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Palomar
Human Diastrophism
Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2007, Love and Rockets is finally being released in its most accessible form yet: As a series of compact, thick, affordable, mass-market volumes that present the whole story in perfect chronological order.
This volume will collect the second half 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 twentieth Century by The Comics Journal, and continuing on through more modern-day classics.
"Human Diastrophism" is the only full graphic novel length "Palomar" story ever created by Gilbert. In it, a serial killer stalks Palomar—but his depredations, hideous as they are, only serve to exacerbate the cracks in the idyllic Central American town as the modern world begins to intrude. "Diastrophism" concludes with the death (the suicide, in fact) of one of Palomar's most beloved characters, and a postscript that provides one of the most hauntingly magical moments of the entire series as a rain of ashes drifts down upon Palomar.
Also included are all the post-"Diastrophism" stories, in which Luba's past (as seen in the epic Poison River) comes back to haunt her, and the seeds are sown for the "Palomar diaspora" that ends this dense, enthralling book.
This volume will collect the second half 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 twentieth Century by The Comics Journal, and continuing on through more modern-day classics.
"Human Diastrophism" is the only full graphic novel length "Palomar" story ever created by Gilbert. In it, a serial killer stalks Palomar—but his depredations, hideous as they are, only serve to exacerbate the cracks in the idyllic Central American town as the modern world begins to intrude. "Diastrophism" concludes with the death (the suicide, in fact) of one of Palomar's most beloved characters, and a postscript that provides one of the most hauntingly magical moments of the entire series as a rain of ashes drifts down upon Palomar.
Also included are all the post-"Diastrophism" stories, in which Luba's past (as seen in the epic Poison River) comes back to haunt her, and the seeds are sown for the "Palomar diaspora" that ends this dense, enthralling book.
288 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2005
39 people are currently reading
448 people want to read
About the author
Gilbert Hernández
431 books420 followersGilbert 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.
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.
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May 23, 2013
I wish a big giant earthquake would swallow up everybody in this stupid town except for me and Martin... Ok, except for me, Martin and all the babies.... Okay, AND all the old people wouldn't get swallowed... Ok, or all the cats and dogs... And my mom and dad... Ok, AND...
A young woman walks with her arms behind her back and head bent to play the taunts and hurts of the young men in her town somewhere below the US border. Above the shoulders she is reassuring herself in frustration. They really were annoying little pricks. Below the past knee length skirt she's headed to raise her meek widened face just before the blank mustached face is doing what it is too late to ask hey, what are you doing? I didn't remember Chancla who was looking for her brother. I remembered the open mouthed face of the young man artist who furiously catches flies on his cat gotten tongue. I almost laughed when he pores over the masters art books and bemoans that he'll never be as good as those guys. You asshole goes his townsman who will never be good as him. I did laugh when fellow Palomarian and (I guess?) friend Augustin points out that sure everyone hates him, rightly blames him for keeping silent about what he saw happen to the girl (she's fished out of the river and I can see her guttered face going Ok, and the strapping you man who fished me out...). I liked their wide faces going Ok, remind me of what I have to do. It has been a long time since I visited Palomar. I know that I reviewed at least the Heartbreak Soup collection several years ago (remind me to say that Love & Rockets strips were collected into large volumes and Human Diastrophism is the second such book, and includes strips from 1983-1993). If it survived my 2012 cultural revolution of review deletion I don't know. I know there isn't any way that I came close to getting it right. Every story yearning I've ever had, every move to belong somewhere, to belong with other people.
My heart fell to the ground when I went back.
The serial killer who dumps Chancla into the river has a face that stares behind his prison mustache. He's exercising and a guard is taunting him that he'll never see another woman again. One story strip they catch him in a mob of this is the guy, get him! He's quietly staring across at Luba the owner of the bathhouse and movie theater. Luba denies that she ever met the guy. The people of Palomar taunt her youngest daughter (I forget how many she has. It seems like nine).
Luba has a drawn face and sunken treasure boobs. One of her lovers assures her that she's the most beautiful woman in the world. It would be the wrong thing to say and she dances or sags beneath temporary promises of love. If I didn't have all of these girls. I would wish that it was when her daughter Guadalupe was a pig-tailed brat hoping to not upset mama. She loves her mama with all of her heart. Before she and others run away to the USA. Before the oldest daughter Maricela runs away with her lover the prematurely embittered old Riri. I missed the Heartbreak Soup Palomar that was my longed for home and when Riri comes back, dumped, she hides behind houses and finds the new little ones to mutter to. What did I wish for? I know that when I read Heartbreak Soup what I really wanted was for Carmen and the gang to be jumping off rocks and playing football as kids again. I loved that they would be kids again before their hearts are broken. Now Maricela sits on the sofa beside her mother she is doomed to hate. The sagged shoulders of but today is a good day and I love my girls Luba doesn't see how it could be any different. There was something that grabbed my heart and twisted it. This feeling is in every person walking around Palomar.
They taunt her daughter that she is the serial killer's daughter. Another of her children, Casimira, lost her arm to an accident perpetrated by sheriff Chelo. Luba's ardent admirer Jesus, recently released from prison (I kind of wish I reviewed these in different books so I could talk about how I felt about the men wandering around in their island prison) looks at her and says "Good girl" after he prompts her if she accepted it was an accident. He was in prison after a violent accident (he says) perpetrated by him on his ex-wife and daughter. He watched Luba from afar and he's one of the admirers that can't feed her face enough to not feel the years. The kid accepting an accident wouldn't feed him long enough past haunting either. I was more interested in the kid who uses her prosthetic arm to chase off what she can't feed. One of my favorite parts is her dream that she is in the future and witnessing her siblings attending her funeral. Casimira, the daughter of the serial killer. They hold her prosthetic arm and remember their childhood and then she runs furiously away back to reality, arm swinging. My chest felt the tightening again.
I remember envying most of all Diana, the teenage younger sister of Tonantzin. She goes to school and likes to run. Older she is injured and has to give up running. She favors body building and in the USA she becomes rich and famous, chased for multi-millionaire marriage proposals from Arab princes. I didn't want the Pipo wear clothing line success and TV fitness shows. How could she give up running like it never meant anything?
I didn't want the serial killer and the glamour and Pipo with big hair and snapping lips. I know I felt it all the time of when Pipo was a little girl and didn't yet let the boys tell her she couldn't be good at football anymore when she changed into a skirt. I know that all of the time it was the sad moments that people liked being assholes too much to not taunt that little girl about who her father was. The heartbreak of people dating everyone else and no one finding true love I would take that and have no problem. Carmen opens the door to find her husband's daughter is Gaudalupe. I liked that they were related.
