Below you will find links to all my posts from LOVE AND ROCKTOBER, a marathon examination of the entirety of Love and Rockets by Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez (and sometimes Mario Hernandez), October-December 2010. I will continue to add links to Los Bros’ new comics as they are released and reviewed. Please click the links for full reviews.
Thank you to Paul Baresh, Jacq Cohen, and Eric Reynolds of Fantagraphics for their help and support during this project. Fantagraphics’ “How to Read Love and Rockets” page gets my highest recommendation for anyone interested in keeping track of the optimal reading order for the series or learning what comics are and aren’t in what book.
This was one of the most enjoyable and inspiring things I’ve ever done for this blog. Thank you for reading.
Special thanks to Gilbert and Jaime (and Mario) for the inexhaustible richness of their work.
UPDATE: WHERE TO START
One of the most frequently asked questions regarding Los Bros Hernandez and Love and Rockets is which book to start reading them with. With Gilbert, that’s easy: Heartbreak Soup, the start of the Palomar/Luba saga of life in a small Central American village and, eventually, California. (Prepare to ignore the following: If you’re feeling frisky, you could start with Beyond Palomar, which contains the stand-alone graphic novel Poison River. That’s the origin story of Gilbert’s main character, Luba, and thus is chronologically the “beginning” of her story; it’s also one of the greatest comics ever made. The book also contains another stand-alone story, Love and Rockets X, which ties in with the Palomar/Luba stories but doesn’t require knowledge of them to understand or enjoy. But nine times out of ten, you’ll probably want to start with Heartbreak Soup.)
With Jaime, it’s a little trickier: Maggie the Mechanic is the start of the Locas saga, about a group of Latina punk-rock kids and their circle of friends, but it’s a science-fiction comic at first, which is different than the work for which Jaime is most renowned (since he gradually dropped the SF elements from the storyline); moreover it’s drawn in a more traditional, maximalist style than his best-known work, and I’ve seen this be a bit off-putting for some readers as well. The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S. is volume two of the Locas strips, so you’re joining things in progress if you start there, but it’s much more what people are thinking visually/tonally/narratively of when they talk about Jaime’s greatness; moreover, jumping right in isn’t all that weird, since Jaime tends to make large jumps in the chronology anyway. Personally, I still recommend starting at the start, with Maggie the Mechanic, provided you think you won’t find light science fiction and classic illustration off-putting; it really is where the story of Maggie, Hopey, Izzy, Penny et al begins.
And now, the reviews.
AN INTRODUCTION
Announcing LOVE AND ROCKTOBER
An interview with Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez
JAIME
The “Locas” Stories
Locas (old, disavowed version)
Maggie the Mechanic
The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S.
Perla La Loca
Penny Century
Ghost of Hoppers
The Education of Hopey Glass
Esperanza
Love and Rockets Vol. 2 #20
Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 (old version)
Love and Rockets: New Stories #1-2
Love and Rockets: New Stories #3
Love and Rockets: New Stories #4
GILBERT
The “Palomar”-verse Stories
Heartbreak Soup
Human Diastrophism
Beyond Palomar
Birdland^
Luba in America
Luba: The Book of Ofelia
Luba: Three Daughters
High Soft Lisp
Love and Rockets Vol. 2 #20
New Tales of Old Palomar
Chance in Hell
Speak of the Devil
The Troublemakers
Love and Rockets: New Stories #1-3 and “Dreamstar”
Love from the Shadows
Love and Rockets: New Stories #4
LOS BROS HERNANDEZ
(Mostly) Non-”Locas”/”Palomar” Stories
Amor y Cohetes (Gilbert, Jaime, Mario)
Birdland^ (Gilbert)
Fear of Comics (Gilbert)
Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 (Gilbert and Mario) (old version)
Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 (Gilbert and Mario)
Citizen Rex (Gilbert and Mario)
^ (not quite a Palomar-verse story, but not quite not a Palomar-verse story)
Congratulations on putting together such an interesting and comprehensive resource!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Sean T. Collins, Sean T. Collins. Sean T. Collins said: #LOVEANDROCKTOBER is over. Thank you, Los Bros. Here's a link to reviews of every Love and Rockets book ever. http://is.gd/ivbxb [...]
[...] and Rockets by Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez.” Rocktober is finally over, and Sean has posted an index of all his reviews and analysis of the works of Los Bros Hernandez. If you’re a fan of the Hernandez Bros. or have been curious about their work since reading [...]
[...] point is that both Jaime and Gilbert have produced massive, high-quality bodies of work, with multiple, affordable collections, each of which contains a story or two fit to knock your [...]