Lovers and Haters: A Love and Rockets Book

by Gilbert Hernández

The first story collection in Gilbert Hernandez’s Palomar saga to take place after the events of 2010’s High Soft Lisp is torn from the pages of Love and New Stories, Love and Rockets Vol. IV, and Psychodrama Illustrated—and expanded with 14 new pages! In Lovers and Haters, 50-year-old cult movie actress Fritz, in addition to her alcoholism and the ups and downs of her career, must also contend with a controlling lover, Danny; a jealous rival, Mila; a score of younger Fritz imitators, a sex cult; and mad scientists. Also in her orbit is her niece, Killer (sometimes literally, as seen in a Doctor Who-inspired TV show), a teen actress trying to launch a singing career while solving math problems. The specter of Fritz’s mother, Maria — also a cult movie actress — haunts them all with her beauty from beyond the grave.With a sprawling cast, Lovers and Haters is about mothers and daughters, aunts and nieces, complex and often toxic relationships, artists and exploiters, personas and obsessions. It reads like an X-rated The Substance mixed with Mommy Dearest and Performance, with an added dash of giallo.

Genres: Graphic Novels

120 pages, Paperback

Published November 11, 2025

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

[Doug Downing]

So this is based on New Stories 7-8 but with the meta-fictional ‘Fritz film’ content removed—no more ‘Magic Voyage of Aladdin’. In addition, a lot of plot points have been altered to diffuse the high drama of the original storyline, enabling a different long-form agenda. Stories from Psychodrama Illustrated 1 and 5 loosely push the narrative further—with nods to the past—while pages from Psychodrama 9 help fill in the cracks.

Fritz is age 47 to 50, past the peak of her B-film career but still shooting films and living the life of a successful cult film actress (who may be gradually sliding into porn). Killer and Jimmy (Guadalupe's kids) are teenagers now, with Killer dabbling in both music and film, thanks in part to tía abuela Fritz's connections. Suddenly, there are some new players in the game as well as pretenders to Fritz's throne. Revelations about Fritz's past… and present. Revelations about Mila's past—yes, Mila, eternally jealous co-star and former trophy wife to Fritz's ex-husband Mark, still angling for the spotlight and bristling at every perceived slight.

And, as always, there is Maria. Around her, the male gaze must always, secretly revolve… Oh, the longings she inspires in the tortured hearts of men!

There's some great material here, and some good (or so-so) material. But the remixing is so extensive, it made my head spin, taking several readings to absorb. New Stories 8 is where I first perceived Gilbert to have lost his commitment to the illustration side of his craft, relying instead on text (delivered via talking heads) and all the uncertainty it can create in building a consensual reality. So I was shocked to see him dismantling that carefully constructed ‘uncertain reality’ and rewiring the circuitry of his story. There are some editing mistakes (flashback cues) that could have easily been fixed, and many plot points and inconsistencies I would have questioned. But all in all, it comes together reasonably well (~) in this new incarnation, to tell a story that feels lighter and more meandering than expected.

Honestly? My favorite new piece was the cast of characters in the back. It's Gilbert at his best, distilling a sprawling, bizarre cavalcade of players, large and small, to their purest cartoon essence. Very democratic! For new readers, it may well be the book's most essential page.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a long-devoted reader of Love Rockets volumes, so am committed to reading all of it til the end, including these Beto-created Fritz B-Movie Cult/Porn film stories. Most people I see tend to loathe them, but I always insist that they are meant to be loving send-ups of the pulpy/porn/trash comics and movie tradition. They are supposed ot be terrible, ludicrous, crass! That's the joke! Didnt you see Boogie Nights!? It's a trashy joke! So many girls, so many ridiculous bodies, so little talent! Fritz, now 47, of the cult movie/B-movie fame And then Mila, Fritz imitators galore. And the specter of Maria, Fritz's Mom, taking us all the way back to Palomar, when she was the reigning Queen of Desire.

But I also get it that this stuff can be boring/offensive/crappy to many readers in spite of its comic intent. Cult means "so bad it is good," but this may still not win everyone over. And there is a lot of it now, several Fritz volumes, and it is all about the same. This volume revises pieces from other L & R sources, and I didn't take the time to see how things have changed in this present telling. But it's mildly entertaining, I think.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

Geez, it's been forever since I really enjoyed one of Beto's books. He's trying to please too many masters here. He wants the puerile joy of sex and nudity (and who among us doesn't?! :) ), but he also wants something worthy of the humanity of the LOVE AND ROCKETS banner, and he wants to embrace the shock oddness of B-movie crap. Two of those three intentions might've fit together to make a satisfying book, but not all three. The time jumps are unsatisfying. The mystery of the various characters, who are or are not related to Fritz, are beaten to death. LOVERS AND HATERS just goes on and on, and once I got maybe 40 pages into it, I simply didn't care how any of these characters fit together.

[Sergio Otaegui · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was just ok 
Weird crude drawings and a lot
Campy and b movie but nothing much for me in it