Tontantzin dresses up in traditional Indian garb. She is read to the letters she thinks her prison love correspondence wrote to her about politics. She can't hear enough about how horrible the world is and the two teenage girls, Maricela and Riri, can't be close to her enough. I was saddened that she dies in a glamorous protest fire, that her friends and sister discuss the crazy illiterate woman who can't hear enough about the world. I remembered the older story when she believes she can be a movie star because one conniving photographer told her she resembled Sophia Loren. Every time she asked one of those old Palomar men if she reminded them of Sophia Loren I loved her more. Why did it have to get old and die and running never meant anything and Tontantzin wasn't going to mean anything more than antics. I know there was a lot of shitty people in Palomar too. What was it I missed? That I knew that pain came from some place that wanted? I feel like Riri slinking back and not even visiting her own parents who hadn't seen her in so many years. I feel like Chancla wandering around lost and wishing everyone would go to hell except ok maybe I still like them they just hurt like hell. And that was the feeling I probably had all along anyway and I was hoping it was going to feel good only stuff hurts like hell most of the time.
It is hard to review a ton of comic strips in one review. Years before I read any of Beto's stuff I loved his brother Jaime's Love & Rockets books. I'm pretty sure that it isn't just me that considers Beto to be the better writer and Jaime the better illustrator. Something about how their bodies develop over time. I could hug Maggie's body that gets bigger and her heart gets bigger as time pulls on her self centeredness. Beto's pictures look like sulking faces and what it would look like to try and go home again as you outgrow every day what you're living in. Bodies in tight clothes and too close and people looking at that guy they can't have and that woman who you think has what you want and when you were a kid and it is ugly angry and cute frustrated and give them a hug already. That's how they make me feel when I've been reading them in a stretch. I think people look more interesting after you've known them for a bit and know what looks like what. I don't really want to compare Beto and Jaime, though. I love them both. Why did I start doing that? Probably the same reason that Hector holds his head in his hands over his art books and mourns what he doesn't think he can have. I feel some kind of twisting organ player and I look between them back and forth like a ping pong ball for my closeness and human real stuff. Maggie pissed me off, Pipo pissed me off. Yet if Pipo could piss me off I knew it was only because I cared enough to be disappointed that she's riding around in a sports car and firing her seamstresses.
There's another series "Beyond Palomar" that I haven't read about Luba before she moves there. If she goes to Palomar to start her bath house she could ask if they had a vacancy for a back scrubber. I like it here can I stay?
July 29, 2021
Human Diastrophism collects stories from Love & Rockets Bonanza, Love & Rockets 21-26, 41-48, 50, and 10 Years of Love & Rockets.
Here we are, my second foray into Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar tales. The seventeen tales within cover various points in the lives of the people of Palmor, most of them introduced in the first volume.
Palomar, the sleepy Central American town without phone service, is locked in the grip of a serial killer in the titular story and is later ravaged by an earthquake. The rest of the stories are of the human interest or relationship variety. Without giving too much of the plot away, people move forward, questions are answered, and still more questions come up. Unexpected twists abound and no one is left unscathed, except maybe Tipin Tipin.
Gilbert Hernandez' art evolved a bit from the first volume. I see some Archie comics influence, as well as Peanuts, and some Alex Toth. There are also some backgrounds that are pretty spectacular.
There is an even larger cast of characters in this volume than in the first one but thankfully Gilbert included a cast page at the beginning and at the end. I thought maybe the large cast was a weakness in the first book but now I think it gives Gilbert more directions to do in.
Human Diastrophism. Five out of five stars. I'm glad I have so many volumes left.
Here we are, my second foray into Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar tales. The seventeen tales within cover various points in the lives of the people of Palmor, most of them introduced in the first volume.
Palomar, the sleepy Central American town without phone service, is locked in the grip of a serial killer in the titular story and is later ravaged by an earthquake. The rest of the stories are of the human interest or relationship variety. Without giving too much of the plot away, people move forward, questions are answered, and still more questions come up. Unexpected twists abound and no one is left unscathed, except maybe Tipin Tipin.
Gilbert Hernandez' art evolved a bit from the first volume. I see some Archie comics influence, as well as Peanuts, and some Alex Toth. There are also some backgrounds that are pretty spectacular.
There is an even larger cast of characters in this volume than in the first one but thankfully Gilbert included a cast page at the beginning and at the end. I thought maybe the large cast was a weakness in the first book but now I think it gives Gilbert more directions to do in.
Human Diastrophism. Five out of five stars. I'm glad I have so many volumes left.
August 31, 2017
So it takes only two volumes of the reissued Love And Rockets for the promised "perfect chronological order" to break down. The linked cycle of stories about the enforcer Gorgo that take up the second half of this volume play off the epic "Poison River", and a big chunk of Maricela's story happens in the LA-based "X" - both of which stories are held over until Vol.3 of the Gilbert Hernandez material. This makes Human Diastrophism, as an individual volume, a good deal less user-friendly - but that was inevitable. This volume also marks the point at which Hernandez' sprawling universe of interlinked characters, chronologies and fictional layers fractures, abandoning its sometime focal point, the village of Palomar.
Except that's a little too easy. From early on, characters cycled in and out of Palomar - some of the best early "Palomar stories" involved the cast's fortunes outside the village. The publication order of the stories, with "Poison River" running alongside many of these shorter pieces, made it clear that by this point Hernandez' vehicle was Luba and her wider family, and her 20-year sojourn in Palomar was just part of that far bigger canvas. And as early as "An American In Palomar", Hernandez was exploring the tension between the convenient fiction of the self-contained village, its reception by American audiences (his readers included), and the messier, more complex stories he wanted to tell.
"Human Diastrophism" brings that tension to a head, stretching Palomar to breaking point, in fictional, metafictional and structural terms. The village is plagued by monkeys and murders, its dysfunctional families are breaking apart, and its magic realism and family saga genres are also breached by that most crassly American of tropes, the serial killer story. Meanwhile, readers used to wise and whimsical one- and two-parters were suddenly asked to cope with a 100+ page story with a far larger cast and far more demanding storytelling techniques.
The fact that many apparently balked (and "Poison River" got an even more boggled reception) is a reminder that the 80s golden era of independent comics didn't necessarily take its readers with it at the time. "Human Diastrophism" is a masterpiece, a unique combination of a creator paying off years of emotional investment in his characters while simultaneously accelerating wildly in his storytelling ambition. It's also brilliant at fucking with its audience, misdirecting them as to the type of story they're reading and the directions plots are heading in, so that what happens at the end is more upsetting and shocking. It's not the serial killing which breaks Palomar's spell - the point of magic realism is to be omnivorous, to absorb even horrible stories into its patchwork - but the fatal incursion of the political (which turns out, tragically, to be just another story itself).
