2001 to 2007 in standard US comic book size. A third series, Love and Rockets: New Stories, which ran for eight issues, began in 2008, published annually in 100-page, graphic novel-sized issues. In 2016, the series returned to its original, magazine-sized format.[2]

Overview

The Hernandez brothers self-published the first issue of Love and Rockets in 1981, but since 1982 it has been published by Fantagraphics Books. The brothers sent a copy of their self-published comic to The Comics Journal, an imprint of Fantagraphics, for a review. Gary Groth was so impressed with it that the company offered them a publishing deal. The magazine temporarily ceased publication in 1996 after the release of issue #50, while Gilbert and Jaime went on to do separate series involving many of the same characters. However, in 2001 "Los Bros Hernandez" (as they are often referred to) revived the series as Love and Rockets Volume 2.

Love and Rockets contains several ongoing serial narratives, the most prominent being Gilbert's Palomar stories and Jaime's Hoppers 13 (aka Locas) stories. It also contains one-offs, shorter stories, surrealist jokes, and more.

Palomar tells the story of a fictional village in Latin America and its inhabitants. Its vibrant characters and sometimes-fantastic events are sometimes compared to the magical realism literary style of authors such as Gabriel García Márquez and Jorge Luis Borges. The series is also sometimes referred to as Heartbreak Soup, after the first story set in Palomar.

Hoppers 13 follows the tangled lives of a group of primarily chicano characters, from their teenage years in the early days of the California punk scene to the present day. Hoppers, or Huerta, is a fictional city based on the Hernandezes' home town of Oxnard, California. Two memorable members of Jaime's cast are Margarita "Maggie" Luisa Chascarrillo and Esperanza "Hopey" Leticia Glass, whose on-again, off-again romance is a focus for many Hoppers 13 storylines. The series is also often called Locas (Spanish for "crazy women") because of the many quirky female characters depicted.

The original runs of Palomar and Locas have each been collected in recent one-volume editions by Fantagraphics (see Palomar (graphic novel)), although not all of the stories involving "Locas" and "Palomar" characters are contained in these collections. The original fifty-issue Love and Rockets Volume One has also been reprinted in its entirety in both a fifteen-volume paperback library, and more recently a seven-volume mass-market paperback series by Fantagraphics. In addition, several hardcovers collect edited versions of the series tales.

Many attempts have been made to make L&R into a movie, or series of movies. The movie rights had been held up in litigation for over 15 years. Gilbert Hernandez publicly announced in Toronto, Ontario in May 2013 that a deal had been struck to make a movie out of his "Palomar" story-line and that he was currently writing the script.

Characters

Jaime

Gilbert

no-nonsense, hammer-wielding, promiscuous, enormously busty bañadora (bath giver) who rises to mayor of Palomar and has a complex history before coming to town.

Landmark stories

This list provides an example of the types of stories that helped Love and Rockets gain critical acclaim.

Jaime

Gilbert

Graphic novels and collections

All published at Fantagraphics: Fantagraphics stopped numbering the series after 24. Not included on the list are a trio of books by Gilbert Hernandez depicting the filmography of B movie actress Fritz Martinez, Luba's youngest sister: Chance in Hell (September 2007), The Troublemakers (December 2009) and Love from the Shadows (May 2011).

  1. Music for Mechanics by Los Bros Hernandez, October 1985, 152 pages
    Preface by Carter Scholz
  2. Chelo's Burden by Los Bros Hernandez, June 1986, 144 pages
    Preface by Gary Groth
  3. Las Mujeres Perdidas by Los Bros Hernandez (only Gilbert and Jaime), August 1987, 160 pages
  4. Tears from Heaven by Los Bros Hernandez (Gilbert and Jaime; one cover by Mario), January 1988, 136 pages
  5. House of Raging Women, by Los Bros Hernandez (only Gilbert and Jaime from now on), September 1988, 136 pages
  6. Duck Feet by Los Bros Hernandez, September 1988, 136 pages
  7. The Death of Speedy by Jaime Hernandez, November 1989, 136 pages
  8. Blood of Palomar by Gilbert Hernandez, December 1989, 128 pages
  9. Flies on the Ceiling by Los Bros Hernandez (principally Jaime), October 1991, 128 pages
  10. Love and Rockets X by Gilbert Hernandez, July 1993, 72 pages
  11. Wigwam Bam by Jaime Hernandez, March 1994, 136 pages
  12. Poison River by Gilbert Hernandez, September 1994, 192 pages
  13. Chester Square by Jaime Hernandez, July 1996, 160 pages
  14. Luba Conquers the World by Gilbert Hernandez, December 1996, 136 pages
  15. Hernandez Satyricon by Los Bros Hernandez (Mario, Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez) August 1997, 160 pages
  16. Whoa Nellie! by Jaime Hernandez, June 2000, 80 pages
  17. Fear of Comics by Gilbert Hernandez, October 2000, 120 pages
  18. Locas in Love by Jaime Hernandez, October 2000, 120 pages (End of Volume 1)
  19. Luba in America ("Luba", Tome 1), by Gilbert Hernandez, 2001, 168 pages (Beginning of Volume 2)
  20. Dicks and Deedees by Jaime Hernandez, June 2003, 96 pages
  21. The Book of Ofelia ("Luba", Tome 2), by Gilbert Hernandez, December 2005, 256 pages
  22. Ghost of Hoppers by Jaime Hernandez, December 2005, 120 pages
  23. Three Daughters ("Luba", Tome 3), by Gilbert Hernandez, August 2006, 144 pages
  24. The Education of Hopey Glass, by Jaime Hernandez, April 2008, 128 pages
  25. High Soft Lisp by Gilbert Hernandez, April 2010, 144 pages
  26. God and Science: Return of the Ti-Girls, by Jaime Hernandez, July 2012, 144 pages
  27. Julio's Day by Gilbert Hernandez, April 2013, 112 pages
  28. The Children of Palomar by Gilbert Hernandez, August 2013, 104 pages (part of the Ignatz series)
  29. The Love Bunglers by Jaime Hernandez, April 2014, 100 pages
  30. Is This How You See Me? by Jaime Hernandez, April 2019, 96 pages
  31. Tonta by Jaime Hernandez, July 2019, 104 pages
  32. Maria M. (includes volumes 1 & 2, the first part published November 2013) by Gilbert Hernandez, October 2019, 270 pages

