Three Sisters: The Love & Rockets Library: A Love and Rockets Book

Love and Rockets: Palomar and Luba #6

by Gilbert Hernández

There are mythical creatures and alien abductions in this omnibus, but, as always, the greatest unknown for Gilbert Hernandez's characters is what lies in their own hearts. In Fritz after Dark, which collects the graphic novels Luba: Three Daughters, High Soft Lisp, and more, the children are growing up and lovers have come and gone (and come and gone again) as Luba, Petra, and Fritz move on to the next phases of their lives and careers.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Drama, Slice Of Life

297 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 14, 2018

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

[Scott Rhee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gilbert Hernandez's graphic novel "Three Sisters" is a compilation of several smaller graphic novels published previously. Hernandez is best known for his prize-winning and long-running graphic novel series Love and Rockets. Several characters from "Three Sisters" were originally introduced in that series.

The three titular sisters are Luba, Petra, and Fritz, and the novel follows them through many years of their various failed romances, marriages, and sibling rivalry. Amidst their ups and downs, they manage to remain strong women, despite a society that doesn't always value strong women. Added to the challenge is the fact that they are women of a particular physique: the sisters are extremely well-endowed.

It must be noted that Hernandez has a certain fetish for extremely large breasts and for drawing beautiful women in general. Because of this fact, he has often been accused of being sexist and misogynistic. I don't think it's a fair accusation.

If Hernandez's treatment of his women were brutal or cruel, if the nudity and sex scenes were in any way obviously gratuitous, then, yes, I'd agree that he could be accused of being misogynistic.

The truth is, though, that Hernandez's women face the normal cruel challenges that many (if not most) women face on a daily basis, and they always bounce back stronger than they were before.

Even the nudity and sex scenes can't really be called gratuitous. They fall into three types: 1) obvious rape or sexual impropriety of some kind, 2) consensual but disinterested, or 3) joyfully autonomous. Hernandez isn't going for erotic so much as he is going for a criticism on what society considers erotic.

In any case, the stories of the three sisters are filled with a humor and a pathos that elevates this graphic novel series from its comic book roots to great literature.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I had just read the first volume of Maria M, where Luba makes an appearance as a baby, I decided to re-read this volume which was also packaged as part of the larger Love and Rockets series, volume 23, published in 2006, following Luba In America and Luba: The Book of Ofelia.

Luba: Three Daughters is the final book in Hernandez's post-Palomar trilogy (following Luba In America and Luba: The Book of Ofelia), a volume about Luba, the Palomar matriarch, in her post-Palomar life particularly as it connects to her two sisters Fritz and Petra. Also their daughter and granddaughter stories make their way into this volume. All women, all of the time. None other than Trina Robbins says, "No man, in or outside comics, understands women as well as Gilbert Hernandez." Just, wow, that is some claim, but I have always thought this about him, that though he would on the surface seem to primarily prefer depicting Barbie-ish-looking women, they are always, always complex and the strongest characters by far in his books. They do what they want and are essentially in control of their lives. The men are just kind of puppets in their worlds, in some ways.

You wouldn't start here in exploring Gilbert Hernandez. You start with the Palomar stories, which I am also re-reading, maybe Heartbreak Soup, with all its naturalism and touches of telenovela and magical realism and humor and (adult) depictions of sex and violence. But it was nice to visit again with these women I know so well from the world Beto built. I like all the relationships. Three Sisters is also the name of a play by Chekhov and it resonates here with this world and these sisters.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three Sisters collections material from Luba's Comics and Stories #3-4 and #6-8, Love and Rockets Volume 2 #3-9, #11-18 and #20, Luba: Three Daughters, High Soft Lisp, and the Luba omnibus.

I've been gnawing through the Love and Rockets Library for a couple years now. This was the second last volume to check off the last.

The soap opera of Luba and her half sisters Petra and Fritz continues and possibly concludes in this volume. The book focuses primarily on Fritz, the buxom therapist with a gun fetish and self esteem issues. The entire volume has an undercurrent of sadness despite Fritz' newfound success. Fritz' numerous relationship failures are explored, as is her drinking problem and other issues. Hector and Guadalupe are also featured, mostly in sad stories of unrequited love.