The second half of the book has a few Palomar follow-ups, tying off the Jesus Angel storyline among other elements. But it's dominated by the Gorgo cycle of stories. "Human Diastrophism" has a tight focus in time and place but switches focus continually among a sprawling cast. The Gorgo stories follow a handful of characters - mainly Luba's mother Maria, Maria's children, and cadaverous gangster Gorgo himself - but leap wildly about in time and place, demanding careful attention from the reader and a willingness to think about the hidden connections between each shift of scene and era. It's a more distancing way of telling a story, letting us form incomplete judgements on characters and their relationships before shifting the picture with new information. It's not as successful as "Human Diastrophism", but it feels even bolder.
Except that's a little too easy. From early on, characters cycled in and out of Palomar - some of the best early "Palomar stories" involved the cast's fortunes outside the village. The publication order of the stories, with "Poison River" running alongside many of these shorter pieces, made it clear that by this point Hernandez' vehicle was Luba and her wider family, and her 20-year sojourn in Palomar was just part of that far bigger canvas. And as early as "An American In Palomar", Hernandez was exploring the tension between the convenient fiction of the self-contained village, its reception by American audiences (his readers included), and the messier, more complex stories he wanted to tell.
"Human Diastrophism" brings that tension to a head, stretching Palomar to breaking point, in fictional, metafictional and structural terms. The village is plagued by monkeys and murders, its dysfunctional families are breaking apart, and its magic realism and family saga genres are also breached by that most crassly American of tropes, the serial killer story. Meanwhile, readers used to wise and whimsical one- and two-parters were suddenly asked to cope with a 100+ page story with a far larger cast and far more demanding storytelling techniques.
The fact that many apparently balked (and "Poison River" got an even more boggled reception) is a reminder that the 80s golden era of independent comics didn't necessarily take its readers with it at the time. "Human Diastrophism" is a masterpiece, a unique combination of a creator paying off years of emotional investment in his characters while simultaneously accelerating wildly in his storytelling ambition. It's also brilliant at fucking with its audience, misdirecting them as to the type of story they're reading and the directions plots are heading in, so that what happens at the end is more upsetting and shocking. It's not the serial killing which breaks Palomar's spell - the point of magic realism is to be omnivorous, to absorb even horrible stories into its patchwork - but the fatal incursion of the political (which turns out, tragically, to be just another story itself).
The second half of the book has a few Palomar follow-ups, tying off the Jesus Angel storyline among other elements. But it's dominated by the Gorgo cycle of stories. "Human Diastrophism" has a tight focus in time and place but switches focus continually among a sprawling cast. The Gorgo stories follow a handful of characters - mainly Luba's mother Maria, Maria's children, and cadaverous gangster Gorgo himself - but leap wildly about in time and place, demanding careful attention from the reader and a willingness to think about the hidden connections between each shift of scene and era. It's a more distancing way of telling a story, letting us form incomplete judgements on characters and their relationships before shifting the picture with new information. It's not as successful as "Human Diastrophism", but it feels even bolder.
December 18, 2022
Love and Rockets
“Up the stalk of the night that you loved, that I loved, creeps my torn prayer, rent and mended, uncertain and unsure... Without a place and with a place to rest - living darkly with no ray of light - I burn myself away.”
A Latino soap opera with lots and lots of pechos. I’m talking mucho pechos. 66 of them! (Yes I counted 😞)
The artwork is fantastic but the plot was difficult for me to follow. There are over 40 different characters, some of them very similar in appearance, and the non-linear, time-traveling, loop-de-loop arc of the storyline made my head hurt. Add to that the nonchalant episodes of animal cruelty (yes, I know the monkeys were a metaphor, but graphically slaughtering them without remorse was both tasteless and heartless) and I’m not planning on returning to Palomar anytime soon.
“Up the stalk of the night that you loved, that I loved, creeps my torn prayer, rent and mended, uncertain and unsure... Without a place and with a place to rest - living darkly with no ray of light - I burn myself away.”
A Latino soap opera with lots and lots of pechos. I’m talking mucho pechos. 66 of them! (Yes I counted 😞)
The artwork is fantastic but the plot was difficult for me to follow. There are over 40 different characters, some of them very similar in appearance, and the non-linear, time-traveling, loop-de-loop arc of the storyline made my head hurt. Add to that the nonchalant episodes of animal cruelty (yes, I know the monkeys were a metaphor, but graphically slaughtering them without remorse was both tasteless and heartless) and I’m not planning on returning to Palomar anytime soon.
June 29, 2020
Somehow this series got even better, especially with the master class storytelling of the 105 pager - Human Diastrophism, the only full graphic novel length "Palomar" story ever created by Gilbert Hernández. The story is one of the best stories I have ever read, the presence of a serial killer amongst them impacts on Palomar in many ways. heart ending and deep and so real! The Magical Realist tales of Palomar and the utterly mesmerising Luba are some of the best comic book story and artwork ever produced in my opinion! Not satisfied with that exceptional work the following stories focused around Luba and her descendants and her past are at times just as miraculous! 10 out of 12 overall, although Human Diastrophism got an 11 out of 12 from me.
August 1, 2017
Oh man. I'm not sure what happened. I really enjoyed the first volume of Gilbert's Palomar stories. I don't think I put enough effort into remembering all of the characters.
I think I'll try re-reading the first volume before trying this one again. I really want to continue reading more Love and Rockets stuff.
I think I'll try re-reading the first volume before trying this one again. I really want to continue reading more Love and Rockets stuff.
July 25, 2017
I almost didn't buy this book. I read volume one after learning about the out-of-print graphic novel Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories, and hearing such outstanding reviews. I knew that volume one only collected about half, and this one (volume two) collected the rest, but I was just slightly underwhelmed enough by the first half that I decided it was satisfactory enough. But the comic store I regularly visit had a special and I was able to get a graphic novel free after buying a certain amount, so I decided, "Why the hell not?" I liked volume one enough to be intrigued to find out more, and I'm definitely glad I did. It's a pity that Fantagraphics decided to spread the story over two volumes upon republication, because I don't think the serene beauty of Palomar can truly be captured unless you have all the stories at your disposal. I certainly didn't understand the brilliance of the series until I got about halfway through this second volume.
