I Reads You Review: LOVE AND ROCKETS: New Stories #3

LOVE AND ROCKETS: NEW STORIES #3
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS

WRITERS: Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez
ARTISTS: Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez
COVER: Jaime Hernandez
ISBN: 978-1-60699-379-8; paperback
104pp, B&W, $14.99 U.S.

Love and Rockets: New Stories is the third incarnation of the comic book series, Love and Rockets. Created by brothers Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez (with brother Mario occasionally contributing), Love and Rockets is, in my learned opinion, the best American comic book ever.

Published by Fantagraphics Books, New Stories is a reboot of this phenomenal comic book as an annual, graphic novel-length package that resembles both a comic book and a literary magazine (designed with bookstores in mind). First published in 2010, Love and Rockets: New Stories #3 offers fives stories: two by Gilbert and three by Jaime.

New Stories #3 opens with “Scarlet by Starlight” by Gilbert. This 36-page story focuses on three humans exploring alien terrain. It seems as if these humans live on the same planet as this strange jungle world, but are from a civilized area. They are studying a family of furry creatures. One of them, the female named Scarlet, bears a striking resemblance to Rosalba “Fritz” Martinez (Gilbert’s High Soft Lisp character). When one of the humans begins a relationship with Scarlett, trouble ensues. Gilbert’s second story, “Killer * Sad Girl * Star is related to “Scarlet by Starlight” and stars Dora “Killer” Rivera.

For his three stories, Jaime returns to the lives of his “Locas” cast. The main story is the two-part “The Love Bunglers” and finds Maggie and Ray out on the town for Ray’s art exhibition. They talk about the crazy world of dreams, and Maggie asks Ray for a huge (and shocking) favor. The third story is “Browntown” a new installment in Jaime’s beloved “little kids” flashback series (albeit a darker, more grown up take on that series). Ten-year-old Maggie (called by her birth name, Perla) and her family move away from Hoppers to a desert ghost town called “Browntown.” Perla discovers an ugly family secret and her brother, Calvin, deals with a predatory bully.

The first two issues of Love and Rockets: New Stories offered the usual idiosyncratic comix for which Los Bros – Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez – are known. Indeed, Gilbert is at his eccentric best with the two perplexing tales here. Well, they’re perplexing until you realize that this quote: “It always comes down to what people are willing to accept and what they aren’t, huh?” is the thematic spine of Gilbert’s two stories.

Jaime eschews idiosyncratic for comics that could be called modern fiction. “The Love Bunglers” explores how bedtime dreams and their dreams which are ambitions or wishes are expressions of fears and longings. There are two pages (the giant flower sequence) in “The Love Bunglers Part One” that express fear and longing with lovely poetic art.

Readers and admirers, myself included, often think of Gilbert as the better writer of the two brothers and Jaime as the better artist. With only a few exceptions, Gilbert has been the best writer in American comic books over a three decade period. No one has produced more beautiful art for black and white comics the way Jaime has over that same period, a period in which he has been the best comic book artist in North America.

“Browntown” is one of the stories in which Jaime shows that he can write as well as draw comic books better than most and as good as the very best. It’s a riveting story of teen angst, marital infidelity, and sexual abuse that unveils a world that adults can’t or won’t see – a world in which children try to manage adult and real world tribulations on their own.

“Browntown” is an incredible story with a sense of realism and gravity unseen in most comic books. “Browntown” alone makes Love and Rockets: New Stories #3 one of the best comic books of 2010.

A+

Dogs: Bullets and Carnage: Cage and Puppies

I read Dogs, Vol. 6 (Dogs (Viz Media))

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has FREE smart phone apps).

Review: LOVE AND ROCKETS: New Stories #2

LOVE AND ROCKETS: NEW STORIES #2
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS

WRITERS: Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez
ARTISTS: Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez
COVER: Gilbert Hernandez
ISBN: 978-1-60699-168-8; paperback
104pp, B&W, $14.99 U.S.

Love and Rockets: New Stories is the third incarnation of Love and Rockets, the best American comic book ever. Published by Fantagraphics Books, New Stories is a reboot of this phenomenal comic book as an annual, graphic novel-length package.

Love and Rockets: New Stories #2 offers the usual idiosyncratic comix of Los Bros – Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez. Gilbert offers two stories – one a tale of disaffected youth and the other a surreal pantomime comix novella. Jaime offers the concluding, 50-page second half of “Ti-Girls Adventures,” an uproarious, off-kilter version of the Silver Age superhero story.

