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Love and Rockets
Amor y cohetes
The Love & Rockets library continues with this special volume.
To a very great extent, Love & Rockets is synonymous with Hoppers' Maggie & Hopey and Palomar's Luba & Carmen & Heraclio & Tonantzin... but there was always more to L&R than that. Amor y Cohetes finally collects together in one convenient package all the non-Maggie and non-Palomar stories by all three Hernandez Brothers from that classic first, 50-issue Love and Rockets series—a dizzying array of styles and approaches that re-confirms these groundbreaking cartoonists' place in the history of comics.
The book leads off with Gilbert's original 40-page sci-fi epic "BEM" from 1981's very first issue of Love & Rockets, featuring a very different Luba and a much looser, Heavy Metal and Marvel Comics-inspired way of storytelling.
Other stories include Jaime's charming "Rocky and Fumble" series starring a planet-hopping girl and her robot; stunning one-shots such as Gilbert's Frida Kahlo biography "Frida" and his shocking autobiographical fantasia "My Love Book"; Mario's genre thrillers which take place "Somewhere in California"; Gilbert's brutally dystopian "Errata Stigmata" stories; the playful "Hernandez Satyricon," with Gilbert drawing Jaime's characters, and "War Paint," with Jaime trying out Palomar; Gilbert's light-hearted "Music for Monsters" starring Bang and Inez; and even a fantastical "non-continuity" Maggie and Hopey story "Easter Hunt" by Jaime that didn't fit into the other books.
Amor y Cohetes, the seventh (and concluding, for now) volume in the new "Complete Love & Rockets" series of compact, affordable paperbacks, shows a very different side of Los Bros Hernandez.
To a very great extent, Love & Rockets is synonymous with Hoppers' Maggie & Hopey and Palomar's Luba & Carmen & Heraclio & Tonantzin... but there was always more to L&R than that. Amor y Cohetes finally collects together in one convenient package all the non-Maggie and non-Palomar stories by all three Hernandez Brothers from that classic first, 50-issue Love and Rockets series—a dizzying array of styles and approaches that re-confirms these groundbreaking cartoonists' place in the history of comics.
The book leads off with Gilbert's original 40-page sci-fi epic "BEM" from 1981's very first issue of Love & Rockets, featuring a very different Luba and a much looser, Heavy Metal and Marvel Comics-inspired way of storytelling.
Other stories include Jaime's charming "Rocky and Fumble" series starring a planet-hopping girl and her robot; stunning one-shots such as Gilbert's Frida Kahlo biography "Frida" and his shocking autobiographical fantasia "My Love Book"; Mario's genre thrillers which take place "Somewhere in California"; Gilbert's brutally dystopian "Errata Stigmata" stories; the playful "Hernandez Satyricon," with Gilbert drawing Jaime's characters, and "War Paint," with Jaime trying out Palomar; Gilbert's light-hearted "Music for Monsters" starring Bang and Inez; and even a fantastical "non-continuity" Maggie and Hopey story "Easter Hunt" by Jaime that didn't fit into the other books.
Amor y Cohetes, the seventh (and concluding, for now) volume in the new "Complete Love & Rockets" series of compact, affordable paperbacks, shows a very different side of Los Bros Hernandez.
280 pages, Paperback
First published May 7, 2008
22 people are currently reading
246 people want to read
About the author
Gilbert Hernández
431 books419 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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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
May 28, 2022
This is a collection of Love and Rockets stories from Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario Hernandez that don't fit into Locas or the Palomar stories. The art is great in the way that all Hernandez brothers' art is great. The stories were hit or miss for me, though. The Rocky Rhodes story and the Adrian Adonis story were my favorites. It's not bad by any means but it's not easy to get invested in one off stories.
With this, I am finished with Fantagraphics' Love and Rockets library until they put out another volume.
With this, I am finished with Fantagraphics' Love and Rockets library until they put out another volume.
June 24, 2020
Mostly all the non Palomar and non Hoppers stories from all three brothers including, Mario Hernández's 'Marzipan' tales, Jaimie Hernandez's Rocket Rhodes shorts and more from all three. Gilbert Hernández's sci-fi epic 'BEM' is from the first issue of the Love & Rockets comic book, and am afraid is probably the story I likes least in all the books. The gems in this collection are a Gilbert's 'The KKK Comes To The Hoppers', 'Death, God & The Devil Are One' and his amazing Frida Kahlo biography. 6 out of 12 for the overall collection.