Gilbert's art is as crisp as ever, a great example of how I think comics should look, just like his brother Jaime's. The writing is powerful and sensitive. I was saddened by Fritz's lift almost continuously. It didn't quite get to the point of tragedy porn but it was weighty.

Four out of five stars. The finish line, Amor Y Cohetes, is in sight.

[Chloe A-L · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve honestly not really liked most of Gilbert’s stuff since Luba left Palomar, but this collection is bringing it back to the good stuff. I’m still uncomfortable with how he views women and their sex lives, but some previous volumes have read more like porn than story and this is finally getting back to actual good storytelling.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three Sisters is a collection of Gilbert Hernández's Love and Rockets work from various previously published works like Luba's Comics and Stories, Love and Rockets Vol. 2 and the older trade collection entitled Luba: Three Daughters.

Gilbert's transition into more raunchy and salacious storytelling is at the forefront here as stories involving the liberated women of Palomar are focused on. The work here is primarily the post-Palomar trilogy stories that delve into the Palomar matriarch, Luba, and her two daughters Petra and Fritz, as they make lives for themselves outside of Palomar. Fritz's newfound success in film and her various failed relationships make up a chunk of the book, portrayed primarily in short surreal vignettes.

This is a fairly loose collection of narrative beats since it doesn't feature a long serialized story like previous omnibus volumes did, but taken together you can definitely see connective tissue. Despite the rather silly tone at times, there is a definite undercurrent of melancholy that is pervasive amongst the Luba clan that really elevates the storytelling. There's an obvious male gaze in Gilbert's work, but he also finds ways to develop rather understated stories featuring women quite well.

[Mateen Mahboubi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of Hernandez's previous books about the lives of Luba (after leaving Palomar) and her two half-sisters and living in America. As expected, the stories are expertly told but there were a few times where I didn't like the depictions of some of the characters' sex lives but overall it was a good read.

[Alex E · Rating 3 out of 5]

The final volume of the Palomar side things has a layer of sadness that is blanketed over all of these final stories. As the title implies, the story focuses on Fritz and to a lesser degree, Luba and Petra. I really think Gilbert became more infatuated with Fritz as a character, as the last volumes are very much about her mostly. This one is very much the same. We see her young life and her varied (and failed) relationships as she grows up. While less gratuitous than the last volume, Hernandez still puts her through a sexual ringer for the most part, but again, its more of a character study this time then what I felt was a bit of a fetishist slant that the last volume had. Hernandez does give us a sort of origin to her more outlandish sexual behavior and instability with revelations of sexual assault when she was a baby. Which was an interesting characterization, but in my opinion, doesn't fully warrant the characters very wild behavior overall.

I did enjoy when the book explored the remnants of Palomar, with the spotlight shifting to the kids, and Luba herself. I think the book was strongest when it was not so centered on one character, but instead on a cast of characters, such as the earlier versions of the Palomar series. And we do get a nice send off to Palomar at the very end, with an epilogue of sorts to and from the dead characters of recent storylines - all which stem from Palomar in origin.

This concludes my main reading of the two brother's Love and Rockets stories - except for Amor y Cohetes, which I understand to be more of an anthology of sorts and which I will get to soon. I would say I definitely preferred Jaime's stories to Gilberts if I'm being honest. It was a tough act to follow, and I was very surprised by how much I was enjoying Gilbert's side of the road when the story was set in Palomar. I felt that it was a bit more nuanced and human with the giant cast allowing Gilbert to connect things together and form a true community. When the focus shifted to the three sisters (and Fritz especially) it became more of a character study/obsession, with Hernandez putting the character of Fritz through the ringer.

I'm glad I read this series and look forward to reading more of what the brothers have to offer.

[Sonia]

Ok, I read all of this before, but after reading Maria M. I wanted to hang out with Luba and Petra for a bit.

[Mandel]

This volume of Gilbert Hernandez's decades-long story of Palomar and its Los Angeles diaspora is framed as the story of Maria Martinez's three daughters: Luba, Petra, and Fritz. But very quickly, the three have an explosive falling out, so that the story turns and focuses for most of this volume on Fritz, the most enigmatic of the three.