The Palomar stories can best be understood as a telenovela, only on paper instead of a television. There's a lot of overly dramatic events that happen (a crap-ton of sexual scandals, plot-twisty pasts, crimes of passion, unlikely streaks of enormous luck), all with a large cast of complex characters (all of whom we grow incredibly attached to), told over the course of more than a decade. We watch characters we were introduced to as children grow up and start families of their own, or sometimes FAIL to start families of their own, and they're all defined by their past experiences, just like real people. Despite the establishment of realistic characters, however, the world around them is a bit more surreal than ours: wish-granting trees, immortal family protectors, and magical eye-stealing crows are all established parts of the world of Palomar. Yet it works very naturally in the overdramatized events that take place in an otherwise recognizable world. One of the strong points of these stories is the depiction of a small, "unimportant" town displaced from the outside "modernized" world. In volume one, the town gets its first movie theater, even though the movies obtained from the "outside" world are usually not the requested ones due to the difficulty finding them. In this collection, we see extensive bickering between the two matriarchs of Palomar over whether or not to finally get a landline for the town. A lot of what I (and most of us) take for granted in life are things that Palomar doesn't have--and yet they aren't bothered by this. Many a book that take place in a similar setting would focus on issues of unclean water, inadequate medical care, and other varieties of poverty porn. But none of that is the case in these stories; the citizens of Palomar have only the same desires and concerns as all of us do. Reversely, the white "civilized" world isn't completely shown to be evil, corrupted, or overwhelmingly seductive. At its worst, the white tourists and, later, the Californians, are just ignorant and misguided. It's a refreshing take that doesn't criticize nor romanticize either way of life, just portrays both as having strengths and flaws--much like all societies are at their most basic. I think I'm especially impressed by sexual fluidity exhibited in some of the characters, and how none of it is at all portrayed scandalously, no major plot points revolve around "coming out" or disownment, and most of it is shown so subtly and casually that the only evidence we get to certain characters' sexualities are brief scenes where we see them interact with a lover. This would be impressive enough for a book written today, but all of these stories were being churned out from the early '80s to the mid '90s.
In short, I'm so glad that I decided to finish reading the Palomar stories. They are simple, beautiful, and so subtly clever that the brilliance of the plots and character development will sneak up on you. If you like reading graphic novels that aren't centered around the typical stories of good vs. evil, an epic quest, or having to achieve a life-altering goal, I cannot suggest Palomar enough. I definitely want to check out more of Los Bros Hernandez's works in other Love and Rockets collections.
The Palomar stories can best be understood as a telenovela, only on paper instead of a television. There's a lot of overly dramatic events that happen (a crap-ton of sexual scandals, plot-twisty pasts, crimes of passion, unlikely streaks of enormous luck), all with a large cast of complex characters (all of whom we grow incredibly attached to), told over the course of more than a decade. We watch characters we were introduced to as children grow up and start families of their own, or sometimes FAIL to start families of their own, and they're all defined by their past experiences, just like real people. Despite the establishment of realistic characters, however, the world around them is a bit more surreal than ours: wish-granting trees, immortal family protectors, and magical eye-stealing crows are all established parts of the world of Palomar. Yet it works very naturally in the overdramatized events that take place in an otherwise recognizable world. One of the strong points of these stories is the depiction of a small, "unimportant" town displaced from the outside "modernized" world. In volume one, the town gets its first movie theater, even though the movies obtained from the "outside" world are usually not the requested ones due to the difficulty finding them. In this collection, we see extensive bickering between the two matriarchs of Palomar over whether or not to finally get a landline for the town. A lot of what I (and most of us) take for granted in life are things that Palomar doesn't have--and yet they aren't bothered by this. Many a book that take place in a similar setting would focus on issues of unclean water, inadequate medical care, and other varieties of poverty porn. But none of that is the case in these stories; the citizens of Palomar have only the same desires and concerns as all of us do. Reversely, the white "civilized" world isn't completely shown to be evil, corrupted, or overwhelmingly seductive. At its worst, the white tourists and, later, the Californians, are just ignorant and misguided. It's a refreshing take that doesn't criticize nor romanticize either way of life, just portrays both as having strengths and flaws--much like all societies are at their most basic. I think I'm especially impressed by sexual fluidity exhibited in some of the characters, and how none of it is at all portrayed scandalously, no major plot points revolve around "coming out" or disownment, and most of it is shown so subtly and casually that the only evidence we get to certain characters' sexualities are brief scenes where we see them interact with a lover. This would be impressive enough for a book written today, but all of these stories were being churned out from the early '80s to the mid '90s.
In short, I'm so glad that I decided to finish reading the Palomar stories. They are simple, beautiful, and so subtly clever that the brilliance of the plots and character development will sneak up on you. If you like reading graphic novels that aren't centered around the typical stories of good vs. evil, an epic quest, or having to achieve a life-altering goal, I cannot suggest Palomar enough. I definitely want to check out more of Los Bros Hernandez's works in other Love and Rockets collections.
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December 1, 2023This volume in Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar/Luba storyline from Love and Rockets contains the storylines in which he slowly shifted the focus from the imaginary Latin American village of Palomar to the diaspora through which many of its inhabitants settle in Los Angeles. The story of the successive tragedies in Palomar that precipitate this migration to the U.S. is truly devastating.
We begin with the titular graphic novel length story, "Human Diastrophism", in which Palomar is struck by a strange plague of monkeys as a serial killer stalks its streets. The toll this takes on the lives of its inhabitants is embodied in the arc of Tonantzin Villaseñor, the young seller of Babosas (fried slugs) who has for many years been dubbed the village floozy because of her beauty and vigorous sexual appetite. Tonantzin begins a strange correspondence with an imprisoned man who once threatened her life, which sparks in her a political awakening - an obsession with the wrongs of American imperialism and the threat of nuclear war that intensifies to the point of apparent madness as the death and destruction to which Palomar is victim spirals her into despair. At the climax of this story, the beginning of Palomar's decline is embodied in a tragedy that I won't spoil for anyone who hasn't read it - one of the real pinnacles of Beto's always masterful storytelling abilities.
In the subsequent years, more of Palomar's inhabitants emigrate to California, and Beto devotes a major portion of the story to an engaging depiction of Latin American culture in L.A., especially Spanish-language television and Latine-owned businesses. This world is well-nigh invisible to non-Spanish speakers. When I lived in L.A., for example, I knew lots of folks in L.A. who were only vaguely aware of Spanish language TV networks like Telemundo - a huge chunk of the TV market in California - and it was delightful to read about Palomar's expats entering and thriving in this world. As we learn about the fates of these characters, we also learn about Luba's origins, and are introduced to an entirely new cast of characters: Luba's long-lost sisters and their family, who become central characters as the story's center of gravity shifts from Palomar to the US.
In all of this, Beto's storytelling is incredibly dense and rich. Often, instead of devoting multiple pages to a scene, he will encapsulate it in a single panel, so that from panel to panel we're jumping from one complete scene to another. The effect can be disorienting at first: it flouts the usual conventions of comics. But once you learn how to read much more slowly and carefully, you realize that Beto has become such a master of the comics medium that he can distill a story that would take lesser cartoonists dozens of pages to tell into a single page of panels - however, without losing clarity or becoming any less than completely engaging. In this way, it's clear that during these years of Love and Rockets, Beto became something like the Borges of comics - able to condense enormously complex storylines to their minimal essence, juggling a complex web of themes and dozens of incredibly fascinating characters with enviable deftness.
I know I've been gushing about each volume of Love and Rockets as I've been reading through its 40+ years of development, but I'll say it again: there really isn't anything else like this. Even if you've never seriously considered picking up a comic before, if you're a fan of literature or simply of storytelling, you owe it to yourself to experience it.
