Gilbert Hernandez

Collecting the first five issues of Gilbert Hernandez's comic book series Blubber, an absurdly X-rated showcase for the most surreally transgressive of Hernandez's short stories. Weirdos (Blubberoo, Mr. Elvis, John Dick, the Mentor), creatures (the Mau Guag, Doogs, and Orlats...), and anthropomorphs (the Cloarks, the Kekeppy) visit places where most comics fear to go. Blubber veers between an absurdist satire of porn (and occasionally nature documentaries) as well as a defiant provocation to those unable to appreciate the difference between cartooning and obscenity. As R. Crumb said, It's only lines on paper, folks It is also a howlingly funny book, filled with a rogues gallery of colorful comic book monsters (the Pollum, the Junipero Molestat, the mythical Forest Nimmy) and characters (T.A.C. Man, Mr. Hippy, Padre Puto, the Snowman, Baron Mungo, Red Tempest) that echoes the sheer visual imagination of Jack Kirby.

A love letter to growing up with comics from one of the art form's great modern masters. In Marble Season, Harvey and Eisner Award winner Gilbert Hernandez revisits the golden age of the American dream and the silver age of comics. Middle child Huey stages backyard Captain America plays and treasures his older brother's comic book collection almost as much as his approval. It's a simpler time: when shooting marbles, trading Mars Attacks cards, and the excitement of the latest comic you could get your hands on reigned supreme. This evocative story of a young family navigating cultural and neighborhood norms in a majority Latino community brings forth a snapshot of mid-century Americana that goes all too often unseen. The joyful, creative play of childhood might gradually bend under the pressure of name-calling naysayers and abusive bullies-but it certainly doesn't break. Drawing from his own upbringing in 1960s suburban California, Hernandez delivers a modern literary classic about the redemptive and timeless power of storytelling and play.

Both Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez developed their skills as artists in public, in the pages of Love & Rockets, and as quickly as any artists ever have. The first issue showed two promising young tyros; by the fourth, both brothers were clearly among the foremost cartoonists of their generation. But not all of that development took place on the main stage of their shared magazine. They built up to their 1981 self-published debut with years of experiments, fan art, zine illustrations, early short comics, and gig posters, and continued to work out in personal sketchbooks after establishing themselves as the preeminent cartoonists they became. Fantagraphics published two volumes of this nascent or private drawing in 1989 and 1992; now, a single volume collects the work from these two volumes with other rarely-seen artwork, for a new generation of admirers.Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez's mastery of comics is seen on every page of the thousands of pages of Love and Rockets they've drawn over the last 40 years. Here, for the first time in three decades, see the work they put into becoming those artists.

Three Fritz B-movies: one is entirely new, while two of the tales are expanded from their original appearances in the ongoing Love and Rockets comic book series. The titular story, "Proof That the Devil Loves You," is a fable about a free spirit, Bula, played by Fritz. Something strange is going on in a town very reminiscent of Palomar. Gisel and Kiki are determined to understand why the hamlet's residents are acting so foolishly -- is it something in the air? And why can't Gisel leave? But when there's a violent turn, evidence points toward the supernatural. Then, Fritz plays the role of an "astronette" on an existential journey through space. Proof That the Devil Loves You is the latest in a series of graphic novels featuring Gilbert Hernandez's character Fritz, a B-movie actress (and half-sister to his iconic Love and Rockets character, Luba) whose hourglass figure has earned her a cult following. While Gilbert often explores Fritz's troubled life off-screen in Love and Rockets, for years he has also been "adapting" her exploitation films in various forms, including a series of standalone graphic novels that include Chance in Hell, The Troublemakers, Garden of the Flesh, Maria M., and Hypnotwist/Scarlet By Starlight.

Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez are now recognized as two of the greatest cartoonists in the history of the medium -- award-winning, world-renowned, critically acclaimed. But in 1982 when the first issue of Love and Rockets came out, they (occasionally working with their brother, Mario) were two young, struggling, unknown cartoonists who were bucking the dominant comic book trend of costumed characters and adolescent content with intimate, complex, humane, novelistic stories told in comics form. Love and Rockets has appeared in a variety of formats over the years and continues to this day, but the original 50-issue run represents a milestone in comics history. Fantagraphics is celebrating and honoring the 40th anniversary of Love and Rockets and the debut of the Hernandez's' first published comics with a gigantic eight-volume slipcase reprinting each issue in a facsimile edition. Their organic body of work is available in a series of scrupulously and logically organized graphic novels, but here Fantagraphics honors the original quarterly format by presenting the comics as they appeared between 1982 and 1996, recreating not only the reading experience of tens of thousands of fans, but of a particularly fecund period in comics history when a new generation of cartoonists was exploding the idea of what comics could be. Painstakingly recreated in issue-by-issue facsimile, this boxed set includes every cover, comics page, and letter column (even advertising ) in seven hardcover volumes. An eighth volume densely collates selected essays, reviews, and profiles that appeared in the popular (and unpopular) press between 1982 and 1996, along with over 100 pages of additional, rarely-seen comics from the period by all three Brothers, plus dozens of book and magazine covers -- a virtual history of the growth of Love and Rockets and the simultaneous rise of the literary comics movement of which they were exemplars and trailblazers.