On the one hand, Fritz is a brilliant polyglot who had a thriving practice as a therapist and who is a warm, loving sister and aunt. On the other, she's a gun-loving, immeasurably vain, self-destructive alcoholic who gave it all up to become a B-movie sex symbol. I was very much looking forward to this deep dive into her character, but for the first time in the entire run of Love and Rockets, I was disappointed and sometimes disgusted by Beto's work here. A lot of this volume turns out to be a kind of tragedy porn focusing on the long succession of men (and one woman, Pipo) who have, starting in her childhood, abused and mistreated Fritz - sexually, emotionally, financially, you name it.

This isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but Beto seems intent on keeping Fritz a cipher. We get very little insight into her subjectivity, but a lot about the many awful people she's chosen as romantic partners over the years. I kept waiting for all of this to add up to something, but in the end, the explanation we get for why Fritz is the way she is comes off as shallow, almost an afterthought. Because of this, much of this volume ends up seeming frankly creepy. Because Fritz veritably embraces being an object of abuse, there is almost nothing to be gained from witnessing the many ways in which she suffers. There is eventually a silver lining for her: she becomes a film director and marries her long-term lover Pipo, who finally gets over her former penchant for taking pleasure from Fritz's humiliation. But this wasn't enough for me to think that the journey there was worthwhile, because Fritz is never allowed really to speak for herself. The same might be said for other stories focusing on the abuse of women - most famously, Lolita. But Beto here is no Nabokov: there isn't much to serve as a counterweight for the spectacle of misery on display here.

[ISMOTU · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was my first foray into the world of Love & Rockets and it was very interesting. The complex relationships between the characters are well explored through stories of varying length. There's drama, romance, silliness, and heartache. I can see why Love & Rockets has been a staple of comics for so long.

[Sitanan Ketkraipob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this really makes me want Gilbert to go back on his Palomar series. This one is good but nothing will beat the Heartbreak soup and the Human Diastrophism era.

[Niklas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gilbert ja Jaime Hernandezin käsittämättömän laaja Love & Rockets -universumi on pitkään ollut suosikkejani sarjakuvamaailmasta, mutta en ole tainnut lukea ainuttakaan tarinaa 2000-luvun alun jälkeen. Gilbertin Three Sisters seuraa Luban siskojen Petran ja Fritzin edesottamuksia jenkeissä tuttuun moniääniseen ja osittain maagisen realistiseen tapaansa. Useista eri näkökulmista ja tarinoista koostuva tarina on parhaimmillaan pitkissä ja nopein "leikkauksin" etenevissä osioissaan, kuten Fritzin elämäntarinan kertaavassa The High Soft Lispissä. Gilbert selvästi pitää henkilöhahmoistaan ja haluaa kertoa niiden hyvistä ja huonoista puolista tavalla joka kohoaa parhaimmillaan maailmankirjallisuuden klassikoiden rinnalle.

[Celtic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ask Luba; The Petra Question; Mystery of the Sea Hog; Message from an Ex; A Gift for Venus - these opening chapters cover a lot of ground, including Luba's pre Palomar backstory (Ask Luba) and why Petra doesn't speak to Fritz anymore (A Gift for Venus, mostly, but additional background in The Petra Question and Message fom an Ex). Which is great, as references to them not speaking (most recently, Vol. IV #17) have been annoying me because I couldn't remember why. On rereading I think that's probably because I read it at the time as an incident rather than an ongoing fracture. Further chapters may reveal further clues I should have picked up on.

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

More stories featuring Luba, Fritz, and Petra.

This omnibus collects the material from Luba: Three Daughters and High Soft Lisp as well as some various short stories published in Love and Rockets etc.

It's clear that Fritz became Gilbert's favourite character. In addition to the 5 or so B-Movie graphic novels he's done, she slowly became the main character of the main storyline.

It's kind of hard to review this book. So many of the stories are short vignettes types that slowly define the characters and build-up.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine new volume of the continuing family saga. We learn a lot more about Fritz, which is great, and we also see her two sisters work their way through middle age. Every one is growing up, and they're changing in different ways. An intriguing look at what feels like a real family, meaning that Gilbert has done a great job.

[Casey Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume still doesn’t quite reach the heights of Palomar’s glory days, but the story is a bit more fleshed out than the previous Gilbert volume, and the sex is a tad bit less gratuitous.