FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS – @fantagraphics
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
WRITERS: Gilbert Hernandez; Jaime Hernandez – @BetomessGilbert @xaimeh
ARTISTS: Gilbert Hernandez; Jaime Hernandez
EDITOR: Eric Reynolds – @earinc
COVER: Gilbert Hernandez
BACK COVER: Jaime Hernandez
VARIANT COVER: Jaime Hernandez
36pp, B&W, $4.99 U.S. (March 2017)
Love and Rockets, the seminal alternative comic book, produced by brothers Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez, has been published since 1982 by Fantagraphics Books. It started as a magazine-sized comic book that ran for 50 issues (1983 to 1996) and later returned for a 20-issue run as a standard-sized comic book, (Vol II, 2001-2007). Then, it became an annual graphic novel series which ran for eight volumes, Love and Rockets: New Stories (Vol. III, 2008-2016). [It is important to note that Gilbert and Jaime do not collaborate, and that each brother has his own characters and stories.]
In late 2016, Love and Rockets Vol. IV returned the series to its comic magazine format that fans of the original series fell in love with and probably still love and prefer. I prefer the original format, but I understand that for various reasons the creators and publishers felt the need to initiate format changes at different times.
Under a front cover by Gilbert, Love and Rockets Vol. IV #2 offers six stories, three by Gilbert (Beto) and three by Jaime. The issue opens with “Fritz Haters Will Just Have to Be Patient,” (Gilbert) and focuses on Rosalba “Fritz” Martinez, international cult movie and television star. She is still working through the divorce from her wife, Pipo. However, the bigger event is final meeting Rosario, the until-now hidden twin of Fritz's daughter, Baby.
In “More for the Haters,” Rosario frets about meeting her twin sister, Baby, until Rosario's friend, Andres, forces the meeting. In “Nowhere, USA,” now that Fritz is reunited with her “lost” twin daughter, Rosario, it is time to introduce the girl to Aunt Petra, Fritz's sister.
On the Jaime side of things, a reunited Maggie and Hopey are still at a punk reunion, but as things wind down, Maggie realizes that not many of the old punks remember her. In “Forest Spirits,” Tonta Agajanian is accompanied by her half-sister, Vivian “Frogmouth” Solis to a local forest. When Vivian discovers that the local urban legend of the “forest spirit” might be real, she reacts differently from everyone else. In the final story, everyone is asking, “Where is Anima?”
As I wrote in my review of the first issue, I knew that I would like the return of Love and Rockets to a magazine-sized publication. There was and is something magical about Love and Rockets presented in magazine-size. Although, both Gilbert and Jaime focus on different and/or new characters, Love and Rockets Vol. IV recalls in me the sensations of reading the original run of the series.
Gilbert's Fritz stories are often absurd, over-the-top, and farcical, yet the drama is potent. The characters are achingly human, at times frivolous and hopeless, and at other times, lovable and loving. The final two pages of “Fritz Haters Will Just Have to Be Patient” exemplify that, especially when Fritz tells her husband/baby daddy, “I'm not wearing panties.”
Maggie and Hopey are trying not to feel their age, no matter how much they show it, but there is beauty in the fact that they are still living and trying to enjoy life. The power and freshness of “Locas,” (the first true Jaime Hernandez epic) now resides in the world of Tonta Agajanian, and while Maggie and Hopey might have slowed down, Jaime has not – at least according to these Tonta stories.
Love and Rockets Vol. IV #2 shows that L&R is not back; it never left. Perhaps, Los Bros. have found vitality in a familiar format.
9 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You'
The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
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