The star of “Sad Girl” (which was apparently previewed in Fantagraphics’ 2009 Free Comic Book Day sampler) is Dora Rivera, a bombshell actress and brooding youth nicknamed “Killer.” Killer carries around her a web of jealousy, gossip, notoriety and mystery that she seems to take with a stiff upper lip and an understated joy. She draws attention for two reasons. First, Killer appeared in a still unreleased movie which is a remake of “an old art house production” and which may also be a porn movie. The second attention grabbing bit of gossip about Killer is her on-again, off-again relationship with her unnamed boyfriend.

“Sad Girl” is not a story about Luba, Gilbert’s signature character, but Killer certainly has Luba’s prodigious chest, and her aura is Luba-like. Like many stories set in the world of Luba, this is a tawdry, oblique, mini-soap opera. It’s weird and haunting and has a touch of the L.A. youth scene that was a staple of early Love and Rockets comics. “Sad Girl” engages, but that is what Gilbert’s work does. Both eccentric and literate, his comics grab the reader, even the ones that ultimately go nowhere, and “Sad Girl” ultimately goes nowhere.

“Hypnotwist” is a 39-page wordless story that follows an unnamed, leggy redhead on her weird journey into a dreamlike night. It is a night filled with bizarre and shady characters and a series of women that just might be unhappy future versions of her. “Hypnotwist” is like Alice in Wonderland slammed into that strange afterlife dimension in the film Beetlejuice (1988). I just wrote that Gilbert’s work is eccentric and literate; “Hypnotwist” is firmly eccentric. It is visually interesting, if for no other reason than Gilbert’s amazingly imaginative and splendidly drawn compositions.

Jaime’s “Ti-Girls Adventures” is divided into two, 25-page sections that begin and end New Stories #2. The lead character, Boot Angel, learns more lessons about being a super-heroine, including that it is a hard and dangerous rather than glamorous life. Along the way, she ends up in the middle of fight between battling super women, both villains and heroes. The big showdown involves Penny Century and unexpectedly takes place in classic L&R character, Maggie’s tiny one-bedroom apartment. We even get a history of the Ti-Girls organization and an explanation of super powers a.k.a. “the Gift.”

I never forget how fun it is to read a Jaime Hernandez comic book. I think that he has consistently been the best comic book artist in North America (or at least on the shortlist) for the last quarter century. He hasn’t lost a step in his drawing hand (or on the drawing side of his brain). He remains a master of black and white comic book art – the best since the late Alex Toth.

What did surprise me was how enjoyable “Ti-Girls Adventures” was, simply because it was silly and crazy, but also thoughtful like an old Stan Lee-scripted Spider-Man story. This is quasi-superhero storytelling that is so unique that it would probably be considered too outsider when compared to current superhero comics. However, the kind of energy, thinking, and imagination Jaime put into the visual storytelling (both script and art) in “Ti-Girls Adventures’” has largely been unseen since the heyday of Stan Lee/Jack Kirby Marvel.

Love and Rockets: New Stories #2 reminds us, as the first issue did, that comic books from the Hernandez Brothers are always a welcome thing. A year may be a long wait, but when it comes to Los Bros’ coolness and greatness, time is neutral. I can always reread this and enjoy it just as much as I did the first time.

A-

Kurozakuro: The Final Volume

I read Kurozakuro, Vol. 7

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin.

Review: LOVE AND ROCKETS: New Stories #1

LOVE AND ROCKETS: NEW STORIES #1
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS

WRITERS: Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Mario Hernandez
ARTISTS: Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez
COVER: Jaime Hernandez
ISBN: 978-1-56097-951-7; paperback
104pp, B&W (with some color), $14.99 U.S.

Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 is the third incarnation of Love and Rockets, the best American comic book ever, rebooting this phenomenal comic as an annual graphic novel length package. Why do this? The publisher, Fantagraphics Books, has been gearing their business towards book and graphic novel publishing since the 1990s, and like Fantagraphics acclaimed anthology, Mome, this book/literary magazine format is designed for bookstore shelves and sales.

Other than the format change, everything is the same; cartoonist brothers Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez will continue to create their unique comics visions, with brother Mario Hernandez collaborating with Gilbert as a writer on a story or two.

Along with Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg, Love and Rockets was the most influential comic book to come out of independent comic book publishing in the early 1980s. The magazine-sized comic book, featuring the work of brothers Gilbert, Jaime, and (sometimes) Mario Hernandez, ran for 50 issues, ceasing publication in 1996. The title returned as Love and Rockets, Volume II in 2001, running for 20 issues until 2007.

Jaime launches Love and Rockets: New Stories with a super-hero yarn. A serialized graphic novel, Ti-Girls Adventures Number 34 doesn’t focus on signature Jaime character, Maggie, but on Maggie’s neighbor, Angel, and Maggie’s longtime friend, the celebrated Penny Century. Penny has finally realized her longtime dream of acquiring superpowers, but at a terrible personal cost. As Penny rampages through the galaxy, half mad with grief, a motley and varied group of eccentric female superheroes plot to stop her. Angel, herself a superhero, acts as the narrative’s center, with supporting characters: the screwy Russian badass babe, Alarma Kraktovilova (another neighbor of Maggie’s), Golden Girl, and Espectra. The latter two were members of the Ti-Girls, a 1960s and 70s superhero group formed by women who were rejected from other teams.

