Ofelia: A Love and Rockets Book

Love and Rockets

by Gilbert Hernández

The eleventh volume of The Complete Love and Rockets Library (the fifth chronologically in Gilbert Hernandez’s Palomar main storyline) collects stories from 2000–2005. In Ofelia, the sisters, the kids, and the cousins are all settled comfortably in California after leaving Palomar in Luba and Her Family. Luba’s and her cousin Ofelia's relationship has always been fraught, but when Ofelia threatens to write a book about Luba, past memories, secrets, resentments, and pain resurface. Meanwhile, Luba's children — genius Socorro, recently out-and-proud Doralis, and prickly Maricela — show that a talent for trouble may be hereditary. Luba's sisters, Fritz and Petra, swap lovers (as usual), but … are Fritz and family friend Pipo sittin' in a tree? These vividly drawn characters are charged with Hernandez's trademark complexity; they live, love, age, fight— and die—in this sweeping, multi-generational saga.

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

256 pages, ebook

First published January 28, 2015

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]

By this, the fifth Gilberto Palomar collection Liba and family are all settled in California. Ofelia's decision to write a book about Luba stirs trouble. Luba's children the wonderfully conceived and characterised genius Socorro, out and proud Doralis and sketchy Maricela follow in her trouble making and/or stirring footsteps, but luckily without a hammer in sight. Luba's sisters Fritz and Doralis continue their bed-hopping shenanigans. I rarely summarise a Love & Rockets collection, as they are are so intricately plotted, and no description of the wonderful use of a diverse multi-generational characters, each with their own multi faceted personalities, looks and ways of seeing the world, and each with a complex and inter-connected backstory. It's the closest I'l ever see to comic book writing genius. 9 out of 12 overall.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The saga of Luba, her sisters, and all the people caught in their orbit continues...

Fantagraphics February rolls on, as does my quest to read all of Love and Rockets. Ofelia collects stories from Lub #3-9, Luba Comics and Stories #2-5, and Measles #3.

Gilbert's art continues wowing me in this volume but the evolving relationships of everyone involved is the big attraction. Ofelia, the title character and Luba's put upon aunt, is writing a book and thinking about getting the hell away from Luba. Fritzi, Luba's sister, and her relationships take center stage for a big part of the book. Petra, Luba's other sister, gets something going with Hector. Pipa is in love with Fritzi but boning a couple dudes. Sergio is in love with Guadalupe but boning other chicks. I guess everyone is boning everyone except the person they should be boning now that I think about it.

I miss the old Palomar gang but Luba's family in America is a train wreck of sex and lies. The ending of this one makes me glad I have the next one waiting in the wings. I have a feeling all the shit is going to hit all the fans from page 1.

Four out of five stars.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is in a series of Luba/Palomar collections, where all of Luba's family have left Palomar, and are now in California. Taken from various sources, this collection creates a kind of coherent narrative that focuses on interrelationships, with Ofelia watching, and others watching, too. She wants to write a book, she says, and others are spying on each other, so that's an aspect of the whole. But it's mainly stories about people you are familiar with if you have been reading Beto's stuff from this world.

I can't get enough of it, I drop everything to read these books from him even if they are weird or not so strong. You wouldn't start with this volume, of course, in case you are even mildly interested. You start with Heartbreak Soup and then Human Diastrophism, which are wonderful, just captivating. Like a Faulkner of comics, he spends decades writing stories out of one mythical south of the border community, Palomar, and just keeps spinning into the next generations.

And this is continuingly great, as the characters age and bloom and continue on as a family. As I see it, this world is very female-centric, with Luba and Fritz and the gang, and their various swapping of men; it is both (possibly seen as) sexist in Beto's obsession with particular kinds of female bodies, but the women are also very self-sufficient, they are powerful and get what they want and almost never seem to be victims in any real way.

The particular collection is not for kids at all. And interestingly, Ofelia is not really central in this one, her sisters Fritz and Luba, as always, are, though she is always present and commenting and in the end she seems to be making a Big Move. Can she do more than babysit for Luba and observe? You'll find out. Some of this is very funny, some poignant, filled with musical references, sometimes very graphic (lots of explicit sex) with references to other comics and LA culture. Great dialogue. Great stuff.

