Over thirty years ago, Fantagraphics reprinted the first issue of a comic book that was created by two brothers from Southern California. These brothers, Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, have spent the decades since fleshing out the characters and worlds of Love and Rockets, first introduced to readers in the fall of 1982. Since this series is so epic in scope, we’ve narrowed our reading down to the first big chunk of Jaime’s work, often referred to as Locas. For those playing along at home, everything we discuss is collected in the first two volumes of the Love and Rockets Library, Maggie the Mechanic and Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S. These are stories that draw influences from the romance, science fiction, and superhero comics of the 60’s and infuse them with the punk rock ethos of the early 80’s. The result is a timeless compendium of work that can appeal to an incredibly wide range of comics fans. Our choosing Locas over Gilbert’s work has nothing to do with quality or artistic merit. Both brothers are amazing cartoonists and are equally deserving of your attention. We hope to dedicate an episode to Gilbert’s Palomar in the future.
[audio:http://thenextissue.podomatic.com/enclosure/2013-07-02T18_21_19-07_00.mp3](And here’s the direct download!)
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