We begin with the titular graphic novel length story, "Human Diastrophism", in which Palomar is struck by a strange plague of monkeys as a serial killer stalks its streets. The toll this takes on the lives of its inhabitants is embodied in the arc of Tonantzin Villaseñor, the young seller of Babosas (fried slugs) who has for many years been dubbed the village floozy because of her beauty and vigorous sexual appetite. Tonantzin begins a strange correspondence with an imprisoned man who once threatened her life, which sparks in her a political awakening - an obsession with the wrongs of American imperialism and the threat of nuclear war that intensifies to the point of apparent madness as the death and destruction to which Palomar is victim spirals her into despair. At the climax of this story, the beginning of Palomar's decline is embodied in a tragedy that I won't spoil for anyone who hasn't read it - one of the real pinnacles of Beto's always masterful storytelling abilities.
In the subsequent years, more of Palomar's inhabitants emigrate to California, and Beto devotes a major portion of the story to an engaging depiction of Latin American culture in L.A., especially Spanish-language television and Latine-owned businesses. This world is well-nigh invisible to non-Spanish speakers. When I lived in L.A., for example, I knew lots of folks in L.A. who were only vaguely aware of Spanish language TV networks like Telemundo - a huge chunk of the TV market in California - and it was delightful to read about Palomar's expats entering and thriving in this world. As we learn about the fates of these characters, we also learn about Luba's origins, and are introduced to an entirely new cast of characters: Luba's long-lost sisters and their family, who become central characters as the story's center of gravity shifts from Palomar to the US.
In all of this, Beto's storytelling is incredibly dense and rich. Often, instead of devoting multiple pages to a scene, he will encapsulate it in a single panel, so that from panel to panel we're jumping from one complete scene to another. The effect can be disorienting at first: it flouts the usual conventions of comics. But once you learn how to read much more slowly and carefully, you realize that Beto has become such a master of the comics medium that he can distill a story that would take lesser cartoonists dozens of pages to tell into a single page of panels - however, without losing clarity or becoming any less than completely engaging. In this way, it's clear that during these years of Love and Rockets, Beto became something like the Borges of comics - able to condense enormously complex storylines to their minimal essence, juggling a complex web of themes and dozens of incredibly fascinating characters with enviable deftness.
I know I've been gushing about each volume of Love and Rockets as I've been reading through its 40+ years of development, but I'll say it again: there really isn't anything else like this. Even if you've never seriously considered picking up a comic before, if you're a fan of literature or simply of storytelling, you owe it to yourself to experience it.
May 24, 2023
Still amazing - but I'll need to revisit this volume in the future with some kind of annotated guide. So much plot, explicit and implicit, in a single page. A veritable roller-coaster.
August 4, 2014
I won't lie, I mostly got this book for the artwork. I know people usually overlook Gilbert as an artist and heap praise upon his brother, but I thing Gilbert is the better artist. Jamie's style is just too clean. It's too much like the work of an illustrator. Gilbert's style is very cartoony and comic book like. I like the over exaggeration of the female figure, or the way he draw's people with muscles to be huge. I also liked the way he uses different tools to describe different textures in the story. His way of showing the sky, whether it's rainy, cloudy, or windy, is amazing. I could just look over these pages again and again, and I do!
The storyline is good in the beginning, but for most of it I was lost. I'm glad there is a character guide in the beginning and the end because I had a hard time remembering who was who and how they were related to different characters. One of the main characters, Luba, has several children and I think everyone has a different father. It got a bit hard to remember who was who in that situation. There is also a lot of jumping around in time during the story. This isn't really all that bad but the only way to really notice is if you know what the characters look like to a point that you can recognize them at any age.
The storyline is good in the beginning, but for most of it I was lost. I'm glad there is a character guide in the beginning and the end because I had a hard time remembering who was who and how they were related to different characters. One of the main characters, Luba, has several children and I think everyone has a different father. It got a bit hard to remember who was who in that situation. There is also a lot of jumping around in time during the story. This isn't really all that bad but the only way to really notice is if you know what the characters look like to a point that you can recognize them at any age.
July 25, 2011
Like its predecessor Heartbreak Soup, HD collects material written by Beto Hernandez (of the notorious Hernandez Bros.) originally published in the Love & Rockets comic book. The highlight here is the only novella length piece in the L&R universe, a story about a serial murderer loose in Beto's fictional universe of Palomar (a small Mexican town). The rest of the collection follows the cast of characters back and forward in time. Absolutely standard L&R; if you like the series, you'll like this.
March 13, 2019
The main story, Human Diastrophism, gets 5 out of 5 stars, but some of the other stories bring the final rating down. I actually cried over Tonantzin's fate.
The art is fantastic as usual, except for the absolute obnoxious way that halfway through, apparently every woman's nipples are hard and visible though any amount of clothing at all times. Final gripe: if a person were to take out all the dialogue about, or centered around a woman's appearance, this book would be half as long, if not even shorter than that.
When the real story is going on, it's superb writing.
The art is fantastic as usual, except for the absolute obnoxious way that halfway through, apparently every woman's nipples are hard and visible though any amount of clothing at all times. Final gripe: if a person were to take out all the dialogue about, or centered around a woman's appearance, this book would be half as long, if not even shorter than that.
When the real story is going on, it's superb writing.
July 10, 2020
Human Disastrophism, the centerpiece story to this collection, is a masterpiece, quite possibly the best extended piece of writing in the entire Love and Rockets canon. The rest of this collection that follows it feels like it's a bit out of chronological order- perhaps there's a gap of missing pieces saved for a later collection for storyline purposes. They are still excellent stories, however- Gilbert's Palomar tales are the best kind of magical realist writing there is.
January 23, 2012
Sometimes brilliant, but not often enough. I found the story quite confusing at times, partly due to the jumps in time periods, partly due to the large cast who sometimes look quite similar. Gilbert's art is quite inconsistent: sometimes lovely, sometimes quite rudimentary. I liked it, but didn't love it.
May 19, 2008
Sprawling, discursive, with a huge cast of intertwined characters, the second collection of Palomar stories is not for the casual fan or faint-of-heart. It took me a while to get through this one.
August 29, 2008
I am so happy to have started the Love and Rockets series. The characters are so great. This one is pretty dark and creepy. So many scary things happen, I'm having nightmares.
July 10, 2016
4.5 stars (collection)
5 stars: Human Diastrophism (the story)
5 stars: Human Diastrophism (the story)
December 20, 2018
Really nice and clean art but the time jumping, multiple similar looking characters, and all over the place plot make it hard to follow in parts and disjointed in others.
February 11, 2020
Fantagraphics publishing could really benefit from having more writers, and less visual artists putting together their collections. Love & Rockets isn't the only series they put out that's collected almost nonsensically, but it's the one that suffers the most.
