Love and Rockets: New Stories #5

Love and Rockets

by Gilbert Hernández, Jaime Hernández

How do you follow up a one-two punch like Jaime Hernandez 's stunning two-part masterpiece The Love Bunglers from LRNS #3 and #4, which sent Maggie and Ray 's relationship in a startling new direction, as well as providing some mind-blowing revelations about Maggie 's (and her family s) past? If you re Jaime, you deftly move sideways and switch focus to other characters, specifically Ray 's ex, the rambunctious Frogmouth. In Crime Raiders International Mobsters and Executioners, Mu eca, the Frogmouth 's half-sister, comes to visit for a weekend and sees what kind of life the Frog Princess is living with Reno and Borneo as well as a brand new character or two. On the other-brother side, Gilbert Hernandez celebrates the 30th anniversary by bringing one of his current characters ( Killer, granddaughter to the legendary Luba) into the Palomar milieu in a story that showcases a fictionalized movie Palomar (starring Fritz as a combination of Luba and Tonantz n), even as it brings back a number of the classic Palomar characters for real. This will be a much-anticipated homecoming for fans of the classic Love and Rockets of the 1980s. Thirty years in, Love and Rockets continues to surprise and delight.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Sequential Art, Graphic Novels Comics, Comix, Queer

96 pages, Paperback

First published September 5, 2012

About the author

Gilbert and his brother Jaime Hernández mostly publish their separate storylines together in Love And Rockets and are often referred to as 'Los Bros Hernandez'.

Gilbert Hernandez is an American cartoonist best known for the Palomar and Heartbreak Soup stories in Love and Rockets, the groundbreaking alternative comic series he created with his brothers Jaime and Mario. Raised in Oxnard, California in a lively household shaped by comics, rock music and a strong creative streak, he developed an early fascination with graphic storytelling. His influences ranged from Marvel legends Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko to the humor and clarity of Hank Ketcham and the Archie line, as well as the raw energy of the underground comix that entered his life through his brother Mario.
In 1981 the brothers self-published the first issue of Love and Rockets, which quickly drew the attention of Fantagraphics Books. The series became a defining work of the independent comics movement, notable for its punk spirit, emotional depth and multiracial cast. Gilbert's Palomar stories, centered on the residents of a fictional Latin American village, combined magic realism with soap-opera intimacy and grew into an ambitious narrative cycle admired for its complex characters and bold storytelling. Works like Human Diastrophism helped solidify his reputation as one of the medium's most inventive voices.
Across periods when Love and Rockets was on hiatus, Hernandez built out a parallel body of work, creating titles such as New Love, Luba, and Luba's Comics and Stories, as well as later graphic novels including Sloth and The Troublemakers. He also collaborated with Peter Bagge on the short-lived series Yeah! and continued to explore new directions in Love and Rockets: New Stories.
Celebrated for his portrayal of independent women and for his distinctive blend of realism and myth, Hernandez remains a major figure in contemporary comics and a lasting influence on generations of artists.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Half the book is taken up the best story in this collection, 'Proof That The Devil Loves You', see 'Beto take Killer, sad girl and Pipo back to Palomar which is as weird (magical real?) as ever. As well as other Palomar shorts by 'Beto, Jaime focuses on Vivian (Frogmouth) and her sister Tonta. This universe just keeps on expanding! 8 out of 12 Four Stars.
Here's the amazing Latino creative team.

2017 and 2016 read

[Sam Quixote · Rating 3 out of 5]

With Love and Rockets, I usually prefer Gilbert’s comics over Jaime’s (though Jaime’s the better artist) but surprisingly I enjoyed Jaime’s comics more in New Stories #5.

Jaime tells the story of clownish teenager Tonta (Spanish for “dumb” - subtle!) who lusts after Eric Lopez, the dreamy singer of a local band. The longest episode was also the best: when Tonta and her much hotter half-sister Vivian get mixed up with an elderly gangster who decides to court VIvi and Tonta has to pretend to be her on the phone. It’s a funny, entertaining story with lots of hepped-up melodrama.

The Hernandez Brothers’ world is kind of wonderful in that there are lots of weird people living in the wild somehow. Tonta stumbles across a deformed girl nicknamed “Medusa” who swims in the local lake with a mannequin’s head on a stick! It’s such a strange story but oddly compelling.