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continues the adventures of our rather large cast of characters in the USA.

Ofelia is the title character but doesn't really have a large role in this. It is one of the few seemingly permanent things that happens though - she has a fight with Luba over a book she wants to write about Luba (her cousin who she works with and has a tumultuous past with) and decides to leave.

Luba's daughter Doralis, the TV show host, has been outed as gay which causes issues as the sponsors of the show don't think the American public will want a gay kid's show host.

Fritz and Petra (and really all the characters) have lots of sex with same and different lovers. There's so many triangles and affairs and secrets. Actually lots and lots of sex in this volume!

I really enjoyed most of the short stories here and it's well worth reading if you enjoyed the previous volume.

[Alex E · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the events of the last volume, Luba and her family are now in the United States, making a new kind of life, but with the same familial drama in tow.

My favorite part about this volume is the titular character, Ofelia, and how she reflects on her life and her resentment towards Luba. As we have seen in these last 4 volumes, she's really kind of lived her life for Luba. Vicariously living through a person is no way to live at all, so it really comes to a head in this volume. We see her reflecting because she was going to write a kind of "Tell all" book, but realizes that all her stories involve Luba. This makes her realize that she needs to let it go, and live a life of her own, so she can tell her own story, not tainted by this chaotic lady who - let's be honest - isn't the most appreciative... or at least doesn't show it.

One thing that I didn't like about this volume, is that I realize that Gilbert Hernandez' characters are all kind of.... scummy. I mean, there's not a single character who is inherently "good". Everyone lies, cheats (a lot), steals, and even murders. I really was enjoying the fact that Fritz seemed to be that one noble character, only to have her have like, 3 lovers who are married in this volume. I really got this feeling of not liking any of the characters after this volume.

There's one more volume to go to, and I am excited to see how he wraps it up.

[Phil Overeem]

The coolest soap opera of all-time!

I loved all 5 volumes, and highly recommend them. Good luck keeping track of every important character, event, and relationship, but this series is never boring or meaningless.

[Mandel]

Much of this volume of Gilbert Hernandez's long-running Palomar/Luba storyline is something like a telenovela in comics form, albeit a queer, feminist telenovela injected with notes of magical realist strangeness.

The lives of Luba, her sisters Fritz and Petra, Pipo, and their families become very complicated as they continue living their lives in L.A. It seems as if everyone is sleeping with or wants to sleep with everyone else. Pipo's soccer star son Sergio carries on a steaming affair with Fritz while his mother lusts after her behind his back, and while declaring his love for Guadalupe in secret encounters. Meanwhile, Guadalupe's much older husband Gato is stabbing his ex-wife Pipo in the back, while also longing to renew his relationship with her. Luba's daughter Doralis deals with the catastrophic consequences of coming out as lesbian for her career as the host of a popular kids' TV show, while Petra develops a relationship with Fritz's ex-lover and exacts violent revenge against anyone who crosses her. And then there's Fortunato (Fortunato!), the man who might be a ghost or who might not even exist and who is categorically irresistible to absolutely every woman he meets. And so on, and so on.

However, amidst all the wild (and highly entertaining) soap operatic shenanigans, there's Ofelia. This volume is titled after her for a reason. Ofelia, who in her youth was a revolutionary activist, intellectual, and victim of horrific political violence, has spent decades being relegated to the role of her cousin Luba's babysitter. Her life has revolved around Luba for so long that she barely remembers any other way to be, but now she feels it's time for a sea change. To bring on this change, she's decided to write a book about Luba's tumultuous, fascinating life. However, she spends most of the story stuck on page 1 - a brilliant woman whose depth of intelligence and creativity has been dormant for so long that she doesn't really know how to awaken it. When the rest of the characters face the life-changing and dark consequences of all their bad decisions and all of the violence and trauma that led to them come to the surface, the story of Ofelia culminates in a moving, bittersweet ending of the sort that soap operas never have, and Beto's true talents as a storyteller become manifest.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did it again: I started at the wrong point in the series. Beto Hernandez is most famous for his ability for storytelling and building elaborate, intricate stories that drip with drama. It’s my own fault for starting at the end of the story and perhaps missing a lot of the development in characters like Luba, Fritz, Pipo, and Guadelupe, and I do appreciate the complexity of the storylines.

