Love And Rockets: New Stories #8

Love and Rockets

by Gilbert Hernández, Jaime Hernández

In this eighth annual volume of New Stories, Jaime takes us to the punk reunion that Maggie & Hopey were road tripping to last issue. Will Hopey actually show up, or will Maggie have to go it alone? Hell, will anybody show up? Lots of old friends and enemies make appearances in the second chapter of this latest Locas epic. Also, what happened to Princess Animus? The film may have broke but the movie was most definitely not over. All this and Tonta, too! Meanwhile, Gilbert serves up the second and concluding part of “The Magic Voyage of Aladdin,” which establishes the rivalry of its two stars, Fritz and Mila. Who’s Mila, you ask? And to make matters worse, who are the Fritz lookalikes that are coming out of the woodwork? You’ll have to read Love and Rockets: New Stories No. 8 to find out!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Queer, Fiction, Sequential Art

100 pages, Paperback

First published February 8, 2016

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

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw this at the library and did what I usually do if I possibly can when I pick up a volume from Los Bros: I sit down and read it all the way through. Now, in recent years I can't always say exactly what is going on in all of the stories from either Jaime or Fritz, they are sometimes into more experimental and bizarre alternative stuff, they are into their pulpy roots, and their Zap Comix roots, and they are losing readers along the way. They lost me for a while, too, kind of, but I think I am back again. Patiently waiting to see what it will all mean. And I am into the grooves they are both in more than I was a few years ago. Which is to say I am in the B-Movie groove Beto is in. I am going with his flow.

Not that I pretend to know all of what it is about, but in all the Fritz clones, spin offs, Fritz Jrs., lookalikes, in this volume, something interesting is going on here. I initially thought Beto was just having fun, playing around with pulpy, trashy genres, and he IS as much into them as his Bro Jaime with his sci fi, but I think there is some complex storytelling developing here worth watching for. I could be wrong and the majority of reviewers right who hates this stuff, but I'm intrigued. I'm almost never bored by any of it. I know, I know, the Fritz story has gone on a long time, but it's still interesting to me! Why? Because Fritz looks like she does? Maybe that is part of it, okay.

If you are skimming this review, wondering if you should pick this up as your first Rodriguez volume, don't, you will only be confused and lost. Start with an early Love and Rockets volume by Jaime, or a Palomar/Heartbreak Soup volume by Gilbert. This volume is just a series of short stories working toward some larger arcs of coherence. Probably.

The most grounded-in-the-human stuff in this volume is Jaime's Maggie/Hopey arc and their punk reunion. This is not experimental, it's not about genre per se, it's just returning to a world we're familiar with, it's nostalgic and sweet.

[Ademption · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am glad Gilbert is following his muse wherever it takes him. The bulk of this volume is devoted to Talent, his story of Fritz and porn. It sucks. But at least Gilbert is trying everything, and pushing on with dueling doppelganger z-movie porn crews. Jamie's Princess Amnesia story was enjoyable. While I enjoy Maggie and Hopey, the last story in the book was calculated to indulge fans. Barely three stars.

[Celtic · Rating 4 out of 5]

In which - going by the other reviews here - Jaime gets the love and Beto the rockets!

Jaime deserves the love of course - his gorgeous artwork and the next stage of the Maggie and Hopey reunion are standouts - but Beto deserves the love too.

Repeating my thoughts on #7 "initially I wasn't sure what to make of Beto's B movie obsession, but it's really building into what is probably one of the most ambitiously complex storylines ever attempted in graphic form ... the constant intercutting between different characters and time periods, as well as between movie narratives and reality, not to mention characters playing each other in movies, feels a little like a Tarantino/Matrix/time travel mash-up of a couple of Shakespeare's 'identity' comedies like 'Twelfth Night', featuring pairs of cross dressing twins impersonating each other, and a generous helping of the fantastical elements of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' ... more please."

Well there's more here - incredibly sad to see Fritz such a shadow of her former self despite what looks like material success - with ever more complex identity confusion, most obviously caused by the introduction of yet more like-a-looks, but also unexpected family ties and lost twins being made explicit. I need to go back and read from the start to check how much all of this has been foreshadowed, hinted at or maybe just missed by me - all too likely with a year between issues and a storyline this complex.