In the Eisner Award-winning wordless comic (silent movie?) "Hypnotwist," Hernandez's B-movie star Fritz plays a character who doesn't seem to be going anywhere, until she puts on a pair of glittery pumps. Her wanderings become increasingly surreal as she confronts motherhood, alcoholism, a sinister smiley face, cruelty, and her worst fate: "Killer" cameos Includes 16 pages of previously unpublished, additional material. "Scarlet by Starlight" is a B movie that's Star Trek meets Heart of Darkness. "Scientists," or colonizers, are doing research, surrounded by "primitive" fauna they affectionately nickname or treat like pests. Fritz plays Scarlet, a peaceful, catlike humanoid with a mate and children. When she becomes infatuated with one of the scientists, the fragile web of relationships explodes into violence and death, calling into question who the "advanced, civilized" creatures really are.The two graphic novellas that comprise the book will be published as a "flip book" with two covers, so the two stories each end in the middle of the book (with the one you're not reading being upside down). This very cool, handsome "Double Feature" package will be an essential item for Love and Rockets completists

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). Luba, Petra, and Fritz are moving on to the next phases of their lives and careers, which puts their own pasts and relationships in perspective -- and, since they've all settled in Los Angeles, showbiz comes calling. Venus shoots a backyard superhero movie, Fritz becomes a B movie actress, and children's TV show host Doral s has the grandest of finales.

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 "

Comics Dementia collects unexpected treasures, oddities, and rarities from outposts of the Love and Rockets galaxy, by one of Earth's greatest living cartoonists, Gilbert Hernandez. Saints, sinners, and the Candide-like Roy mingle in jungles, in fables, in outer space: in cocktail lounges and living rooms. Ditko meets Melville meets Bob Hope--but the party really starts bumping when the Alfred E. Neuman of the L&R-verse, Errata Stigmata, makes her entrance. Many of these stories haven't been available since their original appearance in comic shops in the 1990s.

Kitten, Maribel, and Gaby are three very different childhood friends about to celebrate their sixteenth birthdays, which all happen to fall on the same day. But someone's missing--their fourth friend, Una, who's imprisoned in Tijuana. So the trio set out to give Una the ultimate birthday gift--freedom--even if it means taking on an entire city Prepare yourself for some sweet sixteen super-action, madcap plot twists, identity crises aplenty, and--of course--gorgeous girls galore You'll go crazy over this lighthearted, rowdy, and sexy romp from Pen Center USA Award winner Gilbert Hernandez

The seventh annual volume of Love and Rockets: New Stories, the most important and enduring alternative comics series in the history of the medium, finds Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez writing and drawing at the top of their game. In Jaime's stories, Maggie and Hopey take a much-needed break from their humdrum domestic lives and go on a road trip to visit a "sick friend." And, when the cat's away, Ray visits some old, sick friends of his own. Plus Tonta's nutty family Gilbert offers a suite of stories, including "The Magic Voyage of Aladdin," a sweeping epic of derring-do in which Morgan Le Fey (Fritz) teams up with Aladdin to stop the evil Circle from obtaining the magic lamp; "The Golem Suit," a WWII sci-fi thriller starring "Killer"; and "Daughters and Mothers and Daughters," in which flashbacks to Luba's mother Maria reveal how ugly secrets of the past affect their family today.

In Ofelia, the sisters, the kids, and the cousins are all settled comfortably in California after leaving Palomar in Luba and Her Family. Luba and her cousin Ofelia's relationship has always been fraught, but when Ofelia threatens to write a book about Luba, past memories, secrets, resentments, and pain resurface. Meanwhile, Luba's children--genius Socorro, recently out-and-proud Doralis, and prickly Maricela--show that a talent for trouble may be hereditary. Luba's sisters, Fritz and Petra, swap lovers (as usual), but . . . are Fritz and family friend Pipo sittin' in a tree? These vividly drawn characters are charged with Hernandez's trademark complexity; they live, love, age, fight-- and die--in this sweeping, multi-generational saga.