I do love excellent sex scenes and naked bodies (and I love that there are parts of all genders constantly flying about, rather than just boobs) but there’s something about the intensity of the male gaze that has always been hard for me to process about Beto’s books. I was fortunate enough to get the Palomar Heartbreak Soup collection at the same time and I notice that the art style has so much more depth (it looks more 3D, as my partner would say) but also doesn’t have all the female characters making love with each other or feeling up their breasts every other story. But perhaps the explicitness of the sex and the ways in which they explore them are meant to reflect a shift in values after the characters all moved to California from Mexico.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this volume. It cleared up a lot of questions I had and did a great job of exploring the weird relationships between everyone.

[Rick Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Continuing directly from the stories collected in Luba and Her Family, Gilbert Hernández spins the intertwined narratives of the extended cast of Palomar. Ofelia is the titular character of this volume, though she doesn't play a particularly prominent role outside of a few actions from which much of the subsequent story unfolds. The main crux of this volume is Ofelia's decision to write a book about her niece Luba, who takes issue with the contents. The book serves as Ofelia's outlet for her frustrations with Luba and life in Palomar, but also serves a fun in-joke for Beto himself. The other major narrative thread focuses on Luba's sisters and extended family who have settled into life in California, where the story is an ongoing swath of soap opera-esque drama filled with sex and half-truths.

I do feel that the stories here aren't quite to the same standard as the Palomar tales from earlier as Gilbert's focus is much more diverted. A lot of the stories explore ideas briefly only to drop them shortly after with little to no reason why. The frenetic pacing of this stretch of Gilbert's Luba comics matches some of his bizarre Fritz B-movie stories a lot more, which I do enjoy, though not to the same extent as I love his main Love and Rockets work.

The artwork here though is still fantastic, and Gilbert continues to develop a unique sensibility towards composition and sequential storytelling. The character designs have become even more expressionistic and distinctive, giving a heightened sensibility to his brand of absurdism. It's really potent here and can come as a bit of a shock to those only familiar with his Love and Rockets works, but his inventiveness has always been one of my favorite things about him as a cartoonist.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a damn good thing that the opening pages of this comic collection have the names and relationships for all these people, because the cast is enormous and I kept having to flick back and forth to see who was linked to who, either as family or romantic interest. In fairness, it's partly my own fault for not starting with the beginning volume of this series - when I saw it at the library, I mistakenly thought that this was the first part of the "Palomar" section of Love and Rockets, but it isn't. It still works as a standalone, I think, but I might have had a better sense of the characters if I'd read everything in its proper order. Oh well, this is due back tomorrow, so I'll pick up the first volume then.

I vacillated between two and three stars, to be honest. The characters are... I don't want to say they're hard to relate to, exactly, but they're all so melodramatic that they're a little bit exhausting. The more I read, though, the more I got sucked in. This is soap opera on a gigantic scale, and trying to take it seriously does a reader no favours. It's best just to lie back and let the general insanity wash over you.

[Edmund Bloxam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I began to wonder if this volume was spinning it's wheels. There really is too much filler in this. This is where the format becomes problematic. Tiny comics bound together. Some of them can amount to 'jokes', then, or 'one shots'. I'm not interested in anything that doesn't relate to a through line.

Real life features a hell of a lot of 'filler scenes' though, and, once I retrained myself to read more pages at once, I began to understand it again. It's like life.

I do wonder whether the author has a tit obsession. All the female characters bar one have MASSIVE TITS. AND WE FREQUENTLY SEE THEM OUT. I'm all for sex positivism and polyamory, but MAN, SO MANY MASSIVE TITS!

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stronger than the previous volume, mainly because it doesn't have the kid's cartoons (the Venus stories of the previous volume, which were fun, but light). This series does seem to have gotten overly sexualized and perhaps even overly soup opera-y, but it's still a fun read, and the last few stories are devastatingly good.

