Love & Rockets - classic or dud

Yes. My maths are good, but my counting not so much (I was thinking that there were only five of the newfangled reprint volumes).

P.S. Was just at the shop and confirmed that Amor y Cohetes does, indeed, contain Jaime's Palomar story and Beto's Locas story.

Woops, forgot to buy Hernandez Satyricon, bought #3 instead.

wait, amor y cohetes is actually out already?

haha i only just worked out what cohetes means

Oh man, you guys, I just read The Education of Hopey Glass in one sitting--seriously, there aren't many pleasures in life greater than reading a whole chunk of Jaime Hernandez's comics at once...

(This is the one that collects Jaime's stories from the last few years' worth of L&R: the serial about the week where Hopey gets her new glasses and starts her new job, and the cluster of stories about Ray, the Frogmouth, and the dude who gets shot.)

Oh man, you guys, I just read The Education of Hopey Glass in one sitting--seriously, there aren't many pleasures in life greater than reading a whole chunk of Jaime Hernandez's comics at once...

It's a shame "a whole chunk" takes about five years...God, I can't wait til July or whenever the GN effect takes hold.

So, having just read Locas in three days, I'm in the process of queueing up the rest of the Jaime bibliography at the library. Is there anything between Ghost of Hoppers and Education of Hopey Glass?

no, there's only the three of those skinny hardcovers

as probably enumerated upthread, there's lots of Jaime that's not in Locas though

Yes, arango. There are two collections between Locas and Ghosts of Hoppers. Immediately following Locas is the only-tangentially-related Whoa, Nellie!, which features the wrestling-related L&R characters and features them wrestling. You can probably quite safely skip that one if you're only interested in the bigger story, but it's fun. And then there's Dicks and Deedees, which is apparently out of print at the moment, but which is an actual, for-real Locas story.

For other, non-Locas Jaime goodness, consult the recently-released Amor y Cohetes collection.

Also can I just say that every time this thread pops up, it's like a knife in the gut that reminds me that most of my comics are in storage 200 miles away from here? Can I just say that? Thanks.

I feel bad continuing to push this thread upward knowing it hurts Deric so, but thanks for the guidance. The library doesn't have Whoa, Nellie! but it sounds excellent so will have to actually purchase it. The library's a little slow, so may be a while before Amor y Cohetes comes in. (And, to clarify, I've got Locas in Love and Dicks and Deedees arriving already, so will read those before Ghosts of Hoppers).

there are also various Locasverse stories not collected in Locas, like Flies On The Ceiling, which is Izzy's Secret Origin

Oh, yeah! I forgot about Locas In Love! I knew one was slipping my mind. That falls between Whoa, Nellie! and Dicks and Deedees.

And yes to energy flash gordon: the two big L&R hardcovers are disappointingly incomplete. I mean seriously!: Flies On The Ceiling and Poison River are two of the best L&R stories, and their omission makes the hardcovers a must to avoid, as far as I'm concerned.

Perhaps for completion, but as a newbie to the series I found them incredibly addictive and really wonderful. Especially for Locas, as that definitely takes a little while to really build up steam (as much as I like Mechanics and everything with Rita Titañon). Palomar is maybe a little better from the beginning, but for both hardcovers you really get this amazing scope, and see how the comics and artists themselves got better and better over time. I'm not sure the first paperback volumes in either series can adequately sell how great it gets later.

(i still have to get around to buying those new paperbacks with the missing material...)

I started reading Hernandez Satyricon yesterday... there is a great Jaime story which is just three pages of two boxers punching the shite out of each other... no craft, no "gah, I can take this!" interior monologue, just all fists and blood. My kind of comic.

That said, the stories about the girl who gets lost in space with her robot are probably the best things Jaime has ever done.

Vicar, if you liked the boxers story, I'd highly highly highly recommend checking out Beto's Fear of Comics collection if you haven't already. It's pure, unfettered id in places, and completely different from most of his Palomar stuff, but it's one of my favorite Hernandez artifacts.

might well do that.

eerrrrrm, what do people think of Birdland?

I remember the first one, maybe two, from when they came out and... erm... yes. I'll leave it to other people who can put it in better context.

Birdland is fucking great.

Birdland is weird. Aside from actual penetration shots, though, it's not that much weirder or more graphic than a lot of Beto's stuff.

And it does technically fit into the Palomar universe. So you can justify buying it on those grounds, if nothing else.

It's even got some characters from BEM in it! And it's got some of Beto's funniest dialogue.

eh, saying something has any relationship with BEM is not exactly a recommendation, at least not for me.

The characters later turn up in the regular Betoverse.

ok why did no one tell me that the titan re-issues are different sizes from the fantagraphics ones??? this is totally fucking me up

heh. I now have pretty close to TWO complete collections due to this discrepancy and OCD.

oh man i've already started thinking abt that :(

Titan's 80s series or...?

I never even read this purchased copy of Locas In Love, but it looks like the second Jaime hardcover is scheduled now, too:

http://www.amazon.com/Locas-II-Maggie-Hopey-Ray/dp/1606991566

Looks like it has Ghost of Hoppers, too. I still haven't picked up Whoa, Nellie! so I'm wondering if I should just wait for this, or keep getting the trades anyway. Anyone know exactly what this will cover, compared to the current Fantagraphics guide?

