alternative comics:

1 : post-1960s comics & graphic novels influenced

both by “mainstream” and underground comics

2 : independent comic books aimed (at least initially)

at comic book shop market, or “direct market”

3 : an independent publishing movement, replete

with its own economy and ideology

4 : a genre of comics, defined by its resistance to the

aesthetics of the mainstream

LOVE & ROCKETS(1981-1996, 2000 - now)

Omnibus anthology for brothers Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez (and sometimes older brother Mario,

who inspired them)

Sons of a comics-centric Latino family from Oxnard, CA

Versed in both mainstream and underground comics

LOVE & ROCKETS(1981-1996, 2000 - now)

1981: Love & Rockets No. 1 (a self-published, direct-market ’zine)

LOVE & ROCKETS(1981-1996, 2000 - now)

1982: Upstart publisher Fantagraphics launches the “professional” L&R –

thus sparking alternative comix and securing its place as a trendsetter

LOVE & ROCKETSWHY DOES IT MATTER?

Began with new takes on old genres: e.g., Xaime’s “Mechanics” (starring Maggie, 1981-85) and Beto’s “BEM” (’80-81)

Departed from these genres to tell more personal stories based on their own lives and cultural experiences

LOVE & ROCKETSWHY DOES IT MATTER?

Synthesized mainstream & underground traditions (by fusing influences from, e.g., Schulz and Marvel Comics and Crumb) –

hence ALTERNATIVE COMIX!

Represented the underrepresented (punks, independent women, Latinos, gays/lesbians) and thus created truly multicultural comic books

LOVE & ROCKETSWHY DOES IT MATTER?

Innovative narrative techniques, including radical approach to transitioning (what Joseph Witek has called, after McCloud, “uncued closure”)

Novel-length serialized stories, often extremely complex

LOVE & ROCKETSA Brief Outline

L&R Volume I (1982-1996):• Fifty magazine-sized comic books• Republished as fifteen book-length collections (1985-97)

The Interim (1996-2000):• Various solo books, including Xaime’s Penny Century and

Beto’s New Love (these include L&R characters)

L&R Volume II (2000 – 2007):• Standard-format comic books: fifteen to date• Nine book-length collections of material

LOVE & ROCKETS(1981-1996, 2000 - now)

Jaime Hernandez (Xaime)

Key work: the series LOCAS, aka “Maggie”:

Re: the lives of Maggie Chascarillo and Co.,

in and around the barrio known as Huerta,or “Hoppers” (a

fictionalized Oxnard)

Gilbert Hernandez (Beto)

Key work: the series HEARTBREAK SOUP,

or “Luba”:

Re: the lives of the people of Palomar, a Central American

village (1983-1996);

Re: ex-Palomar lives of Luba and her family in the USA

(1989-now, esp. since 1996)

LOVE & ROCKETS(1981-1996, 2000 - now)

Jaime Hernandez

Major solo bookssince 1989:

Death of Speedy (Vol 7)Wigwam Bam (Vol 11)

Chester Square (Vol 13)Locas in Love (Vol 18)

Dicks and Deedees (Vol 20)Ghost of Hoppers (Vol 22)The Education of Hopey

Glass (Vol. 24)

Gilbert Hernandez

Major solo bookssince 1989:

Blood of Palomar (Vol 8)Love & Rockets X (Vol 10)

Poison River (Vol 12)Fear of Comics (Vol 17)Luba in America (Vol 19)Luba: The Book of Ofelia

(Vol 21)Luba: Three Daughters

(Vol. 23)

LOVE & ROCKETSCareer-spanning books:

Jaime Hernandez

Locas (2004)

LOVE & ROCKETSCareer-spanning books:

Gilbert Hernandez

Palomar: The Heartbreak

Soup Stories (2003)