Love and Rockets, Vol. 10: X

Love and Rockets #10

by Jaime Hernández

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

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 26, 1993

About the author

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

Reviews

[StrictlySequential · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only use ISBN 13 to differentiate editions- 10s are same
->1016 is pictured / 1019 is the white square cover

1019 = First Fantagraphics Edition = July 1993
(The square which I read/reviewed)
1016 = Second Fantagraphics Edition = June 1999
(but wanted the one that fit the set on shelf)

¡¡ INCREDIBLE !!

Narrative: *****
GILborn in the U.S.A. delivers an engrossing story, this time set above the Central American border, which deftly portrays the people, politics and overall zeitgeist of the 1980s in the setting of Southern California, where he grew and knew so intimately, through the interactions of the transplanted/visiting Palomarians with both white and black domestics who even include the surfer dudes!

I believe that this is the most unified book of the whole series between the styles of the brothers because, with the way the characters and dramatics play, Beto has most nearly matched Xaime's version of "Love & Rockets". It has that liveliness of a Xaime, that isn't too bogged down with tragedy and skewed with supernatural, which Beto is so inclined towards.

If you want a teaser:
->Maricela and her girlfriend want a child so how do they go about it?

Art: ****
It's par for his course but what's different here is the way he laid the panels->per->page in the square edition. Other than the two pages of characters, that should have been placed before the story instead of after it ends, every page is populated by two tiers of three rectangles that are approximately 2.75" wide x 3.75" tall (71mm x 94mm if you want international precision).

I'm picky about shelf uniformity so I got the second edition -knowing that I'd turn a profit selling the first anyway- but I would recommend the square for reading. It's more pleasing to the eye and the story flows better than the smaller versions of the rectangle edition (approximately 2.5" wide x 3.25" tall (which is better said as 61mm x 80mm).

[Cori · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the 10th book in this series. I read one of these in my Chicano Art and Culture course in like, 2008? So I vaguely knew who some of the Palomar people were once we got to that part. But I had a really hard time telling people apart and the story jumps around a lot and it was confusing. I think it would have made more sense if I'd bothered to read them in order.
There's tons of story and lots of plot points and nothing is given any time to process or sink in before the next thing comes at you full force.
Unapologetic and hard hitting.

[Osvaldo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gilbert's stories move north to southern California, where characters that fled the central American village of Palomar find themselves as cleaning ladies and flower sellers fearing both "la migra" and the violence against people of color and the queer (both of which they are).

What really works for this story is that the characters of Riri and Marciela do not suddenly exist for the purposes of telling a story about the relationships between classes and races and sexualities, but have a life and a history - they are rounded as people with an origin that someone who has read Love & Rockets understands and thus makes them more than just victims.

It was also interesting to see the rise of hip-hop in the frequent discussion of music in this comic (these stories take place in about 1989) as it has hit the mainstream - and the best part (to me) is that through one of the characters Gilbert makes a comparison between rap and punk rock that I have often made.

Great stuff.

[D.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gilbert takes us north of the border(s) for the most part in this sprawling but short, convoluted story about various characters around LA...and their varying degrees of connection to Palomar. The new characters are thinly filled, and sometimes a bit stereotyped, but it's an interesting and entertaining story. If anything can be said for this one, it's that it doesn't go the way we're led to expect. There's no great crashing climax, and what Beto has to say about humanity is, perhaps, not what we'd imagine.
Not great, but quite good.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This small volume gave me a introduction to the Love and Rockets graphic epic. Although I thought it was good, it was too crude for me. Exposes a street world of rockers, drugs, and social injustice.

[The Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unrelenting. Fantastic.

[Gessy Alvarez · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a departure from the rest of the series. Didn't love or hate it.

[Megan Kirby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazingly large cast of characters; a testament to Beto that the reader can keep everyone straight.