Review: LOVE AND ROCKETS: New Stories #6

LOVE AND ROCKETS: NEW STORIES #6
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS – @fantagraphics

WRITERS: Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez
ARTISTS: Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez
EDITOR: Eric Reynolds
COVER: Gilbert Hernandez
ISBN: 978-1-60699-679-9; paperback (September 2013)
100pp, B&W, $14.99 U.S.

Fall means a new volume of Love and Rockets: New Stories.  Under a Gilbert Hernandez cover – featuring new player, “Killer,” Love and Rockets: New Stories #6 arrives with new stories featuring new characters.

Love and Rockets: New Stories is the third incarnation of the comic book series, Love and Rockets, rebooted as an annual, graphic novel-length package, resembling both a comic book and a literary magazine.  L&R remains the creation of Los. Bros, the brothers Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez (with brother Mario occasionally contributing).  According to the publisher, this publishing format is designed to appeal to the people who decide what will be placed on the shelves in bookstores.

Love and Rockets: New Stories #6 brings Love and Rockets into its fourth decade with a focus on new lead characters.  Dora “Killer” Rivera, Gilbert’s new star is somewhere outside of the United States in the south of the border town of Palomar.  Killer strikes a hammer-wielding pose on New Stories #6’s cover that recalls her grandmother, Luba, Gilbert’s signature character.

Killer (also known as “Sad Girl”) discovers that Maria, her great-grandmother (and Luba’s mother) starred in a 1950s crime movie.  That leads her to begin to delve into the details of her family’s twisted history.  She’ll also discover that not everyone is interested in history, ancient or otherwise, and she is about to get a ghostly visit.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Love and Rockets: New Stories #6, Jaime continues to explore his intriguing new character, Tonta Agajanian.  Things start off innocently enough in “Fuck Summer,” as Tonta tries to get some attention from Eric Lopez of the garage punk band, Ooot.

Trying to get Tonta’s attention is Coach Angel Rivera, the new P.E. teacher at Bradbury’s Girl School.  Coach seems to know a lot about Tonta, but Tonta does not think that she has ever heard of Rivera.  “Tarzana Adventures” with “Pack Mules” will reveal all; keyword is “luchadora.”  It’s not all fun and games.  There is a dark mystery and something sinister going on in Tonta’s immediate and extended family that includes her older and squabbling half-siblings.

Each Hernandez bro approaches the introduction of new characters and storylines differently.  Gilbert depicts Killer as forging her own way by delving into the past.  Jaime has Tonta forging her way, but ensnared by the past.  The high school student is seemingly not interested in her family’s past, nor does she seem particularly interested in her siblings.

Killer loves the intricate connections that extend from Palomar outside to the United States and other places beyond the border of the U.S.  Gilbert, however, relishes muddying the past for his star, and making connections tenuous.  Is memory reliable?  Is history a story or fact?  After awhile, I start to see Satchel Paige’s axiom about not looking back in Killer’s adventures.  Gilbert’s final entry in New Stories #6 enforces that theme, but I know that I wanted Killer to turn around and look.

For Jaime’s Tonta, familial connections are not so much intricate, as they form a net.  Or maybe, they are like those hooked-laden Cenobite chains that snake out from the darkness in Hellraiser movies.  Jaime’s focus on Tonta is divided into 17 short stories in Love and Rockets: New Stories #6 (compared with Gilbert’s 8).  They form one large story through which run three stories or subplots.  Each one of the three recalls classic Jaime themes:  music (punk), wrestling (Mexican), and family.

Unlike Gilbert’s stories, which seem to want to connect Killer to the past, Jaime seems determined to disconnect Tonta from the past, at least by my reading.  The story of Tonta will be about her, not about her in a context of what came before her.  This comes through in Tonta’s visits to the “swimming hole,” as when one character declares that she did not invite Tonta’s companion.

I find that in Love and Rockets: New Stories #6, Gilbert’s holds up his end of the volume better than he did in New Stories #5.  Here, both brothers are like great athletes that use human growth hormone (HGH) to extend their peak performance into middle age.  Los Bros. have found creative and artistic steroids, as they are producing Love and Rockets comics that are as good as they’ve ever been.  Or maybe genius never gets old and keeps producing all-star work.

A

Review by Leroy Douresseaux

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

I Reads You Review: LOVE AND ROCKETS: New Stories #5

LOVE AND ROCKETS: NEW STORIES #5
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS – @fantagraphics

WRITERS: Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez
ARTISTS: Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez
COVER: Jaime Hernandez
ISBN: 978-1-60699-586-0; paperback (2012)
104pp, B&W, $14.99 U.S.