Both Jaime's Locas stories, and Gilbert's Palomar stories hae been told out of order. And their early work isn't written especially well. Either Fantagraphics could just have collected each story in the order it was printed, or they could try and edit it together chronologically. They did neither, leaving an incomprehensible storyline where characters who were dead are alive again because the story takes place earlier, but you can't tell from any other character's appearance.
I nearly gave up on this book several times because I stopped having the ability to care about when each story was supposed to be taking place.
Part of this is on Gilbert. I enjoyed the first Palomar collection because of how it presented the myth of the town. There were some weak parts when he tried to get supernatural, but the personal relationship stories rang true. That changes in this volume.
The crux of the story, "Human Diastrophism", the only graphic novel length story from the early Love & Rockets days just isn't very good. It starts off with a strong premise but it gets constantly sidetracked and by the end of the story, it's unclear what Gilbert was trying to say, why the serial killer was killing people, why the one witness chose to lie about it. I had no idea why they kept involving the monkeys. It was a mess. Followed by stories with characters who died during the main story bein in a conersation on one page, and then being memorialized on the next, as though there's no sene of actual time in Palomar, which may very well be Gilbert's intent, but it makes it frustrating to read.
I'm definitely not going to continue to read Love & Rockets for a while. Maybe I'll eventually come back to it. But for now, I'll have to file it away with Watchmen, R Crumb's work, and The Dark Knight Returns as pieces of art that helped change the comics industry into something I love, but that don't hold up to the work that it inspired.
I recommend this to people who liked 100 Years Of Solitude, which was clearly the inspiration for Palomar. Which should have red-flagged me away.
Both Jaime's Locas stories, and Gilbert's Palomar stories hae been told out of order. And their early work isn't written especially well. Either Fantagraphics could just have collected each story in the order it was printed, or they could try and edit it together chronologically. They did neither, leaving an incomprehensible storyline where characters who were dead are alive again because the story takes place earlier, but you can't tell from any other character's appearance.
I nearly gave up on this book several times because I stopped having the ability to care about when each story was supposed to be taking place.
Part of this is on Gilbert. I enjoyed the first Palomar collection because of how it presented the myth of the town. There were some weak parts when he tried to get supernatural, but the personal relationship stories rang true. That changes in this volume.
The crux of the story, "Human Diastrophism", the only graphic novel length story from the early Love & Rockets days just isn't very good. It starts off with a strong premise but it gets constantly sidetracked and by the end of the story, it's unclear what Gilbert was trying to say, why the serial killer was killing people, why the one witness chose to lie about it. I had no idea why they kept involving the monkeys. It was a mess. Followed by stories with characters who died during the main story bein in a conersation on one page, and then being memorialized on the next, as though there's no sene of actual time in Palomar, which may very well be Gilbert's intent, but it makes it frustrating to read.
I'm definitely not going to continue to read Love & Rockets for a while. Maybe I'll eventually come back to it. But for now, I'll have to file it away with Watchmen, R Crumb's work, and The Dark Knight Returns as pieces of art that helped change the comics industry into something I love, but that don't hold up to the work that it inspired.
I recommend this to people who liked 100 Years Of Solitude, which was clearly the inspiration for Palomar. Which should have red-flagged me away.
August 8, 2020
Interesting book! The first half, ‘Human Diastrophism’, feels like a culmination of the Palomar stories begun in ‘Heartbreak Soup’. The art is very similar, but the storytelling is starting to develop into a more modern Beto style, with frequent cutaways. There's a segue technique where a character in the next scene will be speaking, but you don't know who it is and have to figure it out; it's neat, though it becomes a little fatiguing. Eventually, the whole story begins to feel like one long, sustained climax. Among other new characters, Khamo gets introduced, and Tonantzin plays an increasingly important role.
The second half is a collection of stories written *after* the epic ‘Poison River’ and its companion ‘Love and Rockets X’ (collected in ‘Beyond Palomar’), beginning with the multi-part ‘Farewell, My Palomar’, where Jesus finally returns home from jail. You can really see the increased simplicity in Beto's artistic style; it's a great period for his work. This latter half sets the table for the ‘Luba In America’ trilogy and re-introduces a lot of seed characters like Gorgo (‘the old man’) and Maria, Petra and Fritzi (as little kids), as well as showing us more modern versions of Pipo, Gato, Sergio, Doralis et al. as they begin to establish themselves in America.
I was surprised that Luba doesn't really *do* much as mayor of Palomar. Much is made of the fact that she held the position, but it doesn't play a significant role in any of the stories, except as a background element. Then again, if you read ‘Beyond Palomar’ in its original chronology, between the two halves of this book, you'll have a greater sense of time passing, making this period seem more substantial, even if it's mostly off-screen. ‘L&R X’ includes some Palomar continuity that also helps bridge the two halves.
It's hard to rate this. I love Beto's work and see the Luba Trilogy as a real peak, especially the first volume. If that work is 5 stars, does this work rate less? It's all good, all worth reading. A lot of the material here gets alluded to or recapped in later stories, making it not as essential as one might expect, but it does fill in some gaps. I wish I had been able to read this one in its original order, rather than coming to it backwards.
I would rate this 3.4 stars out of 5.
The second half is a collection of stories written *after* the epic ‘Poison River’ and its companion ‘Love and Rockets X’ (collected in ‘Beyond Palomar’), beginning with the multi-part ‘Farewell, My Palomar’, where Jesus finally returns home from jail. You can really see the increased simplicity in Beto's artistic style; it's a great period for his work. This latter half sets the table for the ‘Luba In America’ trilogy and re-introduces a lot of seed characters like Gorgo (‘the old man’) and Maria, Petra and Fritzi (as little kids), as well as showing us more modern versions of Pipo, Gato, Sergio, Doralis et al. as they begin to establish themselves in America.
I was surprised that Luba doesn't really *do* much as mayor of Palomar. Much is made of the fact that she held the position, but it doesn't play a significant role in any of the stories, except as a background element. Then again, if you read ‘Beyond Palomar’ in its original chronology, between the two halves of this book, you'll have a greater sense of time passing, making this period seem more substantial, even if it's mostly off-screen. ‘L&R X’ includes some Palomar continuity that also helps bridge the two halves.
It's hard to rate this. I love Beto's work and see the Luba Trilogy as a real peak, especially the first volume. If that work is 5 stars, does this work rate less? It's all good, all worth reading. A lot of the material here gets alluded to or recapped in later stories, making it not as essential as one might expect, but it does fill in some gaps. I wish I had been able to read this one in its original order, rather than coming to it backwards.
I would rate this 3.4 stars out of 5.
