Imaginary Friends, Fictional Landscapes

[saavedra77]

I've been reading Love & Rockets since the mid-1980s.  I feel as though grew up with Xaime Hernandez' Margarita "Maggie" Chascarillo and Esperanza "Hopey" Glass, and I love the way that these characters have evolved over the years.  More than any other fictional characters I can think of, they're like people I know--people I've known since "we" were teenagers.

I've always been a big fan of Beto Hernandez' Palomar stories, too: I certainly won't be the first to liken these to Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Macondo or Fellini's Amarcord--tightly-knit fictional communities whose dozens of characters you come to know with the intimacy of family, or at least with the intimacy of the village gossip.

Which is why it looks like I'm spending a big chunk of this weekend in Georgetown:

 "Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is pleased to present '25 Years of Love & Rockets.' This multicultural comic book epic by Los Angeles brothers Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez single handedly launched the alternative comics genre, and remains as fresh and relevant today as when it was introduced in 1982. A riveting combination of punk, futurism, Latino and North American pop culture, 'Love & Rockets' inspired a generation of narrative artists. The publication of this title cemented the position of Seattle-based Fantagraphics Books as the leading publisher of challenging comics and graphic novels. This exhibition of original artwork opens with a gala reception for Los Bros Hernandez on Saturday, February 10, from 5:00 to 8:00 PM at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, located at 1201 S. Vale St., in the heart of Seattle's lively Georgetown district."

Comments

[morganminstrel.livejournal.com]

I've always secretly felt bad for not reading L&R. I mean, there's no reason for me not to have read any of it, I've just never done it. (I've really enjoyed Gilbert's other work, though.) I like the art I've seen, I keep hearing how wonderful it is....I guess maybe I've just been slightly intimidated by the sheer volume of work, not to mention its reputation. I really should just suck it up and pick up the first book at some point. :-)

That being said, I have fond memories of buying comics (especially, strangely, Elfquest) circa 1985 or so and having it put into a plastic bag that had an ad for Dalgoda on one side and an ad for the "Mechanics" mini on the other. Whenever I think of L&R, I still get a mental picture of that ad.

But yeah, definitely have a blast! Let us know how it goes! :-)

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I understand that the enormity of it all can be intimidating: the hardcover collections of Locas and Palomar cover twenty years, and weigh in at a couple pounds apiece.

If you're not a total completist, though, I might suggest that you try out one of the shorter collections as a starting place--early ones, if not necessarily the very first. To be specific, I'd go with Xaime's The Death of Speedy, which is where I think he really hit his stride (it also reaches back to events that happened before the first issue) and Gilbert's Blood of Palomar (aka Human Diastrophism), another story which provides a great jumping-off point.

Anyway, that's my two cents' worth. I'll let you know how it goes!

[marginalia.livejournal.com]

oh, that's helpful! i have a dear lj friend who is a big l&r fan, but i seem to have the same problem as the commenter above. i am rather a completist, though i am trying to break free of that with doctor who, and maybe l&r's a good place to try as well.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

See my comments to morgan, below: where will want you start with Xaime's stories will likely depend on the kind of stories that you enjoy most--tongue-in-cheek fantasy or telenovela.

And with Beto, I take it back--you could just as well start from the first collection, "Chelo's Burden."

[marginalia.livejournal.com]

ooh, that is useful. because i think i looked through "music for mechanics" at one point expecting it to be less with the fantasy. i might really just need to poke at my expectations a bit. and knowing where it's going helps too.

[morganminstrel.livejournal.com]

Alas, I am a completist. ;-)

But seriously, are you suggesting skipping the first books and getting to it where the series(es) really started to gell? Or are the first few worth it?

It's funny, in college I was essentially handed Cerebus, Beanworld, Deadface/Bacchus, Eightball, Hate (which, amusingly, I hated), etc., but no one ever pushed L&R on me. Which is odd, because I probably would have been just as receptive to it as I was to (most) of the others.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Well, it depends: I'd stress that the earlier Maggie & Hopey stories ("Music for Mechanics," for example) are very different, wordier, with more fantastic elements. There are still fantastic touches in the later stories (H.R. Costigan's horns, for example), but the rockets and dinosaurs have pretty much disappeared. The stories are by this point more about life in "Hoppers" (basically, Oxnard, CA)--not so glamorous, but very, very involving. I point this out because I've known readers who were turned off by the early stuff. And I thought there was a kind of ... cognitive dissonance between the period when Maggie's traveling the world as a "prosolar mechanic" and later parts of the story where she's hanging in the barrio fixin' cars (and I prefer the latter part).

On the other hand, if you have a taste for fantasy (particulary the tongue-in-cheek variety), you probably won't mind the rockets and dinosaurs. Just bear in mind that the focus will change, over time.

Looking back at Beto's work, on the other hand, the most important distinction seems to be whether the story takes place in Palomar or not. (Much of the rest of his work has tended to be surrealistic or fantastic. But the Palomar stories are very consistent, very earthy stuff, from the beginning.) There are several places where you could start, but I think that the first collection, "Chelo's Burden," would provide an equally or more appropriate starting-point.

[aztecson23.livejournal.com]

Wow! I'm taking a class in which L&R are required reading just now ('Comic Books as Literature'); I've discovered L&R. I got sucked in immediately. I aim to buy the entire collection when I have some cash.

Really cool. If you go, tell me all about it.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Count on it!

(And I look forward to hearing about your class!)

And...

[dlasky.livejournal.com]

So... did you go? If so, how was it? I missed it -- I scheduled a vacation to begin just before the event. I am hugely influeneced by Los Bros, and always feel high anxiety when I'm in their presence (and apparently I'm not the only fanboy to experience this). But they're good people (not rockstars or anything).

Re: And...

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, I went: I haven't had the chance to compose the Big Post about it, yet, but I hope to, soon. Maybe by tomorrow?

This was my first chance to meet Los Bros, and you're right--they're definitely good people.

Re: And...

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

OK--look now! :)

(For a little while today, I thought that the Seattle Weekly had "scooped" me, since they chose to dedicate their cover to Los Bros' 25th anniversary. Something fishy must have happened on the way to publication, though, because there's no story about it on the page where the cover says there should be ...)