Love and Rockets: New Stories is the third incarnation of the comic book series, Love and Rockets, which I think is the best American comic book series ever published. It is the creation of Los. Bros, the brothers Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez (with brother Mario occasionally contributing). Published by Fantagraphics Books, New Stories is a reboot of Love and Rockets as an annual, graphic novel-length package, resembling both a comic book and a literary magazine. This publishing format is designed to appeal to the people who decide what will make the shelves of bookstores.

Published in 2012, Love and Rockets: New Stories #5 opens with “Somewhere Outside the U.S. Border” by Gilbert. As 2012 is the 30th anniversary of Love and Rockets, Gilbert celebrates by transporting one of his current characters, Dora “Killer” Rivera, to the site of his beloved south-of-the-border village of Palomar.

In “Proof That the Devil Loves You,” Fritz (Luba’s half-sister) stars in a fictionalized “movie” Palomar, with Fritz starring as a combination of Luba and Tonantzín. The real characters, including Luba, Sheriff Chelo, and Carmen, among others, appear in two vignettes, “Somewhere in the U.S.” and “And Back Again.”

On Jaime’s side of things, he has to follow up the incredible “The Love Bunglers,” so he offers four stories for New Stories #5. Jaime focuses on a familiar character, Vivian “Frogmouth” Solis, the bombshell ex-girlfriend of Ray Dominguez. However, Jaime’s opening story is “Tonta,” which introduces Vivian’s half-sister, Tonta. In that story, Tonta is determined to meet Eric Lopez, the lead singer of Ooot, a punk band.

In “Crime Raiders International Mobsters and Executioners,” Vivian attracts the attention of an old gangster type named, Mel Spropp, who owns the Cobia Club. Spropp wants Vivian to sit by the phone at her home and wait for him to call, but Vivian isn’t exactly the type to cooperate. “Uh… Oh, Yeah” is a look at Doyle. In “Shoes,” Tonta goes exploring with Gretchen A.K.A. “Medusa.”

After the stunning events depicted in Love and Rockets: New Stories #4 (2011), the Hernandez Brothers could be described as shifting focus or even moving sideways for New Stories #5. I cannot figure out what Gilbert is doing with this return – both real and surreal – to Palomar. I think most of Gilbert’s best work, which is a mixture of magical realist fiction and soap operas, is set in Palomar. These new stories make me hope that he is returning to Palomar in some manner or at least to some extent.

Meanwhile, Jaime seems ready to unleash a whole new group of characters in his Locas cycle. Right from the beginning, I find Tonta, Frank Lopez, and Gretchen/Medusa fascinating. Also, after not taking Vivian seriously, I am intrigued by her, and clearly Jaime is also looking at the character from a new perspective.

Honestly, it was going to be hard to follow New Stories #4, and Love and Rockets: New Stories #5 lacks the kind of exceptional, game-changing material the previous edition has. However, this is another volume of New Stories which proves that Love and Rockets is as strong as ever and is ready for 30 more great years.

A-

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

Gilbert Hernandez Tells Us About "Julio's Day"

Julio's Day
by Gilbert Hernandez

104-page black& white 7.5" x 10.75" hardcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-606-5
In-store date: March 2013 (subject to change)

It begins in the year 1900, with the scream of a newborn. It ends, 100 pages later, in the year 2000, with the death rattle of a 100-year-old man. The infant and the old man are both Julio, and Gilbert Hernandez’s Julio’s Day (originally serialized in Love and Rockets Vol. II but never completed until now) is his latest graphic novel, a masterpiece of elliptical, emotional storytelling that traces one life — indeed, one century in a human life — through a series of carefully crafted, consistently surprising and enthralling vignettes.

There is hope and joy, there is bullying and grief, there is war (so much war — this is after all the 20th century), there is love, there is heartbreak. While Julio’s Day has some settings and elements in common with Hernandez’s Palomar cycle (the Central American protagonists and milieu, the vivid characters, the strong familial and social ties), this is a very much a singular, standalone story that will help cement his position as one of the strongest and most original cartoonists of this, or any other, century.