September 19, 2022
Gilbert Hernandez has an unusual approach to storytelling. He'll spend pages upon pages on characters engaged in nothing more than gossip and chit-chat, but then only give a couple of panels to a development or plot point that seems like it could warrant a whole story arc. As a result, he paradoxically manages to make comics in which not much actually happens that are nonetheless crammed full of plot. I think the explanation for this is that his focus is usually on the big picture, i.e. on creating his characters and telling their life stories: by showing aimless conversations he develops their personalities and relationships, then by quickly introducing major developments he keeps their stories moving forward at a fast pace.
The upshot for me is that his comics are a lot better in aggregate than individually. Some of the shorter pieces in this collection don't feel particularly worthwhile at all when considered in isolation – strips where not much really happens and it's not clear what the point is – but I still find myself engrossed in them, eating up every nugget of new information about the characters' lives, and they contribute significantly to the overall reading experience. There are also parts of this volume that are great in their own right – I particularly enjoy the stories of Luba’s mother and sisters, which throw some fun gangster elements into the mix – but it's as contributions to the overall story that they really shine.
The Palomar stories are like a rich patchwork of different elements – overlapping stories of romance, sex, crime, violence, madness, magic, entrepreneurialism and family drama, all centred on the fictional Latin American village of Palomar and, increasingly, its diaspora. The quality and style of each of the components is variable, but the total effect is great. I’m now completely invested in these characters and their fates, and I can’t wait to read more!
The upshot for me is that his comics are a lot better in aggregate than individually. Some of the shorter pieces in this collection don't feel particularly worthwhile at all when considered in isolation – strips where not much really happens and it's not clear what the point is – but I still find myself engrossed in them, eating up every nugget of new information about the characters' lives, and they contribute significantly to the overall reading experience. There are also parts of this volume that are great in their own right – I particularly enjoy the stories of Luba’s mother and sisters, which throw some fun gangster elements into the mix – but it's as contributions to the overall story that they really shine.
The Palomar stories are like a rich patchwork of different elements – overlapping stories of romance, sex, crime, violence, madness, magic, entrepreneurialism and family drama, all centred on the fictional Latin American village of Palomar and, increasingly, its diaspora. The quality and style of each of the components is variable, but the total effect is great. I’m now completely invested in these characters and their fates, and I can’t wait to read more!
June 25, 2023
Beto Hernandez continues to flesh out the village of Palomar and its many residents with his longer graphic novel length story, Human Diastrophism, alongside some shorter stories. The main story in Human Diastrophism follows Luba as she juggles an old lover coming into town with her current lover, and her straining relationship with her eldest daughter Maricela. Meanwhile Pipo's more audacious choice of clothing brings her at odds with the more conservative sheriff Chelo. And Tonantsin falls for an imprisoned psuedo-revolutionary, which leads her to making some pretty brash decisions. But all of these stories fall under the backdrop of a serial killer stalking the streets of Palomar. But Human Diastrophism isn't really about solving the case of the serial killer - indeed, Beto gives away the answer quite early into the story, rather it's how the external pressures of the world can cause these rather isolated peoples to change their ways. The story is expertly weaving several subplots with a bulky cast of characters, and it reads really well.
The rest of this volume contains several shorter stories, most of which are enjoyable to varying degrees. Some of my favorite shorter segments were stories like "Space Case", "Pipo", "Another Mysterious Tree" and "The Gorgo Wheel", which all do a great job mixing in humor with character development for some minor Palomar characters, as well as seed future storylines to come. Also since this volume doesn't commit to the chronological collection of Beto's portion of Love and Rockets, we actually are treated to a wider variety of art styles by this master cartoonist. While I've always felt that Gilbert's cartooning was more refined compared to Jaime in early issues of Love and Rockets, even Gilbert undergoes noticable changes that are a treat to see unfold.
The rest of this volume contains several shorter stories, most of which are enjoyable to varying degrees. Some of my favorite shorter segments were stories like "Space Case", "Pipo", "Another Mysterious Tree" and "The Gorgo Wheel", which all do a great job mixing in humor with character development for some minor Palomar characters, as well as seed future storylines to come. Also since this volume doesn't commit to the chronological collection of Beto's portion of Love and Rockets, we actually are treated to a wider variety of art styles by this master cartoonist. While I've always felt that Gilbert's cartooning was more refined compared to Jaime in early issues of Love and Rockets, even Gilbert undergoes noticable changes that are a treat to see unfold.
July 26, 2020
FIVE. FIVE. FIVE STARS ALL THE WAY. If you only read one Love & Rockets collection, it has to be this one.
This is anchored by the massive title story, all 100+ pages of it, in which the town of Palomar attempts to find and stop a serial murderer while also depicting a growing pride of history (witness party-girl Tonantzin transform from town vamp to political radical, dressing in ancient tribal garb and allying with the Sandinistas against encroaching American influence), deepening relationships (Heraclio and Carmen’s conflicted relationship goes through many fascinating changes here), and some of the most surreal and beautiful images seen so far – witness their women who sell fried babosas, enormous slug-like creatures that they carry around on giant trays, or the young man who carves naked statues of all the townspeople and deposits them into the bottom of the local lake, ghostly underwater tulpas of the entire town of Palomar.
We see Luba set sights on America and a better life for her kids, as well as other members of the previously insular town start to move north, whether to start fashion lines or to host TV talk shows. Yet somehow, Gilbert’s expanding of the world of Palomar doesn’t dilute the power of these stories. Of the two worlds, Palomar is a place deep in my imagination, one I return to again and again, while also knowing that, as the Contras get ever closer and the lure of financial comfort moves its most beloved characters into other parts of the world, this small, perfect place can’t possibly last.
So let’s enjoy what it is now and let later stories take us where they will.
This is anchored by the massive title story, all 100+ pages of it, in which the town of Palomar attempts to find and stop a serial murderer while also depicting a growing pride of history (witness party-girl Tonantzin transform from town vamp to political radical, dressing in ancient tribal garb and allying with the Sandinistas against encroaching American influence), deepening relationships (Heraclio and Carmen’s conflicted relationship goes through many fascinating changes here), and some of the most surreal and beautiful images seen so far – witness their women who sell fried babosas, enormous slug-like creatures that they carry around on giant trays, or the young man who carves naked statues of all the townspeople and deposits them into the bottom of the local lake, ghostly underwater tulpas of the entire town of Palomar.
We see Luba set sights on America and a better life for her kids, as well as other members of the previously insular town start to move north, whether to start fashion lines or to host TV talk shows. Yet somehow, Gilbert’s expanding of the world of Palomar doesn’t dilute the power of these stories. Of the two worlds, Palomar is a place deep in my imagination, one I return to again and again, while also knowing that, as the Contras get ever closer and the lure of financial comfort moves its most beloved characters into other parts of the world, this small, perfect place can’t possibly last.
So let’s enjoy what it is now and let later stories take us where they will.
July 26, 2022
While the first volume introduced us to the place and of course, the people - it did feel more of a slice of life story in that, there wasn't really a driving plot. More of day to day lives of the people who live in this town. This volume, felt more focused and driven.