November 5, 2017
It took me a while to get into this book since I had just finished devouring all of the Locas series, and had grown accustomed to those characters and their stories. But then there is so much great stuff in here and suddenly I was absorbed into all these different worlds. Errata Stigmata, The adventures of Rocky and Fumble... and then the little shorts like A Fan Letter, A True Story, Frida (so good!), Our Christmas (so accurate!)... and the little autobiographical tidbits at the end... Loved it.
December 3, 2023
Perhaps the black sheep of the various Love and Rockets collections, "Amor y Cohetes" compiles all the loose, out-of-continuity stories published by Los Bros during their initial run. This makes for a bit of a tougher review compared to the other volumes since the level of investment I feel towards the individual stories are minimized by the lack of Palomar or Locas based stories. But there are some gems to be found here, like Gilbert's "My Love Book" autobio shorts and grandiose sci-fi tale, "BEM", or Jaime's "Rocky and Fumble" strips. Many of these stories were prominent in the earliest published magazines of the series, and as such the rawness (particularly with respect to Jaime's cartooning) is noticeable.
Overall, a good time but I do feel that when read sequentially together this does feel a bit haphazardly put together. The charm to these stories work a lot better when interspersed with the mainstay Love and Rockets stories. "Amor y Cohetes" is probably the most skippable of the trade omnibus collections of the series, but serious fans of Los Bros will definitely get a lot of mileage out of this one.
Overall, a good time but I do feel that when read sequentially together this does feel a bit haphazardly put together. The charm to these stories work a lot better when interspersed with the mainstay Love and Rockets stories. "Amor y Cohetes" is probably the most skippable of the trade omnibus collections of the series, but serious fans of Los Bros will definitely get a lot of mileage out of this one.
January 28, 2024
Mario's stories don't engage me.
Hopey sucks and even if it was only "dream Hopey" in this volume she still sucks.
I wanted more Errata and more Rocky Rhodes.
Hopey sucks and even if it was only "dream Hopey" in this volume she still sucks.
I wanted more Errata and more Rocky Rhodes.
December 5, 2012
So when I saw that Forbidden Planet were selling all the Love and Rockets graphic novels for £5 each I thought it was time to give the Gilbert stories a try. Amor Y Cohetes is by Jamie, Gilbert and Mario and is a wonderful mishmash of little odd stories. At first it took me a little while to get into, odd disjointed sci-fi tales. But after a couple stories I was totally loving it! I loved Rocky and her best friend the robot who were always wanting to get to explore outer space. I loved the odd stigmata girl. Mario's stories were interesting and odd but fun. But it was the little shorts that got to me the most. The story about a punk band that Mario loved was really moving, it really captured a sense of time and a sense of loss so beautifully. I loved the self depreciation at the end of the book. I also loved the totally over the top mechanics story where everyone swapped gender, Maggie and Hopey were totally just as cute as gay boys as they were as queer girls. There was so much in here, some zany and fun some really moving. I really enjoyed it and am now looking forward to reading the next vol of Gilbert's stories (which is the first Paloma stories). At this rate I'll definitely be going back to Forbidden planet in the next few weeks and get the rest.
January 14, 2019
About the first 100 pages of this collection i found to be pretty middling. BEM was an interesting look at Gilbert's very early work. I was preparing for it to be a 3 star book through to the end but it really picked up in the last 2/3.
As with any collection of shorts, there's differing levels of quality here. This can be especially true of Hernandez Bros stories that aren't in the Hoppers/Palomar Canon. The real standouts for me were the series of Rocky stories from Jaime and Gilbert's Frida piece, which I think was my favorite of the lot.
Beyond those, Errata Stigmata, Easter Hunt, and the fun series of stories where Jaime and Gilbert switch and use each other's characters were also fun. There's a lot to like her for Hernandez Bros fans.
I'd be remiss to not mention Mario's work, but it doesn't do much for me. The stories were okay, but his art has never done it for me. I don't think I'd seek out his work if not collected alongside the other two brothers.
