About the Book
In the summer of 2008, Fantagraphics Books brought the classic Love and Rockets brand to a whole new audience with the hugely successful first volume of the trade-paperback sized Love and Rockets: New Stories. A year later, the Hernandez Brothers are back with the second eye-popping volume. This volume gets off to a flying start with "Hypnotwist," Gilbert's 39-page wordless epic about a beautiful, leggy redhead's surreal journey into a night filled with mysterious shady characters, dreamlike violence, and sparkling retro spike heels. But is it real, or something else? Then, the concluding 50-page chapter of Jaime's acclaimed superhero mash-up "Ti-Girls Adventures," our protagonist Boot Angel learns more hard lessons about becoming a superheroine. Eventually, just about the entire cast gets together in Maggie's tiny, messy one-bedroom apartment. Beto concludes with "Chest Fever," in which a group of friends venture to Las Vegas, which isn't quite what they expected...
About the Author :
Gilbert Hernandez was born in 1957 in Oxnard, California, and is considered one of the greatest living comics writer-artists in the world. In 1982, Hernandez co-created, along with his brothers Mario and Jaime, the ongoing, iconic, internationally acclaimed comic book series Love and Rockets, one of the greatest bodies of work the medium has ever seen. In addition to his work on Love and Rockets, its spinoffs, and side series, Hernandez has released a prodigious amount of original graphic novels and miniseries, such as Sloth, Bumperhead, and Marble Season. He also collaborated with Darwyn Cooke on The Twilight Children for DC. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2017 and is the recipient of a Fellow Award from United States Artists and a PEN Center USA's Graphic Literature Award for Outstanding Body of Work. Hernandez lives in Ventura, CA, with his wife and daughter. Jaime Hernandez was one of six siblings born and raised in Oxnard, California. His mother passed down a love of comics, which for Jaime became a passion rivaled only by his interest in the burgeoning punk rock scene of 1970s Southern California. Together with his brothers Gilbert and Mario, Jaime co-created the ongoing comic book series Love and Rockets in 1981, which Gilbert and Jaime continue to both write and draw to this day. Jaime's work began as a perfect (if unlikely) synthesis of the anarchistic, do-it-yourself aesthetic of the punk scene and an elegant cartooning style that recalled masters such as Charles M. Schulz and Alex Toth. Love and Rockets has evolved into one of the great bodies of American literary fiction, spanning five decades and countless high-water marks in the medium's history. In 2016, Hernandez won the prestigious Los Angeles Times Book Prize for his graphic novel, The Love Bunglers. In 2017, he (along with Gilbert) was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame, and, in 2018, he released his first children's book, the Aesop Book Prize-winning The Dragon Slayer: Folktales from Latin America. He is a lifelong Angeleno. Mario Hernandez (b. 1953, Oxnard, California) co-created Love and Rockets, the long-running, internationally acclaimed comic book series. In 1981, he and his younger brothers, Gilbert and Jaime, self-published the first Love and Rockets zine. The Hernandez brothers' anthology title became Fantagraphics' flagship comic in 1982 when the independent began publishing it. He drew and wrote the occasional story for Love and Rockets, such as "Somewhere in California," and still contributes writing, story ideas, and dialogue. In 1993, his one-shot solo comic, Brain Capers, was published, and he worked on projects such as Mr. X, Citizen Rex, and the anthology Real Girl. He won an Inkpot Award in 2012 and lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife and children.
Review :
Jaime's economically sleek artwork and smartly daffy humor, and Gilbert's graphic sophistication and experimental boldness--remain firmly in evidence.--Gordon Flagg "Booklist"
Nowhere else can you find stories as fun, absurd, and heartfelt as these. Nowhere else can you find artwork with as much character... Los Bros. Hernandez continue to blaze trails with their originality, and the comic industry is better for it. This essential collection should be on every fan's shelf.--Edward Kaye "Hypergeek"
Love and Rockets: New Stories #2 reminds us, as the first issue did, that comic books from the Hernandez Brothers are always a welcome thing. A year may be a long wait, but when it comes to Los Bros' coolness and greatness, time is neutral. I can always reread this and enjoy it just as much as I did the first time.--Leroy Douresseaux "I Reads You"
There are few comics in the history of the medium as universally beloved as Love and Rockets...[it] has been so good for so long that it's almost impossible to find anyone with something bad to say about it...beautifully drawn, funny, tense, heartbreaking...the stylistic differences in the brothers' storytelling is stark, but the thematic similarities are telling, and....thread together in surprising, rewarding ways.--Leonard Pierce "The Onion A.V. Club"