The epic-length 50-page Ti-Girls Adventures Number 34 (apparently the first half of this story) recalls Jaime’s early work, as seen in the original Love and Rockets. Those comix were a combination of screwball, B-movie science fiction and two-fisted Jack Kirby-style superhero action with a side of comedy. The difference here is that the potential Jaime showed then as an illustrator has been met, surpassed, and then some. This graphic novel does drag a little, but Jaime’s ability to mix genuine human emotion with kooky fantasy, both in his razor-sharp dialogue and supreme black and white drawings, surpasses any lapses in pace. The subtle shifts in Espectra’s facial expressions and her body language are like a tapestry revealing the mental and spiritual state of late middle-aged woman who has seen better days. Jaime’s achievement in Espectra is the way he can also show how steady and resolute she is in a very crazy world. She’s still a hero even if her life has seen better days.

Gilbert Hernandez is creative and prolific, and sometimes explodes on comic book fans with a flurry of releases across multiple publishers over the period of a year or so. Here, he also returns, in a sense, to his early work. Gilbert has always tackled deeper spiritual, philosophical, and societal issues in his work, but the seven stand-alone stories here recapture the rawness or perhaps a sense of newness of the first few years of his Love and Rockets work. Like the old, this new material is a mixture of B-movie sci-fi comedy, stoicism, surrealism, and social farce.

“Papa” is a turn-of-the-century story involving a traveling businessman (which reads like Cormac McCarthy). “The New Adventures of Duke and Sammy” features a pair of stage comics who are a cheap copy of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in a story that’s like one of those corny Three Stooges sci-fi/fantasy movies. Of all these stories, the best is “Chiro El Indio,” written by Mario. It deals with a lowdown attempt to steal some valuable land belonging to a crazy Indian couple. “Chiro” reads like it could be turned into one of those great Latin American movies that foreign film fans and Oscar love so much (Y Tu Mama Tambien).

This isn’t stellar work by the Hernandez Brothers, considering the chunky body of stellar work that they’ve produced over a quarter century. What is good about Love and Rockets: New Stories, however, is that it throws readers and fans a curve. Just what are Los Bros. going to do now? By going back to their early styles, in essence, they’ve allowed themselves a re-launch or at least a chance to throw many surprises at our expectations. Whatever they choose to do, it’ll still be the most interesting comics coming from America’s most literate, experimental, and adventurous comic book creators.

A-

Small Press Art Show at Fantagraphics Bookstore November 12th

Short Run exhibition at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on November 12th

Features small press comics and art by emerging regional artists.

In this age of ubiquitous digital media and gadget fatigue, it’s refreshing to find a community of artists working with their hands to produce tactile works of art on paper. Such is the case with the young cartoonists in the Short Run exhibition at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in Seattle. This art party on Saturday, November 12 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM follows the Short Run Small Press Fest at the Vera Project at the Seattle Center earlier that day.

The Short Run art show, curated by Kelly Froh, features original comix art, illustration and book works by Max Clotfelter, Patrick Keck, Martine Workman, Elaine Lin, Jason T. Miles, Chris Cilla, Andrice Arp, Tim Root, Billis Helg, Marc Palm, Eroyn Franklin, Tom Van Deusen, Tim Miller, Tory Franklin, Jesse Reklaw, Sean Christensen, and Erin Tanner. A selection of publications by these, and other local artists, will also be available.

The public is invited to meet these remarkable artists at a festive reception on Saturday, November 12 at 6:00 PM. Entertainment will be provided by DJ/musician “Brainfruit.” This event coincides with the colorful Georgetown Art Attack featuring visual and performing arts presentations throughout the historic arts community.

Listing Information:
SHORT RUN: Small Press Fest After-Party & Art Show

Featuring artwork from Max Clotfelter, Patrick Keck, Martine Workman, Elaine Lin, Jason T. Miles, Chris Cilla, Andrice Arp, Tim Root, Billis Helg, Marc Palm, Eroyn Franklin, Tom Van Deusen, Tim Miller, Tory Franklin, Jesse Reklaw, Sean Christensen, and Erin Tanner. Curated by Kelly Froh

Saturday, November 12, 6:00 – 9:00 P M. Show continues through December 10, 2011

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. 1201 S. Vale Street (at Airport Way S.) Seattle. 206.658.0110. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM

Kimi Ni Todoke: First Date

I read Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You, Vol. 11

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin.