Tag: love and rockets

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The Girl from HOPPERS: A Love & Rockets Book

This is a review of the Girl from HOPPERS: A Love & Rockets Book, drawn and written by Jaime Hernandez. Read my review of Human Diastrophism, drawn and written by his brother Gilbert, here. Love and Rockets is an indie comic that came out in the 1980’s. Jaime writes about Hoppers, a fictional working-class Mexican-American neighborhood in California, while many of Gilbert’s stories are set in Palomar, a mythical town in Latin America.

The characters in this graphic novel all grew up in the 1970’s and 80’s, just like me. I myself came of age thousands of miles away in a suburb, but my experiences were pretty similar. Boredom. Restlessness. The urge to escape. It’s lost youth, except some of these characters are in their twenties and thirties. Being a rebel is great as a kid, but when you’re thirty years old and bagging groceries at the supermarket or a perpetual couch surfer who spends time at the homeless shelter, it loses its luster.

There are two standout stories in this volume. The first is the Death of Speedy, who has a thing for Maggie but ends up having sex with her sister, which upsets the gangbanger she’s dating. Anyway, Speedy dies, which isn’t a spoiler because that’s the title of the story. At first I thought I was missing something, but there’s nothing to miss. In the volume I read, he isn’t mentioned again. This is a bold storytelling choice because it’s so realistic. Life goes on, and so do we. We are all Speedy, R.I.P.

The second story involves Izzy, Speedy’s sister. Izzy travels to Mexico, meets a guy with a young son, almost marries him, and then her guilt arrives in the form of Satan and she checks out. I think it’s because she had an abortion, but it’s not clear. Mr. Hernandez makes the editorial choice to leave things murky, which doesn’t bother me but may drive others crazy. I will give Izzy this; she allows herself the space to process her feelings, as awful as those feelings may be. Most of the characters in this graphic novel are too busy anesthetizing or even killing themselves to bother.

To say The Girl from HOPPERS has an ensemble cast is to understate things. Characters wander in and out of the story, just like in real life! I haven’t even mentioned the through story, which involves Maggie getting mad when she misses going on Hopey’s band’s tour because she overslept, and then Hopey vanishes for two years, which makes Maggie so angry she dumps her current boyfriend Ray as soon as Hopey returns. Ray seems like a decent guy but Maggie doesn’t want decent. She’s drawn to Hopey, who never met an impulse she didn’t act on.

This graphic novel is comic storytelling at its finest, but it’s not for everyone. There are a LOT of characters, the timeline jumps back and forth, and sometimes motives and even plot points are left intentionally ambiguous. But if you like your comics unsanitized, with realistic (read: flawed) characters who don’t always do the right thing, and who don’t always get the happy ending, you will love this series. Highly recommended!

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Best/Worst Graphic Novels Read in 2024

Ahh, end of the year lists. Everybody’s doing them, so why not me? Here’s the five best and five worst graphic novels I’ve read in 2024. The rules are simple: 1. I read the graphic novel in 2024. 2. This is my first read of the graphic novel.

Batman: Dark Victory is great and would make this list, but I already read it. Graphic novels that are part of a larger series that I have not read count, even if I’ve read the earlier volumes. Example: Love & Rockets, which is on this list.

BEST (in alphabetical order):

Conan: Birth of a Legend, by Kurt Busiek and Cary Nord. This is the best take I’ve ever seen on Conan, made more impressive by the fact that it covers his lost childhood and manages not to be boring.

Daredevil Ultimate Collection: Volume Two, by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev. I view this as a noir comic rather than a superhero comic, especially since the superhero in question is written as a narcissistic donkey.

Human Diastrophism: Love & Rockets, by Gilbert Hernandez. The characters here age, change, and even die. In this volume, Luba leaves Palomar and we meet aged hitman Gorgo.

Incal: Black Incal, by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius. Hallucinatory science fiction that has spawned countless imitators.

Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth, by Jack Kirby. Inspired by Planet of the Apes, this postapocalyptic comic by Jack Kirby moves at a breakneck pace.

WORST (in alphabetical order):

I, Vampire. This series might’ve had promise, but the creators left after a few issues, and the second creative team jumped the shark, and by the time the third creative team found its footing the series ended.

Justice League of American: The Marriage of the Atom and Jean Loring. If you are interested in Brad Meltzer’s Identity Crisis, you might enjoy this . Most will find it a slog to read, with too many characters, confusing storylines, and no meta-plot.

Marvel Masterworks Daredevil: Volume Three, by Stan Lee & Gene Colan. Mike Murdock, Matt’s identical twin who is also blind and who none of Matt’s friends have ever met, takes center stage as the creators see how high they can fly before their feathers melt and they plunge into the ocean.

Marvel Masterworks Sub-Mariner: Volume Two, by Roy Thomas & Bill Everett. This is a step-up from the first volume, with some eye-opening imagery and also art by Golden Age artist Bill Everett, but it won’t be of interest to anyone but the biggest Sub-Mariner fans.

World’s Finest Silver Age Volume Two. If you want to see Indian chief Superman and a crackpot inventor with a salad colander on his head torment the Dynamic Trio, then look no further.

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Human Diastrophism: A Love and Rockets Book

This is a review of Human Diastrophism: A Love and Rockets Book, the second Palomar volume written & drawn by Gilbert Hernandez. If you are new to Love & Rockets, start with Heartbreak Soup, which features the same characters and comes first chronologically. The Brothers Hernandez – Gilbert and Jaime and Mario – have been making great comics for over forty years. Personally, I like Gilbert’s material a little better than Jaime’s, but both are wonderful.

The chronicles of Palomar combine magic realism with an ensemble cast. The setting is Palomar, a village in Latin America cut off from the rest of the world. To clarify: the people of Palomar know the rest of the world exists, they just don’t have much contact with it. The plot is hard to describe, as there are a lot of them. Most of the storylines have to do with people arriving and leaving Palomar – a serial killer, a fashion designer, a woman who sets herself on fire, an aged hitman (?!?!) named Gorgo.

The Love and Rockets series features realistic body sizes and types. There is a frankness about sex, nudity, and bodily functions that might shock a few people. The characters have real problems, and don’t always make the ‘correct’ choices. Parts of this graphic novel are set around the late 1980’s, when everyone thought there’d be thermonuclear war. If you weren’t around then, you didn’t miss much; you can listen to Sting’s song Russians to catch up.

Anyway, highly recommended!