Love & Rockets - classic or dud

Yeah, Jaime's concise like that. Beto, though, has something like 9 or 10 or more collections (Luba, Book of Ofelia, Three Sisters [all collected in the Luba HC...I think?], High Soft Lisp, Adventures of Venus, Birdland, Love From The Shadows, Troublemakers, New Tales Of Old Palomar, etc.) beyond his three Palomar 'digests' that are varying degrees of Palomar-related.

i think i have pretty much everything but it's in multiple different formats: first run tpb, current reissues, individual floppies, hardbacks...

Aside from the recent-ish slew of Beto books I couldn't keep up with, I'm thankfully just a few issues of Luba and Measles away from having everything in one format (and/)or another.

It's been 9 years since I picked up L&R ( La Perdida, Peter Bagge's stuff and Minimum Wage).
This rings true:
But I totally lost track, just couldn't keep up with all the different series and Gilbert's Palomar family tree got too big for me to follow. And more recently I fell back in love with Jaime.

Feel like I have missed a lot in but I have a mental block not knowing where to pick up, what I'd even purchase..... Last I read was Luba in America. I do prefer Jaime.

Primary Gilbert works, a continuing story of sorts:
Heartbreak Soup, Human Diastrophism, Beyond Palomar, the Luba collection (contains Luba in America, Book of Ofelia, Three Daughters), High Soft Lisp.

Secondary, mostly stand-alone stories: the three Fritz "film adaptations" (Chance in Hell, The Troublemakers, Love from the Shadows), various one-shots (Birdland, Speak of the Devil, Sloth), everything else...

The line about "losing track" reminds me of why I finally have up on the X-Books back in 1994 or so and never looked back.

TBF, this isn't a remotely comparable situation. Although I have mostly kept up with the X-stuff so I don't really have a leg to stand on re: Beto.

I would probably add New Tales Of Old Palomar to the essential Beto list, as well.

My stuff is in storage. I wish I could see what I have and don't have. Been forgetting a lot lately, so if I had my stuff, I'd probably have to read it all again.

Okay, so I've read this stuff over the years but never got around to buying much of it beyond a signed Titan Books edition of Heartbreak Soup and the Palomar hardcover. I bought one of those $50 now for $100 gift certificate to Fantagraphics a little while ago and thought I'd finally buy some for my collection. Since I have the Palomar book, I think it makes more sense to buy the Locas collection and Amor y Cohetes than to buy the complete volume 1 box. Am I wrong in thinking that?

If you have the palomar book, you should make sure get Poison River in some form. I think they left it out of Palomar but it's great and essential back-story.

Okay, so I need Beyond Palomar to go with Amor y Cohetes. Those plus The Locas Collection is roughly $99. Consider it done.

So, Locas ordered from Fanta, the other two from Amazon (if anyone needs Amor y Cohetes it's $6.80 from Amazon right now). Thanks for the feedback, Dan.

The whole thing is so confusing and really pisses me off. So many different versions, and some of the books add pages, or scramble pages. Even the Poison River book scrambled pages around and added a ton of pages that weren't in the original comic!

I don't know what is what and am totally lost.

In any case, Poison River is great and Love and Rockets X is much less related to the Palomar storyline (though it has a bit of crossover) but is still good reading.

Far too confusing. I think the big hardcovers were a good idea but they only muddied the waters further.

At least los bros are consistent - TI Girls has new stuff not in the annual comics. Frustrating.

poison river in the comics skipped back-and-forth in time and hard to follow which iirc is why it was rearranged (chronologically) when collected.

*was* hard to follow.

also just that Beto adds pages and panels and stuff all the time, ever since the X collection

Ti-Girls is the first time Xaime has reworked for the collection afair

I thought he had for the two Locas hardcovers but not to the extent Beto had. Could be totally mistaken.

Locals HC 1 doesn't include stories about non-Maggie & Hopey characters (eg Flies On The Ceiling), no actual new pages or rewriting though afaik

The new soft backs starting from the beginning are comprehensive, no?

As comprehensive as they ought to be, yes (eg no Birdland).

The first three Jaime softbacks, plus the three Gilbert softbacks, plus Amor Y Cohetes = the complete L&R first series (if I'm not mistaken).