Omnibus editions

Volume 1 was re-released in smaller "omnibus" style trade paperbacks. Starting in 2010, volume 2's stories began getting re-releases as well. In 2018, the New Stories began being collected among the "omnibus" paperbacks.

  1. Maggie the Mechanic, by Jaime Hernandez (Locas Book 1, from Volume I), 272 pages (2007)
  2. The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S., by Jaime Hernandez (Locas Book 2, from Volume I), 272 pages (2007)
  3. Perla la Loca, by Jaime Hernandez (Locas Book 3, from Volume I), 288 pages (2007)
  4. Heartbreak Soup, by Gilbert Hernandez (Palomar Book 1, from Volume I), 288 pages (2007)
  5. Human Diastrophism, by Gilbert Hernandez (Palomar Book 2, from Volume I), 288 pages (2007)
  6. Beyond Palomar, by Gilbert Hernandez (Palomar Book 3, from Volume I), 256 pages (2007)
  7. Amor Y Cohetes, by Jaime, Gilbert & Mario Hernandez (Non-Locas and Palomar comics from Volume I), 280 pages (2008)
  8. Penny Century, by Jaime Hernandez (Locas Book 4, from the "Penny Century", "Whoa, Nellie!", and "Maggie and Hopey Color Fun" comics, plus Volume II), 240 pages (2010)
  9. Esperanza, by Jaime Hernandez (Locas Book 5, from Volume II), 248 pages (2011)
  10. Luba and Her family, by Gilbert Hernandez (Luba Book 1, from Volume II), 312 pages (2014)
  11. Ofelia, by Gilbert Hernandez (Luba Book 2, from Volume II), 256 pages (2015)
  12. Comics Dementia, by Gilbert Hernandez (Non-Locas and Palomar comics from Volume I and II), 224 pages (2016)
  13. Angels and Magpies, by Jaime Hernandez (Locas Book 6, "God and Science: Return of the Ti-Girls" and "The Love Bunglers" from New Stories), 260 pages (2018)
  14. Three Sisters, by Gilbert Hernandez (Luba book 3, from "Luba: Three Daughters", "High Soft Lisp", and more), 280 pages (2018)
  15. Children of Palomar & Other Stories, by Gilbert & Mario Hernandez (Palomar book 5, from "Julio's Day", "Children of Palomar, and uncollected non-Palomar stories by Gilbert and Mario), 280 pages (2022)[5]

Hardcovers

Edited segments of both the Palomar and the Maggie stories are available in hardcover format.

  1. Locas: The Maggie and Hopey Stories by Jaime Hernandez (2004)
  2. Locas II: Maggie, Hopey, and Ray by Jaime Hernandez (2009)
  3. Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories by Gilbert Hernandez (2003)
  4. Luba by Gilbert Hernandez (2009)

New stories

The series continues in annual trade paperbacks, entitled Love & Rockets: New Stories. To date, eight exist:

  1. New Stories, volume 1, 112 pages (2008)
  2. New Stories, volume 2, 104 pages (2009)
  3. New Stories, volume 3, 104 pages (2010)
  4. New Stories, volume 4, 104 pages (2011)
  5. New Stories, volume 5, 96 pages (2012)
  6. New Stories, volume 6, 100 pages (2013)
  7. New Stories, volume 7, 100 pages (2015)
  8. New Stories, volume 8, 100 pages (2016)

In 2012, Jaime Hernandez's individual stories from the first two volumes of New Stories were collected into a single volume, entitled God and Science: Return of the Ti-Girls, which also included about 30 new pages of comics.

In 2014, Jaime Hernandez's stories from volumes 3 and 4 of New Stories were collected into a single volume entitled The Love Bunglers.

Volume IV

In 2016, Fantagraphics began releasing Volume IV of Love and Rockets.

References

Works cited

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Pierce . Leonard . Love and Rockets . AV Club . July 23, 2009 . 30 June 2018.
  2. Web site: Rayner . Alex . Love and Rockets rides again: 'we influenced a whole lot of cartoonists' . . August 10, 2016 . 31 May 2018.
  3. Web site: the Wizard Staff. 2008-05-19. The 200 Greatest Comic Book Characters of All Time. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20090826010439/http://www.wizarduniverse.com/0519086thgreatestcharacters.html. 2009-08-26.
  4. Web site: Speedy Ortiz On The Brink Of Stardom: A Look At How The Boston Band Got There . wbur 90.9. 2015-04-21. 2018-02-25.
  5. Web site: Children of Palomar and Other Tales: A Love and Rockets Book .

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