I'm expecting to find oblique references that now make sense and visual clues that might have been spotted but weren't ... it's hard going at times to spot the scene and personnel changes as they're never explicitly flagged up - no "meanwhile, on the other side of town ..." or "... 20 years earlier" captions here - which makes it so much more satisfying when you get it, but you really have to work for it. And there are even more layers to explore in the Maria books and the B movie adaptations; for now though I'm looking forward to re-reading the ones I already have.

[Derek Royal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reread in preparation for L&R #1, Vol. 4

4/7/16 comments: This may be the last L&R we'll get in the current annual format. And this another good collection from Jaime and Gilbert, although of all of the New Stories volumes, this one benefits most from reading/rereading its predecessor immediately before. With both brothers' contributions, the links between the narrative elements in no. 7 and no. 8 are almost inextricable. Gilbert's, more than Jaime's, is more fractured, but that has become more the nature of his storytelling: more episodic, more dependent upon lacunae, even more of a gestalt experience. And as with the last annual, the standout for me here is Jaime's return to Hopey and her relationship with Maggie.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked up this volume for the last story...Jaime's punk reunion with Maggie and Hopey - which was wonderfully nostalgic. Didn't much get into the other stories here. Gilbert's work just isn't my thing.

[Sam Cross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not enough Tonta, and more questions than answers on the Fritzes.

I enjoyed this, but it lacked the magic of earlier volumes for me. I also didn't realize it was the last volume - it just sort of ended? I guess there's no way to really wrap up a frenetic set of stories like this, and they're always disjointed, but I would've liked some indication that this was it.

I'll miss Tonta the most.

[Tim Pieraccini · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know if I've moved on, or Los Bros have passed their best, but somehow these didn't grab me in the way L & R used to - especially Beto's stuff. The highlight was undoubtedly the Maggie/Hopey story that finished the volume, so maybe Love & Rockets, like so much of my comic reading, is more about nostalgia for me now.

[Shoumik Hassin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using this as a stand-in for all of New Stories. The Jaime stuff is spectacular and whatever Gilbert did with the myriad doppelganger story went way over my head, but was still kinda fun.

The trade paperbacks might be good for following storylines, but I still think the magazine's weird mash-up is still my favourite way to read Love and Rockets.

[Pamster · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Fritz stuff just drags, hard to get through. But everything else rules, especially, obviously M&H.

[Matthew Brady · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is the last installment of the current volume of Love and Rockets, and it's a decent one, although not really an ending at all. It mostly continues whatever Jaime and Gilbert have been doing for the last few years, and they'll presumably keep doing the same in the next volume. Of the two, I really don't get whatever is going on in Gilbert's stories lately, with a ton of copies, clones, and descendants of his character Fritz hanging around, making porn, and arguing over fame. But I still love following Jaime's characters, whether its Maggie and Hopey sort of reuniting with old friends at a punk rock show or Tonta and Vivi getting in sisterly arguments and brushing up against the edges of organized crime. And his Princess Animus story, which seems to be Jaime's version of one of Gilbert's "B-movies", continues here, and it's great, a nice example of weird sci-fi concepts that contains striking violence. More of that, please.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm always excited to get the new volume of Love and Rockets. This one my opinion was really split though between Gilbert and Jamie's work. Jamie had some beautiful science fiction funny stories. The wonderful Tonta whose gone to live with her sister, and Maggie at the punk reunion which was brilliant and the last couple panels just killed me! Plus Terry and Izzy!!! (Though would have loved to have seen more of both of them it was good to know they were still alive and hanging around.)

Gilbert was a mad mess of porn, porn and more porn, everyone wants to be Fritz, who seems to have totally forgotten that she was once a psychiatrist and is now a drug addicted ex-porn star, and it was all about a guy with two dicks, a joke which got old way too quickly. The story seemed to never end. But just kept increasing the number of ridiculously huge breasted women wanting to be porn stars.

[Bill Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

As noted in my little review of New Stories 7, I'm a Love and Rockets fan from the beginning of the brothers' career and try never to miss anything they publish. I am not however without my favorites and I have to confess I'm sick unto death of the Fritz story -- an ironic take on sex and fame that grew thin for me perhaps as long as a decade ago. Fritz and her imitators, lovers, and kin dominate this volume and I found myself flipping pages just to get through Talent and on to the other, better stories. I really hope to see more of Princess Animus in #9 and Maggie's punk rock reunion in this issue is beautiful.