Overall a solid read and I'd recommend for any fan of Love and Rockets.
As with any collection of shorts, there's differing levels of quality here. This can be especially true of Hernandez Bros stories that aren't in the Hoppers/Palomar Canon. The real standouts for me were the series of Rocky stories from Jaime and Gilbert's Frida piece, which I think was my favorite of the lot.
Beyond those, Errata Stigmata, Easter Hunt, and the fun series of stories where Jaime and Gilbert switch and use each other's characters were also fun. There's a lot to like her for Hernandez Bros fans.
I'd be remiss to not mention Mario's work, but it doesn't do much for me. The stories were okay, but his art has never done it for me. I don't think I'd seek out his work if not collected alongside the other two brothers.
Overall a solid read and I'd recommend for any fan of Love and Rockets.
January 1, 2020
The stories that aren’t in Palomar or about Maggie and Hopey, all ace all add to the Love and Rockets pantheon
Read
June 13, 2014Highly irritating. Suicidal.
March 28, 2018
Fanta's repackaging of the Love & Rockets vol. 1 run is complete with this book. Fifteen trades reduced to seven, with this volume collecting all of the disparate short stories that are unrelated to Gilbert's Palomar cast or Jaime's Locas characters. A lot of the stories were done in the early days of the L&R comic, before each brother had found their central cast; a lot of the early stories are rough, in story and art. You can see that neither Jamie nor Gilbert had a handle on what they were doing yet. Fortunately, as you go through the book and get into some of the later material, the quality increases a lot. Jaime's "Rocky" stories are whimsical fun, as is his take on the children of Palomar (when he and Gilbert wrote and drew short stories of each other's characters). Gilbert does the excellent "Hernandez Satyricon," which stars Jaime's characters in a surreal romp that could only be written by Gilbert, wrapped up by a hilarious and mind-blowing finale in which a fumetti-photographed Jaime appears alongside Gilbert's drawings, crying that he "pulls the strings" and telling the characters that they've put him through more hell than he could ever do to them!
Big brother Mario's handful of L&R contributions are included in this book, and they're interesting, but not entirely successful. Mario's art was a kinetic, sloppy Kurtzman-esque quality to it, but the writing is a little loose and haphazard, full of odd and half-finished political discussions that don't quite make sense.
It's the least essential L&R collection available, but even minor L&R is still more worth having that most other comics. It's great to see Jaime and Gilbert's creative voices evolve, and the highlight material is as good as anything else out there today.
Big brother Mario's handful of L&R contributions are included in this book, and they're interesting, but not entirely successful. Mario's art was a kinetic, sloppy Kurtzman-esque quality to it, but the writing is a little loose and haphazard, full of odd and half-finished political discussions that don't quite make sense.
It's the least essential L&R collection available, but even minor L&R is still more worth having that most other comics. It's great to see Jaime and Gilbert's creative voices evolve, and the highlight material is as good as anything else out there today.
September 16, 2022
After many volumes of Love and Rockets, I finally found one that was just.... "ok". Which is saying a lot for the series, because it's soooo much material and to only now be getting to a "meh" volume, that's pretty damn impressive.
And the reason why I found it so lackluster is because this felt like the scraps left over from dinner. Just filler and crumbs that are peppered into the Hernandez' bros repertoire, to fill in the space left over from their main stories. You can basically look at this volume like an anthology book. It's different stories, all mixed together, and all with varying levels of interest to the reader. Unfortunately for me, there wasn't much of interest here in many of the stories. Some are deliberately nonsensical and almost surreal, which was interesting from an experimentation stand point, but not exactly what I personally was looking for in a L&R book.
One thing that I did enjoy was seeing the bro's evolution as artists. The early stories show their art to still be developing into what it eventually becomes - masterful. But at the beginning, you see them kind of learning, and changing based on what came before. The artistic viewpoint of the book was a fascinating read.
Unfortunately I cant say I recommend this. Even with the cooler stories of Maggie and Hopey non sequiturs sprinkled in. But hey, they cant all be home runs. I would say if you are a die hard Love and Rockets fan who wants to see what else the brothers were making - check this out.
And the reason why I found it so lackluster is because this felt like the scraps left over from dinner. Just filler and crumbs that are peppered into the Hernandez' bros repertoire, to fill in the space left over from their main stories. You can basically look at this volume like an anthology book. It's different stories, all mixed together, and all with varying levels of interest to the reader. Unfortunately for me, there wasn't much of interest here in many of the stories. Some are deliberately nonsensical and almost surreal, which was interesting from an experimentation stand point, but not exactly what I personally was looking for in a L&R book.
One thing that I did enjoy was seeing the bro's evolution as artists. The early stories show their art to still be developing into what it eventually becomes - masterful. But at the beginning, you see them kind of learning, and changing based on what came before. The artistic viewpoint of the book was a fascinating read.
Unfortunately I cant say I recommend this. Even with the cooler stories of Maggie and Hopey non sequiturs sprinkled in. But hey, they cant all be home runs. I would say if you are a die hard Love and Rockets fan who wants to see what else the brothers were making - check this out.
January 25, 2023
DNF, at 25%... and believe me, I've rarely done this before, I normally keep going and giving things extra chances than don't always pay off.
But, in this case, I strongly felt that I could employ my time, even if it's just spare time to kill, with something much more interesting, that keeping reading was pointless.
Honestly, this was all over the place, probably because it was my first incursion in the 'Love and Rockets' universe, but still, half of the time is hard to know what's going on and who is who. And the fact that the pages are so text loaded, and the font is so tiny, wasn't doing any good to my eyes and headache either.
So this is a bye and bye and so long... Onto better things...
1 star on my personal record, but 2 visible arts for artistic respect.
But, in this case, I strongly felt that I could employ my time, even if it's just spare time to kill, with something much more interesting, that keeping reading was pointless.
Honestly, this was all over the place, probably because it was my first incursion in the 'Love and Rockets' universe, but still, half of the time is hard to know what's going on and who is who. And the fact that the pages are so text loaded, and the font is so tiny, wasn't doing any good to my eyes and headache either.
So this is a bye and bye and so long... Onto better things...
1 star on my personal record, but 2 visible arts for artistic respect.
September 24, 2018
So I continue my trek of reading the entire back catalogue of these collected Love and Rockets stories.
So far it has been a rollercoaster of the human condition. And I loved it!
But... I don’t know what just happened. This volume went totally off the rails. It’s a collection of what I think are one-off scifi and beat comix style stories.
They’re great, but after so many volumes of ongoing story, I wasn’t prepared at all to be shaken from Palomar and Hoppers.
I want to give it higher - and I may if I re-read it after. But for now, I just couldn’t get into it.
Did I miss something?
Still EXCELLENT storytelling.
So far it has been a rollercoaster of the human condition. And I loved it!
But... I don’t know what just happened. This volume went totally off the rails. It’s a collection of what I think are one-off scifi and beat comix style stories.
They’re great, but after so many volumes of ongoing story, I wasn’t prepared at all to be shaken from Palomar and Hoppers.
I want to give it higher - and I may if I re-read it after. But for now, I just couldn’t get into it.
Did I miss something?
Still EXCELLENT storytelling.
July 30, 2020
These unrelated-to-the-main-storylines shorts are fantastic, and having them all in one volume makes for great reading. From Sci-fi, to political realism to biography as only the Hernandez brothers can tell it, this is an essential cornerstone to the Love and Rockets library.
October 7, 2025
This anthology is pretty hit or miss since it collects a lot of early work from these guys (mostly miss tbh - uhh sorry mario hernandez) but there are some highlights. I especially loved Beto’s Frida Kahlo short story and Jaime’s (possibly pseudo autobiographical?) “The KKK comes to Hoppers”
May 20, 2021
I was really taken with Gilbert's biographical strip about Frida Kahlo, but there's a ton to dig into here.
February 12, 2025
The Frida story was amazing. I also enjoyed the Rocky stories.
January 7, 2023
Read it through the complete love and rockets box set idk if it counts but I say it does
August 9, 2024
The grab bag volume for L&R Vol 1. It's boring and brilliant and kinda fun in about equal measure.
July 21, 2024
I hate to hate on a L&R book, but this was very near a did-not-finish.