Gilbert’s stories are much more maudlin and dull and as usual they’re centred in the remote Central American village of Palomar. The stories jump around in time: Chelo is the just local sheriff and then she’s retired and replaced by a much more thuggish sheriff who stirs up trouble. Despite the bizarre character of Bula, another homeless eccentric who lives in a tree, and her irreverent antics, the stories are quite depressing: characters die viciously and pointlessly while others pine desperately to escape their lives – and fail.

I also noticed more than usual how juvenile Gilbert’s art is with his absurdly ginormous-breasted women and stupidly balloon-muscled men, as well as how plain and empty his panels are with barely any background drawn.

The good thing about Love and Rockets: New Stories is that if one brother isn’t on, the other is, so you get to read at least half a decent book. If you fancy reading a fun, Latino Stray Bullets-esque story, Love and Rockets: New Stories #5 is worth a look.

[Chelsea Martinez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've mentioned before that I'm reading these out of order, which makes my head spin whenever I read about Palomar and remaking movies about the moviemaking career of Killer's ancestors. I'm fascinated by the dance teacher and the sheriff in that storyline though. There seem to be an increasing number of story chunks in these volumes (8 this time, 25 in the next!) which maybe makes it more like a compendium of the older comic-length books.
**Somewhere outside the US border
**Proof that the Devil Loves You
**And Back Again
Special note: I love that Tonta can wear Vivi's lingerie and it fits.

[Bridget · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love some Bros Hernandez but this book was not my favorite. I still vastly prefer Jamie to Gilbert and since this was mostly Gilbert, I was not pleased. I just find his stories way too much of moving target of non sequitors.

[Charlotte Paris · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was my first Love and Rockets and probably my last. I struggled to get past the male gaze here, women are almost always half-dressed in hot pants and gravity-defying proportions, while the men stroll around fully clothed in jackets. They must run cold. Much of the story seems to hinge on how attractive or unattractive the women are at any given moment.

It’s a shame, because I genuinely enjoy the weirdness of the world and its eccentric characters. It even passes the Bechdel Test, and women technically run the show, but the framing undercuts that power at every turn. The result is disjointed but entertaining in its chaos, and yet ultimately too steeped in casual misogyny for me to want to keep reading.

[Rene Low · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mostly crap

[James Kinsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's thirty years since Love & Rockets first appeared, and throughout that time, the Hernandez Brothers have consistently turned out some of the finest work in comics, if not in literature in general. I've been hooked ever since the Fritz and Petra issue of Luba's Comics And Stories first caught my eye. Strong female characters, stories that can be funny, sexy, action-packed and heart-breaking, and a cast that have aged (and in some cases matured) along with their audience are just some of the key features of Love & Rockets, along with striking and beautiful b&w artwork. Vol 5 of New Stories takes us back to Gilbert Hernandez' Palomar with Luba's granddaughter, and Jamie Hernandez focuses on Frogmouth - both showing that even when the stories aren't following the headliners, they can still enchant, amuse and move. This may not be the easiest point to jump into their world, but it may be as good as any - the joy comes not in any one volume, but the bigger picture that these volumes contribute to. My own experience was one of just jumping in, and then filling in the blanks in history at the same time as following the stories forward. When the day comes that there are no more Love & Rockets stories to be told, we will be left with one of the finest collected works in any medium, one that has pushed the boundaries of comic books more than any other, and shown beyond any doubt that comics are no other medium's poor relation.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must admit I do not enjoy the new Love and Rockets as much as I enjoy the collections. But I think that is just because I prefer longer stories to shorter ones. This is a fairly slim graphic novel that is divided up into 5 stories. Having read Gilbert's Palomar series I'm getting more out of his stories than when I first started reading them. But I must admit the cast of characters is so big I spend a lot of time trying to remember who everyone is and how they are related. The story is (mostly) followable without remembering but it is much better when you can remember all the connections. Jamie's story mostly focuses on his new character of Frogmouth, who honestly I find a little annoying. But this time he introduces us to her younger sister, whose a funny looking wannabe punk and I enjoyed her stories much more. The third issue of this series remains the best for me as it had just such an amazing heartbreakingly good story. But it is still nice to read these and get new stories.