[Ruz El · Rating 3 out of 5]

A new volume of Love & Rockets is always special. That said, this one is not for new comers. Beto delves DEEP into his obsessions with "Talent", exploring Fritz's porno doppelgangers. Anyone new to the Palomar universe he's creates will be hopelessly lost and confused. Jaime is more approachable but he seems to be searching for his new obsession after "The Love Bunglers."

That said, this is about as good a comic you will find. The Hernandez brothers are accomplishing a narrative that no one I can think of can currently match. It's essential reading, period. Just don't start with this volume.

[Jumbles-of-Mumbles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read the previous issues in this series, so some of the content was lost on me. But this was recommended to me and the library didn't have the other issues so I went ahead. Considering that I've entered the series fairly late, my overall impression was quite good. I didn't enjoy all the plots equally, but I did enjoy different very different plot lines for very different reasons, which I don't commonly find. Sometimes crass and over the top, sometimes campy and cute, and at other points utterly endearing and real. I really enjoyed the art and it's strange mixture of sexy and ridiculous. I will definitely be on the lookout for the previous and any subsequent issues.

[Mark Schlatter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wish I could just get the Jaime stories and skip the Gilbert stuff. There's a great emotion-packed Maggie and Hopey story wherein we get a big reunion of a ton of characters at a punk show. Jaime also contributes some excellent sci-fi stories which show off his excellent design sense. But the Gilbert stuff appears to be going down the rabbit hole as we get Fritz and Fritz pretenders in more and more decadent and convoluted settings.

[James Kinsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Echoing some of the other reviews on here - wouldn't ever not be first in line for fresh Love & Rockets material, but could happily live without any further installments of the confused and dare I say repetitive Fritz stories. I've swung between Gilbert and Jamie over my L&R fandom, but these days nothing cheers me more than new Maggie and Hopey material. Overall, though, there's still nothing in comics like Love and Rockets, and always happy to have a new edition to put on the shelf.

[Acton Northrop · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful, I hope we haven't seen the last of Princess Animus, aka Xaime out-Betoing Beto. I suspect the Fritz saga will read better in the eventual collection but for right now I wished I was just reading the new issue of Blubber. The punk reunion feels like Jaime taking a victory lap but a well deserved one. Look forward to seeing more Viv/Tonta/Angel in the next book, as that's where all the action seems to be these days.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, I am HERE for Jaime Hernandez--he continues the stories of both Tonta and Maggie here, but also introduces a new sci-fi thing that looks like it's gonna be pretty cool. Beto is still exploring the world of B-movies/porn movies and Fritz impersonators, and I am less into that. I like Guadalupe and her kids talking about their effed-up family, though!

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty good volume, though I think the storyline is starting to lose its shine. Beto's part about all the genetic modifications was pretty interesting though maybe too sexual for me. I would have liked more of Jaime's Princess Anima series. He's such a great illustrator, and I love his sci-fi/fantasy storylines.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a Maggie fanatic and can never get enough of her. Princess Animus is definitely growing on me.

Edited to add: My five stars are for Xaime only. Sorry, Beto, but I don't even read your stuff anymore.

[Hal Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jaime's art is still beautiful, but Gilbert is off on a wild goose chase of limited interest to non-fetishists. I feel like this has been my review of the last several years of L&R, and it's starting to get more annoying.

[Johanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

not the best annual from the brothers. some solid scifi and Tonta stories and a predictable punk reunion from Jaime. Beto's porn star soap opera is getting old, very old. with each installment, we get more and more almost-indistinguishable women with enormous breasts and no sense of humor.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean, the last 4 panels

[Matt Sabonis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only 4 stars because there's a tooooon of Fritz in here, and I tend to not really enjoy Fritz stories. The Maggie story at the back is beautiful as always, and the other Jaime stuff is great.

[Comics Alternative · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://comicsalternative.com/episode-...

[Ale · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know it feels like they are tired of writing or like they don't know what else to write. I still like it

[Anthony Faber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Various stuff, including the "punk reunion".

[Timothy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars.