Love and Rockets Library Series by Jaime Hernández, Gilbert Hernández, Mario Hernández

The 25th anniversary Love and Rockets celebration continues withthis, the second of three volumes collecting the adventures of thespunky Maggie; her annoying, pixie-ish best friend and sometime loverHopey; and their circle of friends, including their bombshell friendPenny Century, Maggie's weirdo mentor Izzy—as well as the aging butstill heroic wrestler Rena Titañon and Maggie's handsome love interest,Rand Race... moreThe 25th anniversary Love and Rockets celebration continues withthis, the second of three volumes collecting the adventures of thespunky Maggie; her annoying, pixie-ish best friend and sometime loverHopey; and their circle of friends, including their bombshell friendPenny Century, Maggie's weirdo mentor Izzy—as well as the aging butstill heroic wrestler Rena Titañon and Maggie's handsome love interest,Rand Race. After the sci-fi trappings of his earliest stories (as seenin Maggie the Mechanic, the first volume in this series),Hernandez refined his approach, settling on the more naturalisticenvironment of the fictional Los Angeles barrio, Hoppers, and the livesof the young Mexican-Americans and punk rockers who live there. Acentral story and one of Jaime's absolute peaks is "The Death ofSpeedy." Such is Jaime's mastery that even though the end of the storyis telegraphed from the very title, the downhill spiral of Speedy, thelocal heartthrob, is utterly compelling and ultimately quitesurprising. Also in this volume, Maggie begins her on-again off-againromance with Ray D., leading to friction and an eventual separationfrom Hopey.(Note: A number of these stories, including a whole cycleof wrestling stories starring or co-starring Rena Titañon, were notcollected in the hardcover Locas.) less

From the third book that collects the classic "Locas" comics storyline from Love and Rockets : Jaime drops a narrative bomb on Hopey in "Wigwam Bam." And Maggie contends with her inner demons, a murderer, a woman wrestler, and … gets married? The fifth book in The Complete Love and Rockets Library is the third in the classic "Locas" comics storyline. Perla La Loca begins with the "Wigwam Bam," arguably writer-artist Jaime Hernandez's definitive statement on post-punk culture... moreFrom the third book that collects the classic "Locas" comics storyline from Love and Rockets : Jaime drops a narrative bomb on Hopey in "Wigwam Bam." And Maggie contends with her inner demons, a murderer, a woman wrestler, and … gets married? The fifth book in The Complete Love and Rockets Library is the third in the classic "Locas" comics storyline. Perla La Loca begins with the "Wigwam Bam," arguably writer-artist Jaime Hernandez's definitive statement on post-punk culture. As Maggie, Hopey, and the rest of the Locas prowl Los Angeles, the East Coast, and parts in between, they try to recapture the carefree spirit of those early days. "Wigwam Bam" brings us up to date on all the members of Jaime's extensive cast of characters and then drops a narrative bomb on Hopey (and us) in the very last pages. Split up from Hopey yet again, Maggie bounces back and forth between a one-laundromat town in Texas (the "Chester Square" that serves as the title of two of the strongest stories in the book), where she has to contend with both her own inner demons, a murderous foe, and Camp Vicki, where she has to fend off her aunt Vicki's attempts to make her a professional wrestler and the unwanted advances of champ-to-be, Gina. These stories originally appeared circa 1990–1996 in the long-running (and ongoing) Love and Rockets comic book series, also featuring work by Jaime's brothers, Gilbert and Mario. Characters change as they age in "real-time" in stories that span generations. L&R has been called "the greatest American comic book series of all time" by Rolling Stone and "a great, sprawling American novel" by GQ . It broke ground with its craft and the casual intersectionality of its huge and diverse casts of nuanced characters (many of whom are LGBQTIA+) who live and have relationships in often-naturalistic settings and situations. Black and white illustrations throughout less

This comics omnibus includes the graphic novels  Julio’s Day  and The Children of Palomar , as well as never-before-collected work by brothers Mario and Gilbert Hernandez, some of which has never been available since its early 2000s run in comic book single issues... moreThis comics omnibus includes the graphic novels  Julio’s Day  and The Children of Palomar , as well as never-before-collected work by brothers Mario and Gilbert Hernandez, some of which has never been available since its early 2000s run in comic book single issues. Children of Palomar and Other Tales (the fifteenth volume in our Complete Love and Rockets Library omnibuses and the eighth Gilbert volume) begins with “Me for the Unknown,” uncollected since its original 2001–2004 run in Love and Rockets Vol. II comic books. Written by Mario Hernandez and drawn by Gilbert Hernandez, it traces the Rabelaisian journey of Tagg Lillard. A U.S. citizen with a seemingly perfect life working in Latin America, he escapes a death trap clutching important papers, and an imperious CEO and his manservant pursue him through a land plagued by colonialist/corporate greed. Also one of their joints from 2008, “Chiro el Indio.” In The Children of Palomar suite of short stories (2006–2007; collected in 2013), there are many mysterious visitors, an apparition that haunts childless women, and readers learn how Chelo lost her eye. And in Julio’s Day , which originally ran from 2001–2008 and was collected in 2013, a man’s life―threaded with war, loss, illness, and forbidden love―spans a century. Black-and-white illustrations throughout less