"Love and Rockets author Gilbert Hernandez returns with Bumperhead, a companion book to Marble Season. Whereas Marble Season explored the exuberant and occasionally troubled existence of the wide-eyed pre-teen Huey, Bumperhead zeroes in on disaf--fected teenhood with its protagonist Bobby, a young slacker who narrates his life as it happens but offers very little reflection on the events that transpire. Bobby lives in the moment exclusively, and is incapable of seeing the world outside of his experiences. He comes of age in the 1970s, making a rapid progression through that era's different subcultures - in a short period of time he segues from a stoner glam-rocker to a drunk rocker to a speed-freak punk. He drifts in and out of relationships with friends, both male and female. Life zooms past him.

Gilbert Hernandez's sprawling family saga focuses on the United States, where newly immigrated Luba and her sisters, body-builder Petra and therapist/film star Fritz, find their families' and friends' lives becoming more and more intertwined. As the three sisters have "memories of sweet youth," the next generation finds the spotlight: Luba's adult daughter Doral s emcees the proceedings in her role as mischievous host of a children's TV show, while Petra's little girl, Venus, has adventures with her aunt Fritz and her best friend Yoshio. At her mother's urging, Venus also writes missives to her fierce, one-armed cousin Casimira, who's back in Palomar. In these stories -- never before collected together -- Venus tells it like it is

A woman comes to the U.S. from Latin America to escape her shady past, only to fall into a new shady life. After a go at the adult entertainment business, Maria marries a drug lord and her dangerous past is nothing compared to her new life in America. The drug lord's son, Gorgo, secretly falls in love with her and he watches over her like a guardian angel. Danger and corruption (and of course sex) drive the first half of this love story. Long-time Love and Rockets readers will find the storyline familiar... and that's because, in an Adaptation-style meta twist, Maria M. is actually the B-movie film adaptation of the life story of Luba's mother Maria, as previously seen in its "real" version in the classic graphic novel Poison River (available in the Beyond Palomar collection) -- starring Maria's own daughter playing her own mother. Confused? Don't be Maria M. will work perfectly on its own terms as the kind of violent, sexy pulp tale that Gilbert Hernandez has proven so adept at these past several years, and the "source material" for the story will just provide an extra layer of delight for the cognoscenti. Part two of Maria M. will be released in 2014.

New Tales of Old Palomar is Gilbert Hernandez s much-anticipated return to the small Central American town of Palomar, more than a decade after his last Heartbreak Soup story. Originally released as a three-issue magazine series in the acclaimed international Ignatz format, New Tales Old Palomar is finally collected into one handsome book. All three issues deal with the classic characters of Palomar such as sweet Pipo, her sharp-tongue sister Carmen, sheriff Chelo, and the gang of boys who help start it all: studious Heraclio, tall and fey Israel, disfigured but good-natured Vicente, and girl-crazy Jes s and Satch. In the first story, Children of Palomar, mysterious, fast-moving thieves are stealing food from wherever they can grab it; Sheriff Chelo and some citizens do their best to solve this mystery, but nobody seems to be able to catch these bandits in action until Pipo puts her soccer-trained legs to work and goes after them herself. In the second, Gato, Soledad, Guero, Pintor, and Arturo go exploring a bottomless chasm and come face to face with... well, we won t spoil the surprise. The third and last story focuses on one of Palomar s most beloved characters, the gorgeous but troubled Tonantz n: Everybody in Palomar seems to take the supernatural with a grain of salt, but young Tonantz n is determined to uncover the mystery of the laughing baby that only appears to her, haunting her daily life. What is the baby s link to the giant stone idols that stand outside the small town...?

Five women stand in a police lineup; four of them are garishly dressed, impressively endowed superwomen perfectly normal, because this is, after all, the cover of a comic book. A closer look, however, reveals a fifth woman who seems thoroughly out of place mousy, in bathrobe and curlers, smoking a cigarette, she appears to have been suddenly yanked from her breakfast table. Surely, this diminutive, dowdy woman is here by mistake or is she? From the very first cover of the very first issue of Love and Rockets in 1982, Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez have created artwork that has subverted, contradicted and celebrated the history of the comic book medium, inverting familiar tropes and creating some of the most iconic images in comics over the past three and a half decades, inviting fans and readers into their world. Amazingly, many of the covers created by Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez for the various iterations of Love and Rockets over the past 35 years have never been collected or have only been reprinted in black-and-white. Love and Rockets: The Covers will not only rectify this problem, but present them without trade dress (logos, marketing hype, etc.), allowing the original cover illustrations to communicate on their own. This will be a gorgeous, oversized art book and the perfect gift for fans of the series that virtually defines alternative comics.