I swear, these guys' reprint catalog is getting more complicated than Charlie Parker's.

Everytime I get ahold of a trade and scan those last few pages, I think I'd be more than willing to buy a collection of L&R front and back covers - some of them are so priceless I'm frequently tempted to buy a back issue, despite the fact that I probably have the contents of said issue in question in collected form.

would assume new HC just runs Whoa Nellie -> Colour Special + Penny Century/Locas In Love + Dicks & Deedees -> Ghost Of Hoppers, maybe with the NYT colour story as end signatures.

but then again since Vol III is running in a new direction, probably includes Hopey Gets Glasses and La Perla for sure.

glad to be helpful.

Yeah, that's the thing, I don't want to guess on it... if I didn't see the Amazon listing I'd have no idea this was even coming out. Haven't been able to find any reliable information on this on Fantagraphics' site or anywhere. Not to mention, the other Locas hardcover left out miscellaneous stuff here and there to streamline it and keep the pagecount down.

I swear, these guys' reprint catalog is getting more complicated than Charlie Parker's.

^QFT

to be fair, Fanta might put some info on the site once it's less than six months to the release date.

Robot 6 reckon the catalog suggests that: "As with the last Locas coffee-table book, this aims to be an all-inclusive collection, bringing you up to date on what those nutty Hoppers kids have been up to lately. Includes such tales as Ghost of Hoppers and the recent Education of Hopey Glass."

Locas wasn't technically all-inclusive - it turned out the new paperbacks were definitely more comprehensive. Also, if it's already solicited and even has a page count, they must know what's in it at this point, right? So why not put out a press release or something? (Coincidentally, that Robot 6 page is where I found out about this in the first place, haha)

They even have put up a page to clarify the confusing reprint situation up through Vol. 3. My paranoid guess is that they still have tons of the old trades and floppies in their warehouse and still want to clear them out. Or more likely, they are just being lazy.

Yeah, all-inclusive is Robot6's mistake, but no, it's not been solicited for actual orders yet, that'll be months off - this info will be from their book trade catalog, which you can get if yr in the 20/20 club. I imagine if you ask on the TCJ message board, it would take about 90 minutes before Kim posted a helpful reply.

Hey, that's a good suggestion. I've never even been to the TCJ site! Just signed up for the forums and asked (naturally, there was an existing "how do I read L&R chronologically?" thread), I'll post again if I hear anything.

I hope L+R is classic, because last week I ordered two volumes (Heartbreak Soup and Maggie the Mechanic) cold.

The Amazon description says: "Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2007, Love and Rockets will finally be released in its most accessible form yet: as a series of compact, thick, affordable, mass-market volumes that present the whole story in perfect chronological order."

When I drunkenly ordered this, I interpreted this as meaning that I would be starting with Love and Rockets and the very beginning, at the first issue, moving on to the second, and so on. Now when I think about it, it means that it will be present certain stories (Palomar, for example) in perfect order, not the series as a whole. (?)

I swear, these guys' reprint catalog is getting more complicated than Charlie Parker's.

^^

most accessible form yet: as a series of compact, thick, affordable, mass-market volumes that present the whole story in perfect chronological order

->

certain stories (Palomar, for example) in perfect order, not the series as a whole. (?)

yes. three volumes of Maggie (& Hopey & Their Pals) by Xaime, three volumes of Palomar (& Its Denizens' Adventures Elsewhere) by Beto, and one volume of Errata Stigmata by Beto, Rocky & Fumble by Xaime and miscellaneous shorts by Beto, Xaime and Mario.

the small paperbacks are the completely comprehensible, non-Charlie-Parker version of the catalogue.

ie, if you stick to those, you can ignore any and all books in other formats.

this 'how to read love and rockets' page on the fantagraphics site is reasonably clear:

http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=76&Itemid=135

Everything from MAGGIE AND HOPEY COLOR FUN (you're right, no WHOA NELLIE) through LOVE AND ROCKETS VOL. II #19 (i.e. short of the NYT Rena story). Or in book terms, LOCAS IN LOVE, DICKS AND DEEDEES, GHOST OF HOPPERS, DICKS AND DEEDEES.

Also I'm pretty sure he meant Education of Hopey Glass instead Dicks and Deedees a second time.

OCD Alert: the upcoming second Fantagraphics Locas HC will be 8" x 5", according to Amazon (who do make mistakes), while the first one was 11" x 9". Maybe Kim can clear this up?

The stories were all drawn for comic size/proportions, not magazine, so it's actually entirely probable.

how is the new luba hardcover? does it leave a bunch of stuff out, as per what seems to be the norm?

bought the Luba hardcover recently as hadn't read any of the stuff in it before. bit puzzled by the order of things - loads on fritz, petra and venus before you get to luba (who seems pretty boring by comparison now ha).

anyway i re-read the Human Diastrophism and Beyond Palomar/Poison River stuff again but was wondering about various characters attitudes to English esp. Pipo's - living in Cali but refusing to speak it - to what extent is Beto making a political point here? An odd thing I noticed (tho may be mistaken) is that whenever the bitching about English comes up it always seems to come from women (Luba, Pipo, Carmen, Tonantzin iirc, uh...that girl who ends up marrying Petra and Fritz's Dad?) and wondered if this was intentional and why (maybe just suggesting the women are more defiant and proud i guess).