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Palomar/Luba storyline becomes lost in gratuitous nudity and soap opera plotlines in this collection. Definitely not the high water mark of Gilbert’s work, but there’s a decent moment here and there for longtime fans.

[Bat Man · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think most of this volume is sort of a cascade of moron nonsense…but he really pulls it together at the end. I was quite moved!

Still, would not recommend this section of Beto’s half of Love & Rockets to any normal person. And yet i admit i read it to my friends here on the internet

[Zack! Empire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, what can I say about Gilbert's work that I haven't said already? I still love his art and his story telling. Right now he is one of my favorite creators. At this point I've read hundred of pages with his "Palomar" characters, and I really feel like I know them now. It actually enhances the stories greatly because I know about the characters rich histories. It's really great to read stories about characters entering old age, when I've also read stories about them when they were younger. So, when we see them getting upset with children for making stupid mistakes, we understand that it's because they did the same thing because we saw it happen. It just enhances the story greatly. I think it shows how well Gilbert can make you care about a character. Even though Venus is just a child, I really like her as a character, and I'm pretty excited to see her get older. Hopefully Gilbert with keep the story going so we get to see what a teenage Venus will be like.
Gilbert's art blows me away. The way he uses a pen to establish texture, or to show someone's hair, is really good. If you look at Luba when she is younger she has solid black hair. As she's gotten older her hair must being going gray because there is less and less solid black and more and more pen work. I love that Gilbert thinks about that stuff. There is also some really great page layouts. Gilbert doesn't let the camera rest on the page. Each panel moves around the room constantly showing us something different. It keeps the pages from getting stale or boring.
Overall a really great and exciting read. I look forward to reading more Gilbert books in the future.

[Celtic · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do love these 'Love & Rockets Library' books, which lovingly collect and present Jaime and Beto's work in such wonderfully chunky volumes - this one runs to over 200 pages, which is typical. The result is a collection of stories that live not only in themselves but even more vibrantly in the context of all the others; with characters appearing and reappearing, relationships changing and developing and issues and events ranging from the blatant to the most subtle nuances impacting and echoing as time passes.

It's a lot to take in and, usually, it takes me a while to read one of these volumes. This time however, it read really quickly; I think because the story sequence was more sequential than is often the case - the last Beto volume in particular had fractured time sequences from different perspectives that came together wonderfully well once you'd grasped the interrelationship. Reading so quickly probably means I've missed some of the subtleties - there's often a lot lurking in the background detail which isn't stated explicitly ... in contrast to the foreground action which is often explicit (and more so in this volume than most ... on a par with 'High Soft Lisp', which also features Fritz prominently) - so I need to re-read. Which is perhaps the highest compliment you can pay to a 'comic book'!

[Kristoffer · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of those rare books that I had to force myself to finish.

After reading the masterpieces Heartbreak Soup and Human Diastrophism, Ofelia was not only a letdown but a severe waste of time. If I could describe my disappointment with a comical simile, I would say that it's like a fusion of a Spanish soap opera and "Sex and the City." The lesbian sex scenes were gratuitous and not only didn't contribute to the story but distracted from it. I found myself becoming more and more irritated by them, as they seemed to occur every five pages. Though I had found Fritzi and Petra (and even Luba!) increasingly becoming unsympathetic, dull, and uninteresting characters since Luba and Her Family, I found Fortunato (or should I write "FORTUANTO!") ranking above them all.

Alas, as Venus offered a tincture of redemption in Luba and Her Family, Venus's narratives were not enough to save this one, yet I will say that Venus has become all the more endearing to me as a character. Perhaps I may even add that the final pages of the book were redemptive in itself, but after the sloppy plot that occurs in the 240+ pages previous, it's just not enough to make it the trip there.

[Xisix · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit more over the top sexual anthan some of the other Palomar stories. Not only the women have a bit of a carefree attitude to relationships. There are faithful characters like the horribly burned Khamo that accept fortune. Price to pay for being involved with carefree Luba. Prefer this tome more than some of other Hernandez offerings that have read recently though still prefer Human Diastrophism for it's blend of tragedy and eroticism.