"Julio's Day is a story of one man's life, but it's a great deal more than that as well. It's the story of the life of a century, also told as if a day. Beginning with Julio's birth in 1900 and ending with his death in 2000, the graphic novel touches on most of the major events that shaped the 20th century." – Brian Evenson, from his introduction

"A haunting performance and about as perfect a literary work as I've read in years. Hernandez accomplishes in 100 pages what most novelists only dream of — rendering the closeted phlegmatic Julio in all his confounding complexity and in the process creating an unflinching biography of a community, a country and a century. A masterpiece." – Junot Díaz

ABOUT THE CARTOONIST: Gilbert Hernandez has been enrapturing readers with his Love and Rockets stories for over 30 years. He lives in Las Vegas, NV with his wife and daughter.

I Reads You Review: LOVE AND ROCKETS: New Stories #4

LOVE AND ROCKETS: NEW STORIES #4
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS

WRITERS: Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez
ARTISTS: Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez
COVER: Gilbert Hernandez
ISBN: 978-1-60699-490-0; paperback (2011)
104pp, B&W, $14.99 U.S.

Love and Rockets: New Stories is the third incarnation of the comic book series, Love and Rockets, which is the creation of Los. Bros, the brothers Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez (with brother Mario occasionally contributing). Published by Fantagraphics Books, New Stories is a reboot of Love and Rockets as an annual, graphic novel-length package, resembling both a comic book and a literary magazine (designed with bookstores in mind). For me, Love and Rockets is the best American comic book series published to date.

Originally published in 2011, Love and Rockets: New Stories #4 offers six stories: two by Gilbert and four by Jaime, all under a cover by Gilbert. Jaime concludes “The Love Bunglers,” with Parts Three, Four, and Five. Maggie fidgets with Ray Dominquez’s art and wonders why he doesn’t return her phone calls. She is vexed by Vivian (“Frogmouth”), who is hooking up with Reno. Maggie’s niece, Linda, joins Ray in helping Maggie open a new business with classic Mechanics character, Walter a.k.a Yax. Maggie struggles with Angel’s departure for college, and Calvin’s action leads to a surprising turn in the lives of two of the characters. Hopey and Maggie reunite. “Return for Me,” a sequel of sorts to “Browntown” returns Maggie to Hoppers for a new life, as narrated by Letty.

The cover story is Gilbert’s 35-page “King Vampire.” The B-movie, meta-fiction-like story focuses on two teenagers, Cecil and Trini, who want to join a local vampire club. When real vampires show up, things take a deadly turn, and Cecil meets a vampire queen (who looks like Luba). In Gilbert’s “And Then Reality Kicks In,” Fritz reunites with an old beau for their own version of Before Sunrise.

I have not read Love and Rockets for the entirety of its 30 years of existence. I think that I started reading it in the middle of 1985. Since reading my first L&R, I’ve rarely been disappointed, but I have often been stunned and/or surprised, which I am after reading Love and Rockets: New Stories #4. It is possible that this series keeps getting better, and New Stories #4 makes a case for that. The primary reason, at least I think so, is Jaime’s work in New Stories #4.

Over the years, Love and Rockets fans and readers (including myself) have believed that Gilbert is the great writer of the two brothers and Jaime the great artist. New Stories is gradually debunking that, on Jaime’s side. Since the third issue of New Stories, Jaime has delved deeper into his characters, using autobiography, character drama, and analysis to unveil new and hidden aspects of his characters. He engages emotions and psychology as never before. New Stories has found Jaime at the peak of his storytelling powers.

Meanwhile, Gilbert impresses with his mastery of dialogue writing for comic books. From the self-possessed banter of “And Then Reality Kicks In” to the witty and precise chit-chat of “King Vampire,” Gilbert divulges interior motives and exterior conflict. In “King Vampire,” the art is not merely black and white; it offers the interplay of black and white as both contrast and balance. The match of light and dark and of cold and warm gives this story layers, shifts in genre and tone.

I was never sure. Is “King Vampire comic horror, as in a B-movie? Or is this surreal terror, as in a bloody, gothic tale of monster/human relationships played out to its inevitable (tragic?) conclusion. This is some of Gilbert’s most complex writing.

Love and Rockets: New Stories #4 is one of 2011’s very best comic books. Plus, it has an all-star, all-cartoonists letters column, including letters and notes to Los Bros. from Steven Weissman, Adrian Tomine, and Zak Sally, among others.