I'm sure these stories weren't helped by being collected together. They might have read slightly better if each one was just a short filler spread out over 50 issues of comics.
But, with that said, there was very little in this book that I liked. The couple of non-fiction stories. The Rocky stories. That was about it.
In part, this shows how much L&R is dependent on its continuity to build its amazing depth, but a lot of these stories bordered on unreadable for me, with BEM probably being the worst (and all the worse for how it largely leads off the volume).
I'm sure these stories weren't helped by being collected together. They might have read slightly better if each one was just a short filler spread out over 50 issues of comics.
But, with that said, there was very little in this book that I liked. The couple of non-fiction stories. The Rocky stories. That was about it.
In part, this shows how much L&R is dependent on its continuity to build its amazing depth, but a lot of these stories bordered on unreadable for me, with BEM probably being the worst (and all the worse for how it largely leads off the volume).
December 2, 2020
Not for everybody, a very unique sense of humor (?) and packed with crazy, really crazy stuff.
October 22, 2011
Reading this made me realize that there are two Gilberts. There's the one who wrote the Palomar stories, which I deeply, deeply love. Then there's the stories he did after the characters left Palomar that do absolutely nothing for me. I just assumed it was due to a natural decline in quality on Gilbert's part. Then I read his stories in this volume, which are actually quite similar in tone to that later work, but were published around the same time as his original Palomar stuff. So there's the Gilbert who wrote those great Palomar stories, full of warmth and humanity, and then there's the other Gilbert whose stuff just fails to move me. I can't quite put my finger on exactly what it is that I don't like about them, but when I finish one of those stories I just think "what about that was I supposed to enjoy?"
The Jarobi of the brothers, Mario, contributes a few stories here and I don't like them at all. However, Jaime's stuff is capital G Great. They make this book worth reading. And I'm being a bit hard on Gilbert; there are a few stories of his here that I like. Still, this is probably the weakest of the softcover L&R collections and you should save it for last.
The Jarobi of the brothers, Mario, contributes a few stories here and I don't like them at all. However, Jaime's stuff is capital G Great. They make this book worth reading. And I'm being a bit hard on Gilbert; there are a few stories of his here that I like. Still, this is probably the weakest of the softcover L&R collections and you should save it for last.
June 11, 2011
As a collection of the odd short stories from Love and Rockets, this book provides an interesting parallel universe to the more well known worlds of Palomar and Hoppers. Not everything here is great (the Mario Hernandez stories) but this context really shows how good Gilbert and Jaime can be with strange short stories. Possibly my favorite in the collection is Gibert's "A Folktale, which for me is one of the best things he has done. Also, when the brothers switch worlds and play with the other's characters, in "Satirycon" and "Warpaint" something special happens that illuminates the uniqueness of their creative connection.
July 8, 2011
There are some fine stories here, especially all of the Retro Rocky stories and the "Somewhere in California..." stories. Unfortunately, the presentation makes everything suffer; the stories are organized by chronology, which means that you'll have Jaime followed by Beto followed by Mario, and they all have such different styles that clash, rather than complement. But still, really good stuff in this volume.
February 20, 2012
A collection of shorts, mostly sci-fi themed, from Gilbert, Jaime and Mario Hernandez. I have to admit that much of this left me cold - Gilbert's long early piece, Bem, was almost incoherent - and so I ended up skipping a lot of it. Jaime's art is always a pleasure, so that gives this book a star on its own, but overall I'd say this is for completists only, and not recommended as an introduction to L&R.
February 22, 2009
I had a hard time getting past the long BEM story at the beginning of this volume compiling all the L&R work that fell outside of the Palomar and Hoppers stories. But once I did, awesome. The Frida Kahlo bio piece was stunning, and all the shorter, personal stuff that came later in the collection was super pleasurable and interesting. The few Hopey and Mags cameos did not hurt a bit either.
August 17, 2009
I only recently got into graphic novels and the love & rockets series was recommended to me by a friend. This collection has a really wide range of stories & styles so it's a really good sampling of the Hernandes brothers' work over the years. I got really into some of their characters and am now starting another book of Jaime Hernandes.
December 11, 2016
Stuff from "Love & Rockets" that isn't part of either the Palomar saga or the Maggie & Hopey stuff.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews