Love And Rockets

Picking up right after Perla La Loca, this compilation of stories from Jaime Hernandez's solo comic Penny Century and his subsequent return to Love and Rockets (Vol. II) charts the further lives of his beloved "Locas." But first… wrestling! Penny Century starts off with a blast with "Whoa, Nellie!," a unique graphic novelette in which Maggie, who has settled in with her pro-wrestler aunt for a while, experiences that wild and woolly world first-hand.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2012, the complete Love and Rockets library is finally going digital with this series of compact, thick, affordable, mass-market volumes that present the whole story in perfect chronological order. This volume collects the second half (following Heartbreak Soup) of Gilbert Hernandez's acclaimed magical-realist tales of "Palomar," the small Central American town, beginning with the landmark "Human Diastrophism," named one of the greatest comic book stories of the 20th Century by The Comics Journal, and continuing on through more modern-day classics.

The 30th anniversary Love and Rockets celebration continues with this second of three volumes collecting the adventures of the spunky Maggie; her annoying, pixie-ish best friend and sometime lover Hopey; and their circle of friends, including their bombshell friend Penny Century, Maggie's weirdo mentor Izzy – as well as the aging but still heroic wrestler Rena Titaon and Maggie's handsome love interest, Rand Race. After Maggie the Mechanic, the first volume in this series, Hernandez refined his approach, settling on the more naturalistic environment of the fictional Los Angeles barrio, Hoppers, and the lives of the young Mexican-Americans and punk rockers who live there. A central story and one of Jaime's absolute peaks is "The Death of Speedy." Such is Jaime's mastery that even though the end of the story is telegraphed from the very title, the downhill spiral of Speedy, the local heartthrob, is utterly compelling and ultimately quite surprising. Also in this volume, Maggie begins her on-again off-again romance with Ray D., leading to friction and an eventual separation from Hopey.

Beyond Palomar collects two of Gilbert's groundbreaking works about the Central American hamlet of Palomar in one affordable book."Poison River" is a dizzying period piece often hailed as one of Hernandez's masterpieces. It traces the pre-Palomar childhood of Luba, her teenage marriage to gangster Peter Rio, the secrets behind her mysterious mother, all the way up to her subsequent escape and arrival in Palomar.

The 30th anniversary Love and Rockets celebration continues with this third of three volumes collecting the adventures of the spunky Maggie; her annoying, pixie-ish best friend and sometime lover Hopey; and their circle of friends. Perla begins with the "Wigwam Bam" story, arguably Jaime Hernandez's definitive statement on the post-punk culture. As Maggie, Hopey, and the rest of the Locas prowl Los Angeles, the East Coast, and parts in between trying to recapture the carefree spirit of those early days.

Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 rebooted the beloved Love and Rockets series in 2008 as an all-new annual graphic novel length package. Jaime launches the new format with a story that's unusual even for him…

This latest inexpensive and handy collection of Jaime Hernandez's early work picks up where 2010's Penny Century leaves off. Esperanza features an older, wiser Maggie, a maturing Hopey and introduces one of Jaime's greatest recent characters, Vivian the 'Frogmouth,' the near-psychotic bombshell.

In Vol. 10 of the Love and Rockets Library, Luba and her family leave Palomar for the U.S., where she is united with her sisters Petra and Fritz.
Gilbert Hernandez’s sprawling family saga focuses on the United States, where newly immigrated Luba and her sisters, body-builder Petra and therapist/film star Fritz, find their families’ and friends’ lives becoming more and more intertwined. As the three sisters have “memories of sweet youth,” the next generation finds the spotlight: Luba’s adult daughter Doralís emcees the proceedings in her role as mischievous host of a children’s TV show, while Petra’s little girl, Venus, has adventures with her aunt Fritz and her best friend Yoshio. At her mother’s urging, Venus also writes missives to her fierce, one-armed cousin Casimira, who’s back in Palomar. In these stories — never before collected together — Venus tells it like it is! Black & white