A+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

-----------------------------

Comixology to Distribute Fantagraphics Books Titles

FANTAGRAPHICS and COMIXOLOGY ANNOUNCE DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT

Love and Rockets: New Stories #1-4 Available Now To Help Celebrate 30 Years Of The Hernandez Brothers’ Groundbreaking World

July 14th, 2012 – San Diego, CA. / New York, NY. — Today in a wide-ranging panel celebrating the 30th anniversary of publishing the Hernandez Brothers’ groundbreaking Love and Rockets series co-publisher Gary Groth, president of the 36 year-old publishing house, announced Fantagraphics Books’ entrance into the digital age through a brand new digital distribution agreement with comiXology, the revolutionary digital comics platform with over 75 million comic downloads to date and a library of more than 25,000 comics and graphic novels.

To mark the occasion, Fantagraphics Books and comiXology have immediately made available the first four issues of the Hernandez Brothers’ phenomenal Love and Rockets: New Stories. Groth also announced that following Comic-Con, comiXology will debut Love and Rockets: New Stories #5 on the same day as the print release is available in comic book stores this September. Subsequently, Fantagraphics will begin to release certain titles from their extensive front list and back catalogue across the entire comiXology platform.

“Fantagraphics Books is one of the longest running, independent comic publishers around with an incredible array of titles. I’ve been chasing them for three years to be a part of our platform and am thrilled not only to bring their books to the digital world, but also to be a part of celebrating the 30th anniversary of Love and Rockets," said comiXology co-founder and CEO David Steinberger. "I’ve long been a fan of Hernandez Brothers’ work, and couldn’t think of a better way to kick off our new relationship with Fantagraphics. There are many happy people in the comiXology offices today.”

"We’ve been exploring our digital options for a few years now, and the more I learned, the more I kept coming back to ComiXology," said Eric Reynolds, Fantagraphics Books Associate Publisher. "Seeing these first four issues of Love and Rockets: New Stories in comiXology’s Guided View is exciting.”

Fantagraphics and comiXology worked closely together to acquire the highest resolution source material to make sure these volumes of Love and Rockets: New Stories look great in comiXology’s new high–definition comic format — CMX-HD — for Love and Rockets fans that are reading on the new iPad.

In early May, comiXology revealed they had crested 65 million comic and graphic novel downloads since the beginning of the platform, with 15 million of those downloads happening in 2012. ComiXology recently unveiled that only one month later in June they had hit 77 million downloads — an addition of 12 million downloads — continuing on a trajectory of record-shattering growth.


About Fantagraphics Books
Fantagraphics Books has been a leading proponent of comics as a legitimate form of art and literature since it began publishing the critical trade magazine The Comics Journal in 1976. By the early 1980s, Fantagraphics found itself at the forefront of the burgeoning movement to establish comics as a medium as eloquent and expressive as the more established popular arts of film, literature, poetry, music et al. Fantagraphics has since gained an international reputation for its audacious editorial standards and its exacting production values and continues to expand the comics medium by releasing the highest quality books.

About comiXology
Founded in 2007 with the mission of bringing comics to people everywhere, comiXology — in just five short years — has revolutionized the comic book and graphic novel world. From creating the industry leading platform for digital comics to tools and services for brick and mortar retailers, comiXology has lead the charge in exposing new audiences to the rich history and culture of comic books. With the development of the Comics by comiXology digital comics platform — — available across iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle Fire and the Web — comiXology provides the easiest way worldwide for people to enjoy comics at just the click of a button! Regularly ranking as the top grossing iPad app in the entire iTunes App Store, Comics by comiXology was recently chosen as a preloaded app on Amazon’s Kindle Fire. Providing digital comics across multiple platforms, comiXology will not stop until everyone on the face of the earth has been turned into a comic book fan.

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+

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-

On Love and Rockets: New Stories #2

I posted my review of Love and Rockets: New Stories, No. 2. Being a fanatic for Los Bros. Hernandez - Gilbert and Jaime, I was excited to read New Stories #2, and I'm already pining away for issue three, which probably won't appear until late Summer 2010. Oh, well!

I found Gilbert's two offerings, "Sad Girl" and "Hypnotwist" strange and stranger. "Sad Girl" was a little weak, but "Hypnotwist" was as engaging as it was obtuse and surreal.

On the other hand, I thought Jaime's 50-page conclusion to "Ti-Girls Adventures," which was divided into 2 25-page segments that appeared at the beginning and the end of this issue, to be a fantastic read. It reminded me of the best of Jaime's early "Mechanics" stories - beautiful art and superb storytelling. Few modern cartoonists can take B-movie trappings and pulp fantasy nonsense and turn it into filet mignon like Jaime.