So the main story (because there's a lot of them in this one) is about a serial killer on the loose. And it's not only about chasing and catching the killer, but its about how the crimes are affecting the town. You see characters who are directly affected, characters on the periphery, and characters who make jokes about it. It's an interesting character study on the human condition that Gilbert Hernandez is making here, as you get a lot of different personalities reacting in their own way.
We also have several other plots that are definitely very interesting as well. I think Hernandez has done a great job of setting up this "novella" (Spanish soap opera) and letting it grow and grow - to the point where now we are getting origin stories, and stories about parents about the main characters, and so on. Hernandez has built quite a toy box filled with these great creations to play with and it's fascinating to read.
Gilbert's version of Love and Rockets is more focused than Jaime's, but it explores alot of the same themes in different ways. I guess when the main theme is the human condition, its hard not to hit that mark, but its amazing that they both hit it well, in their own ways. Look forward to reading the next volume.
So the main story (because there's a lot of them in this one) is about a serial killer on the loose. And it's not only about chasing and catching the killer, but its about how the crimes are affecting the town. You see characters who are directly affected, characters on the periphery, and characters who make jokes about it. It's an interesting character study on the human condition that Gilbert Hernandez is making here, as you get a lot of different personalities reacting in their own way.
We also have several other plots that are definitely very interesting as well. I think Hernandez has done a great job of setting up this "novella" (Spanish soap opera) and letting it grow and grow - to the point where now we are getting origin stories, and stories about parents about the main characters, and so on. Hernandez has built quite a toy box filled with these great creations to play with and it's fascinating to read.
Gilbert's version of Love and Rockets is more focused than Jaime's, but it explores alot of the same themes in different ways. I guess when the main theme is the human condition, its hard not to hit that mark, but its amazing that they both hit it well, in their own ways. Look forward to reading the next volume.
January 17, 2024
I have to be honest: I really don't know what to make of this series! I've read a handful of the collections, and they're weirdly compelling. I don't think I've ever read anything like them before, but half the time I don't know what the hell is going on. Mostly I'm just glad that there's a cast of characters and their relationships to each other at the back, because the cast list here is enormous and they're shown over generations, and not always in order.
It's mostly a collection of comic strips about the everyday lives of ordinary people living in the small town of Palomar. It's poor and rural and there are occasional elements of magical realism, but mostly it's general fiction. (As one of the characters says, a little magical realism goes a long way.) There's a serial killer and a pestilential invasion of monkeys and a decrepit old man who seems to be some sort of undying protector of generations of women in a family. There's also arguments between mothers and daughters, emigration to the USA, earthquakes, adultery... so much is thrown at the wall that I'm almost overwhelmed with it all, and want a timeline and a cheat sheet. And yet, and yet... I want to read more about little one-armed Casimira, and Doralis with her tv series, the artist who throws his sculptures in the river, the sheriff carrying around a mummified foetus, and all the rest. It's completely bizarre, but it's interesting.
Fucked if I know what's happening here, but it's got style.
It's mostly a collection of comic strips about the everyday lives of ordinary people living in the small town of Palomar. It's poor and rural and there are occasional elements of magical realism, but mostly it's general fiction. (As one of the characters says, a little magical realism goes a long way.) There's a serial killer and a pestilential invasion of monkeys and a decrepit old man who seems to be some sort of undying protector of generations of women in a family. There's also arguments between mothers and daughters, emigration to the USA, earthquakes, adultery... so much is thrown at the wall that I'm almost overwhelmed with it all, and want a timeline and a cheat sheet. And yet, and yet... I want to read more about little one-armed Casimira, and Doralis with her tv series, the artist who throws his sculptures in the river, the sheriff carrying around a mummified foetus, and all the rest. It's completely bizarre, but it's interesting.
Fucked if I know what's happening here, but it's got style.
April 18, 2024
Palomar é mais um vilarejo latino-americano – sem charme ou sinal decente de tv aberta – que poderia estar no México, na Colômbia, no Brasil ou em qualquer outro lugar. Usando como pano de fundo a criação dessa cidade e as décadas que separam as suas gerações, Gilbert Hernández constrói uma narrativa poderosa e memorável, com inúmeros personagens queridos. Profundo, bonito, e extremamente sensível, o trabalho de Hernández fala de humor e amizade com a mesma precisão que fala de morte, exploração, sexualidade e preconceito. Palomar não tem medo de falar dos temas difíceis e de subvertê-los. Não tem medo de tirar as pautas dos seus lugares de conforto para, com um novo olhar, ampliar seu conteúdo. E é isso que faz desta série uma jornada tão interessante. Certamente uma dos maiores (se não a maior) história em quadrinhos de todos os tempos.
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“Bem-vindos, meus amigos, a Palomar. Onde os homens são homens e as mulheres precisam ter senso de humor".
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“Bem-vindos, meus amigos, a Palomar. Onde os homens são homens e as mulheres precisam ter senso de humor".
February 13, 2022
The long title story in this volume represents Gilbert Hernández at his best, incorporating a swirl of violence, passion, intrigue and the magic realism that the author excels at. Most of the other, shorter pieces in this volume are less essential, but certainly achieve their objectives in providing more background on the ever-expanding cast of characters from the remote village of Palomar. In the end, the story "Human Diastrophism" by itself is well worth the price of admission, as it pulls off the difficult trick of living up to its ambitious title.
April 25, 2024
Maybe it's because I have a certain reading pace and I couldn't necessarily apply it to this, but I struggled with this one. As I found with the Locas series, some of these compilations don't necessarily feel as connected as I would hope from these compilations. Having said that, there are stories here that I absolutely ADORED and helped me to understand why many consider Love and Rockets the greatest graphic novel series of all time. I'm hoping future volumes in these collected works are a little more straightforward in their storytelling.
January 15, 2019
Muitas narrativas entrelaçadas de um quadrinho a outro, mas, no final, sabe-se lá como, dá certo.É que há uma imensa comunidade envolvida nas histórias da pobreza às vezes cômicas, às vezes tristes, do povoado de Palomar, em que acompanhamos também a trajetória de emigração que muitos moradores fizeram aos EUA.
É um microcosmo do México do real maravilhoso, em que a realidade é tão dura e insana que beira o sobrenatural.
Espero que haja outra continuação no forno.
É um microcosmo do México do real maravilhoso, em que a realidade é tão dura e insana que beira o sobrenatural.
Espero que haja outra continuação no forno.
June 9, 2024
The second volume of Palomar remains strong with the title story (Human Diastrophism) being the highlight. It's an amazing and expansive and exciting view of the little town. The back half of the book is intriguing for its revelations about Luba's origins, but the mobster angle seems like it comes out of nowhere. Nonetheless, it allows Gilbert to write some exciting stories, even if the action is sometimes muddy.
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