Talk Back

[alyson]

title more in full: Love & Rockets, graphic novels 1-15, by "Los Bros Hernandez," meaning Xaime, Gilbert, and Mario.

Since these are graphic novels I felt I had to read more for it to count, so I've read the entire series dated 1982 to around 1997--not counting later, unnumbered editions. I just had a jones for them.

Love & Rockets was originally published with a very scattered, puzzling narrative style. I tend to think of Pulp Fiction as having used a similar method. Each comic was filled with snippets of stories, backwards and forwards in time; and the more comics you read, the more you were able to fill in the blanks and understand the meanings of the snippets. As time went on and you became more familiar with the repeat characters, you began to see all sorts of intriguing moments, and to piece together fascinating stories like puzzles.

The graphic novels clean things up in this respect: each story arc is published separately and in its own chronological order. You don't have to puzzle things out. The fact that you don't have to struggle for it doesn't reduce the interest.

There are two main groups of characters, along with a scattering of bit players: the residents of Palomar, a fictional (?) town in Mexico, and a group of people originally from "Hoppers," or Huerta, CA. Among these two groups are an amazing range of people, and the black and white art captures individual characteristics very well. You don't have to have distinctive clothing, haircuts, ages or states of health for you to recognize each person.

There are enough Mexicans, whites, blacks, Arabs, Asians, gays, lesbians, heartthrobs, jailbait, whores, mechanics, space aliens, rich freaks, trailer trash, homeless bums, strippers, political activists, serial killers, Mafia, drug runners, pro wrestlers, heros, and heroines to keep the storyline lively. As change of pace, there will be the occasional side story, such as the complete illustrated history of the life of Frida Kahlo.

Each time I read the series, one story arc or another stands out. Just to mention three: Poison River, The Death of Speedy, and Chester Square. The third is the one that hit me this time, perhaps because it's toward the end of the collection. Maggie, a main character from the Hoppers storyline, starts off the story by showing up at a bus stop by a hotel called "Chester Square." Because she's wearing a short, tight dress, the proprietors mistake her for a whore and watch her carefully, repeatedly telling her when the bus will be coming. She tries to do some laundry while she waits, but the prostitute that usually works Chester Square sees her and, thinking she's competition, beats her up. Eventually she rents an hourly room just to get some peace while she waits for the bus. That's in the first eleven pages.

I'm terrible at summaries, but let me just say: if you have any tolerance for comics, read these--in graphic novel form, not the individual comics--and keep in mind that the first one, "Music for Mechanics," is especially experimental. I love these stories. They're a Mexican magic realism novel in picture form. They're romantic, and sad, and bitter, and tragic. Don't miss them.
_________________
Eschew obfuscation.

[malabar]

What about the whole lady wrestler arc? Is that part of The Death of Speedy?

[alyson]

Sounds like you're familiar enough with the stories for me to give the simple answer: yes, it is part of it, but peripherally. The lady wrestlers are part of the Hoppers group of characters, because Vicki Glori is the aunt ("tia" en espanol) of Maggie. Maggie and Maggie's little sister Esther are directly part of the Speedy storyline; Tia Vicki is their guardian at that time.
_________________
Eschew obfuscation.

[malabar]

Thanks - I'd missed the Maggie/Glori connection.