Two more Jaime softbacks reprint his stuff from the miniseries that came after and L&R vol 2. Subsequent Gilbert stuff, plus the likes of Birdland, have not been reprinted in this format yet.

yah if I were getting into Jaime I would totally go with the softcovers. There's more to pay for maybe, but its def more complete. I have the first four volumes, the three from the og series and then Penny Century as well.

EZ I think a lot of the stuff missing from the Locas hardcover can be found on the second SC, which I can send to you if you want...

Thanks, but when my orders arrive I'll have all the Locas stuff. I might be missing some Beto from the first two SC collections because I have the Palomar HC. But excepting that I will end up with all the volume 1 stuff from all 3 brothers and the Penny Century & Esperanza books.

Next will be the Luba books, New Takes of Old Palomar, and Ti-Girls. So much great stuff to read and, in the case of volume 1, reread.

New Takes? Fat finger phone typing motherfucker.

New Tales gets collected soon as "Children of Palomar".

Don't know if I've mentioned, but Gilbert's crazy underground stuff from the New Love series is amazing. That can be found in the Fear of Comics collection. The rest of New Love was Venus stuff I think that has probably been compiled with some of the post-Palomar paperbacks.

man, i stop reading for a few years and it's more baffling than ever lol. tri-girls?

Human Driastophism? Whoa Nrellie? Blood Of Pralomar? Chrester Square?

So far, reading the Locas stories chronologically feels weird. The reordered Palomar stories make so much sense, but the vignettes of Locas worked for me going backwards and forwards in time in the original issues. It works fine but feels strange after all these years.

The most recent annual is apparently the last, but only because they're moving back to a semi-regular comic format.

I need to catch up since Love Bunglers. That was almost so good I didn't want to read any more.

I also haven't read *any* of Beto's stuff from the original run, just Jaime's. That is.. an oversight.

Dude Heartbreak Soup and Human Diastrophism are amazing and collect his Palomar stuff beautifully, you should get on it imo.

I know! I've been hoarding HD and HS for a rainy day(s), but I just need to get on with it and read the things already.

The Palomar stuff is at least as good as Locas. I think I may have preferred it on my last readthrough.

After p much adoring those two books I eagerly bought the first volume of the collected Locas and it was dismal. I'm sure it was a bad place to start etc but I doubt I'll ever read further, and the generally Gilbert<Jaime opinions I always read rly bug me.

Also Fear of Comics is great!

Fear of Comics is the best, but now there's a new book that has a lot of the same stuff. As someone who's been reading since issue 18 of the original run, I have to say I can't keep up and am pretty annoyed by all the reprinting and shuffling of stories and duplicating collections. I just can't keep up.

Agreed-upon wisdom that I'm sure has been repeated ad infinitum in this very thread: starting Locas from the beginning is a bad idea. Jaime didn't have as clear a vision from the start as Beto did for Palomar, but dismissing Jaime's work out of hand on that basis is doing yourself a grave disservice. Pick up like the second digest-y Locas trade paperback. Los Bros have been operating on roughly the same qualitative level for a long time.

Fear of Comics is wonderful. If you're a fan, I highly recommend Beto's current Fanta series, Blubber. Pure homoerotic id.

(Re: the ridiculous number of reconfigured collections, I have some of the same L&R material in three different formats at this point. It's goofy. I'm just sticking with buying the annuals/single issues and the new digest things as they come out.)

god Blubber is some seriously sick and twisted shit

One alien phallus penetrating an alien orifice after another.

I'd be fascinated to know what Beto's actual views on sex are. One could certainly draw all kinds of conclusions based on his comics work.

creepy thing tho is that it seems to flirt ever so slightly w things like rape and pedophilia and it is so so so graphic

It gives me the sort of visceral reaction I get from Solondz

It does feel like Gilbert's work has become more blatantly fetish-y as the years have gone by.

Birdland almost feels quaint in comparison.

Anybody else ever watch the Naked Cosmos?

Fear of Comics is the best, but now there's a new book that has a lot of the same stuff. As someone who's been reading since issue 18 of the original run, I have to say I can't keep up and am pretty annoyed by all the reprinting and shuffling of stories and duplicating collections. I just can't keep up.

― dan selzer, Tuesday, June 28, 2016 9:18 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is a problem and has kept me from buying Jaime stuff lately - that and the fact that it's hard to find individual issues

The Jaime stuff is really easy not to duplicate: buy either a thick digest every eight years, or a tall hardcover every 2-3 years.

The single issues have never been easier either, as they've just spent a decade only coming out once a year or less.