Love & Rockets Vol. 1 #2

by Jaime Hernández (Creator), Gilbert Hernández (Creator), Mario Hernández (Creator)

Four stories in one.

Story 1: Mechanics
Story 2: Radio Zero
Story 3: Somewhere in California
Story 4: Music for Monsters

66 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

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

[Rick Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love and Rockets #2, Spring 1983

A much more Jaime-centered issue, with the main story "Mechanics" taking up roughly 2/3 of the page count. Following Maggie's story from the previous issue, we follow her into the jungles of Zimbodia where she is assisting Rand Race on an excavation mission. Told entirely in a series of letters sent to Hopey, Maggie regales us with her adventures. The story maintains a light sci-fi/fantastical bend to it as was the case in the previous issue, with Maggie working on a spacecraft crash site amidst still living dinosaurs in a volatile country on the precipice of a revolution. Mainstays in Jaime's stories like Penny Century and Rena Titañon are key features here as well, and their characters are established well. Jaime's love for wrestling seeps through here strong, with Rena's own career in women's wrestling and ongoing rivalry with Maggie's aunt Vicki Glori elaborated on in a two-page tangent. While the idea of storytelling via letters alone isn't all that engaging, Jaime proves that a strong sense of visual language can make any concept intriguing. Indeed, in lesser hands, "Mechanics" would have been a poor showing.

While "Mechanics" is far from my favorite Jaime work, this is where a lot of the subtle ingenuity of his artwork begins to show. The black-and-white compositions are stunning, particularly in establishing panels. The opening page to the sixth part of "Mechanics" is demonstration of Jaime's strong sense of compositions:



The latter stories in this issue are fairly forgettable fare. "Radio Zero" is another bizarre Gilbert story, divorced from his later Palomar work. Featuring Errata Stigmata, a somewhat recurring character in Beto's comics, the story is a meandering and nonsensical story which follows Errata on a mission to blow up an embassy. The third Hernández brother, Mario, is featured in this issue too with "Somewhere in California", a sci-fi crime story that is a decent showing. Rounding out with the second part of the puzzling "Music for Monsters" story from the previous issue, where Bang Bang and Inez stop some monsters from stealing a deadly disease. The latter third of this issue isn't the greatest of Love and Rockets by any means, but decent enough to serve as complementary pieces. Though one of my all time favorite Gilbert panels is found in "Radio Zero":



Which I assume was a popular one since this panel is featured in the opening page of the first ever collection of Love and Rockets.

Contents:
- Another essay from Gary Groth, "Comics Can Be Art And Here Are Some Of The Reasons Why"
- "Mechanics" by Jaime
- "Radio Zero" by Beto
- "Somewhere in California" by Mario
- "Music for Monsters, II" by Beto
Front Cover by Jaime, Back Cover by Beto

[Tabatha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked this second issue better then the first. It just had a more interesting plot-line. If you read the first Love & Rockets, I recommend reading this second one. I'm looking forward to reading the third one.