[Tucker Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

No comic is as great an example of the nature of 2012’s predictability as Love and Rockets, and no volume suffered as much from expectation as this specific volume. It was great, and of course it was, because it’s them, and it was great for all the same reasons you’d expect it to be, and while it lacked the double album wall-of-speakers grandeur of last year’s installment (or 2010’s “Browntown”, for that matter), that wasn’t a surprise either: Jaime had resolved his one major 30-year-old open loop, and there aren’t a lot of those available. And that’s how it was for a lot of comics this year–you got what you expected, or something wearing the thing that you expected’s clothes. The difference here was that it’s the Hernandez Brothers. When they sit around the house … you get the drift.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

There isn't, in my opinion, a better piece of Xaime's work to recommend than "The Love Bunglers". Luckily it is coming out soon in a singular volume but here is where one can go for the conclusion of a very long winding path through the lives of 2 people with a lot of life behind them that has clouded their thinking. I haven't cried at the closing of a graphic novel more than a few times, this being the last.

If a reader is looking for a story that wraps you up in the thinking and bumbling of people whose emotional lives we don't have to clean up, READ THIS.

Xaime deserves all the accolades that come with this work.

[Ruz El · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not as good as the last volume, but then how could it be? Volume 4 was possibly the best book to come out in the past 10 years, period. This one is still strong though. Beto returns to Palomar and we reaquainted with old friends through the eyes of a great grand child. That this story is continuing to unfold practically in real time from 30 years ago is staggering. Wonderful stuff as always. Jaime is just as strong with a Frogmouth story that feels like a fresh start. No Maggie and Hopey, but I'm sure they'll turn up eventually.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fine collection by Los Bros Hernandez. They do seem to get better and better with age. Gilbert's tales come full circle here with more Palomar and the continual self-referencing of other stories within stories. It can get quite confusing! I sense another epic in the offing?

Jaime focuses on some of his other characters after the emotional turmoil of the last couple of issues. Great artwork and writing as ever. Nice to catch up with Doyle and find out more about his past. But still no Hopey....

Volume Six awaits....

[Derek Royal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reread in preparation of L&R: New Stories #6, which just came out. While I'm glad to see Gilbert returning to Palomar, I still can't help but think that lately Beto's storytelling just isn't what it used to be. Maybe "different" rather than "worse" would be the better way of putting it. For the past several issues of L&R, though, I just think Jaime has been more engaging to me, and more consistently so. I look forward to see what effect #6 bring.

[Matt Sabonis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stuff, as always. The return to Palomar was welcome, as always, even if it ended in such a nihilistically violent fashion (I shouldn't have been surprised). Vivian's half-sister, Tonta, was a great new character, and it was great to see some more of Doyle's story. I love every time I get to come back to the world of Love & Rockets.

[Allie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, may the Love & Rockets saga never end! Every time I pick up a new volume I just end up wanting to re-read the previous 30 years of it. The highlights here were returning to Palomar, and seeing Doyle again, but sadly little development with Maggie and Hopey. But the Hernandez brothers own my soul, so they can really do whatever they want these days.

[Jay Daze · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okay installment overall. Jaime is solid as usual, I love how trouble-some of a character Frogmouth is. Gilbert is usually my prefered Hernandez brother, love his cartoon grotesques , but felt (at least on my first reading) that this Palomar installment just meandered rather than having much to say.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stylistically Gilbert Hernandez's stuff is harder for me to get into than Jamie Hernandez's stuff, but I'm starting to dig it. This was also the first Love and Rockets I read where Maggie wasn't a main character, but Vivian "Frogmouth" Solis and her half sister are intriguing as well. A solid 3.5 stars.

[Centauri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to be honest, I had a difficult time following the story. I do not claim it has to do with how the story is written but it does; it cannot stand alone. #5 is NOT where one should start reading the series. I should have started at #1 but alas, it was decent and intriguing enough I do want to start with #1 but it will wait for a later time

[Mark Schlatter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Jaime stuff was great (as always), but the central Gilbert story took a second reading for me to appreciate and, after that, I wasn't sure it was worth it to me. I've gotten tired of stand-ins for Luba.

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I don't know if it's because I accidentally started on #5 or what, but I really didn't like this. Maybe if I started from #1 I'd get the humor behind it but it really fell flat with me and to be honest I kind of found some of it offensive. I will see if I can find #1 to give it another try.

[Mary Havens · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm assuming this is part of a continual series because I had no idea what was going on. Quickly abandoned it after figuring out the entire graphic novel continued this plot. As far as I know, there aren't any more of these stories at the library sooooo...

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been following Los Bros Hernandez for over 20 years now,and Love & Rockets is still the most consistently engrossing,amazing comic series I've read.

[Anthony Faber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Typical Hernandez brothers stuff. Good.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars for the Jaime stuff, 2 for the Beto stuff.