So I Read Love And Rockets: Palomar Omnibuses

A 250 word (or less) review of Heartbreak Soup, Human Diastrophism, and Beyond Palomar
By Gilbert Hernandez, Fantagraphics Books

There is a kind of magic here. Gilbert Hernandez's chunk of Love and Rockets is this marvellous and bizarre and expression of... well, life, I guess. The comic revolves around the fictional town of Palomar, a poor backwater community in an unspecified South American country, and the colourful people that inhabit it. The dozens of colourful, complex, gloriously weird people that inhabit it. While the Palomar books certainly have characters who get more attention, like Luba, the single mother and bath lady turned local business mogul turned mayor, the comics manage to tell the interlocking stories of this astonishing wide swathe of people in rich detail. And not just shortly glimpsed vignettes: Gilbert Hernandez's Love and Rockets follows the tribulations of the Palomarians for half a life time, literally decades of their lives. It's pretty special. But the Palomar Love and Rockets is also sort of large: some really big, dramatic stories about civil wars and gangsters and serial killers occur over the course of these omnibuses. And yet, the series never loses the focus of Palomar and its characters... it's like the comic is intent on showing the small and intimate moments against an epic background. The Gilbert Hernandez Palomar portion of Love and Rockets is every bit as deep, and heartfelt, and crazy, and beautiful, and alive, and unique as the Jaimie Hernandez Locas chunk and is, like its counterpart, an absolutely must read comics. 

Word count: 237

Previously:
Love and Rockets: Locas Omnibuses

So I Read The Love And Rockets: Locas Omnibuses

Or a 250 word (or less) review of Maggie the Mechanic, The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S., Perla la Loca, Penny Century, and Esperanza,
By Jaime Hernandez, Fantagraphics Books

Love and Rockets is maybe the most revered comic of my favourite comics writers. And wow you guys, Jaime Hernandez's chunk of it is one amazing, strange, and difficult to explain comic. As much as one can categorize the Locas comics, I'd say these comics are about Maggie and Hopey, a couple of young punk rockers who are friends and sometime lovers growing up in the LA Hispanic punk scene. The comics follow the adventures of these young women and their colorful friends for literally THIRTY YEARS. Half a lifetime of stories where we get to watch these people grow from goofy teen punks to unsure adults as they struggle through life. It's a reading experience unlike any other I've had: it is absolutely it's own thing. There is a sensibility on display here that is interesting, charming, frequently hilarious, and completely outside my experience. An aesthetic that involves punk rockers, female Mexican wrestling, strippers, Barrio gangs, lesbians, and even super heroes. But an aesthetic that is always built around love and beauty and family and relationships. It's at once gloriously strange and wonderfully familiar. I think, maybe, that the real magic of the Locas comics is just how effortless and alive it feels. Love and Rockets: Locas seems less like a manufactured work of art and more of a spontaneous reality filled with unbridled humanity. It's absolutely incredible and completely the masterpiece that everyone says it is. It's a must read for everyone the slightest bit enthusiastic about comics. 

Word count: 250