Love and Rockets (comics)

Love and Rockets

Cover illustration by Gilbert Hernandez for Love and Rockets #16, depicting two of his major Palomar characters, Heraclio and Carmen.
Publication information
Publisher Fantagraphics
Schedule irregular
Format Ongoing series
Publication date
  • Vol. 1: September 1982 – April 1996
  • Vol. 2: 2001–2007
  • Vol. 3: 2008–2016
  • Vol. 4: 2016-present
Number of issues
  • Vol. 1: 50
  • Vol. 2: 20
  • Vol. 3: ongoing
Creative team
Creator(s)

Love and Rockets (often abbreviated L&R) is a comic book series by the Hernandez brothers: Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario, whose stories published in the series were independent of each other. It was one of the first comic books in the alternative comics movement of the 1980s.

The Hernandez brothers produced stories independently of each other. Gilbert and Jaime produced the majority of the material, and tended to focus on particular casts of characters and settings. Those of Gilbert usually focused on a cast of characters in the fictional Mexican village of Palomar; the stories often featured magic realist elements. The Locas stories of Jaime centered on a social group in Los Angeles, particularly the Latin-American friends and sometimes-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 began in 2008, published annually in 100-page, graphic novel-sized issues.[1]

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 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 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. The series is also sometimes referred to as Heartbreak Soup, after the first story set in Palomar.

Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez at the 2007 ComicCon. Gilbert is in the middle, Jaime is in the green shirt.

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 Luisa "Maggie" 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.

One aspect of the Love and Rockets opus is the way Los Bros Hernandez portray the passage of time in a relatively realistic manner despite the traditional constraints of the medium. For example, Maggie's character, a pro-solar mechanic, debuted as a slight yet curvy young adult living in a world both distinctly chicano and punk with a sci-fi twist. As Jaime developed her character in more detail, she started to gain weight slowly. Over the years, Maggie and the other characters have evolved, growing more layered and complex as their stories develop. The present Maggie, who now wears her hair bleached blonde and has a penchant for wearing sexy bathing suits on her rubenesque figure, is the manager of an apartment complex. Jaime has also made extensive use of flashbacks, with Maggie and the others presented at different ages from toddlers through teenagers and young adults to thirtysomethings. The first issue of volume two of Love and Rockets featured a cover with a range of different Maggie ages/looks.

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. However, until recently, the movie rights had been held up in litigation for over 15 years. On May 10, 2013 Gilbert Hernandez publicly announced in Toronto, Ontario 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

Love and Rockets #31 by Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, 1989, Fantagraphics Books.
Cover illustration by Jamie Hernandez depicting his two main characters, Maggie (right) and Hopey.

Gilbert

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 :

  1. Music for Mechanics, by Los Bros Hernandez, October 1985, ~140 pages
    Preface by Carter Scholz
  2. Chelo’s Burden, by Los Bros Hernandez, June 1986, ~150 pages
    Preface by Gary Groth
  3. Las Mujeres Perdidas, by Los Bros Hernandez (only Gilbert and Jaime), August 1987, ~140 pages
  4. Tears from Heaven, by Los Bros Hernandez (Gilbert and Jaime; one cover by Mario), January 1988, ~125 pages
  5. House of Raging Women, by Los Bros Hernandez (only Gilbert and Jaime from now on), September 1988, ~125 pages
  6. Duck Feet, by Los Bros Hernandez, September 1988, ~125 pages
  7. The Death of Speedy, by Jaime Hernandez, November 1989, ~125 pages
  8. Blood of Palomar, by Gilbert Hernandez, December 1989, ~125 pages
  9. Flies on the Ceiling, by Los Bros Hernandez (principally Jaime), October 1991, ~110 pages
  10. Love & Rockets X, by Gilbert Hernandez, July 1993, ~90 pages
  11. Wigwam Bam, by Jaime Hernandez, March 1994, ~125 pages
  12. Poison River, by Gilbert Hernandez, September 1994, ~190 pages
  13. Chester Square, by Jaime Hernandez, July 1996, ~155 pages
  14. Luba Conquers the World, by Gilbert Hernandez, December 1996, ~130 pages
  15. Hernandez Satyricon, by Los Bros Hernandez (Mario, Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez), August 1997, ~110 pages
  16. Whoa Nellie!, by Jaime Hernandez, June 2000, ~70 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, ~165 pages (Beginning of Volume 2)
  20. Dicks and Deedees, by Jaime Hernandez, June 2003, ~90 pages
  21. The Book of Ofelia ("Luba", Tome 2), by Gilbert Hernandez, December 2005, ~250 pages
  22. Ghost of Hoppers, by Jaime Hernandez, December 2005, ~120 pages
  23. Three Daughters ("Luba", Tome 3), by Gilbert Hernandez, August 2006, ~140 pages
  24. The Education of Hopey Glass, by Jaime Hernandez, April 2008, ~130 pages
  25. High Soft Lisp, by Gilbert Hernandez, April 2010, ~140 pages
  26. God and Science: Return of the Ti-Girls, by Jaime Hernandez, July 2012, ~140 pages
  27. Julio's Day, by Gilbert Hernandez, April 2013, ~110 pages
  28. The Love Bunglers, by Jaime Hernandez, April 2014, ~100 pages

Re-releases

Volume 1 was re-released in smaller "omnibus" style trade paperbacks. Starting in 2010, volume 2's stories began getting re-releases as well.

  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 Hernandez (Non-Loca and Palomar comics from Volume I), 280 pages (2008)
  8. Penny Century, by Jaime Hernandez (Locas Book 4, from "Penny Century" and "Whoa, Nellie!" comics, plus "Maggie and Hopey Color Fun"), 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)

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, seven 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)

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.

References

Works cited

External links

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