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Palomar The Heartbreak Soup Stories A Love and Rockets Book Gilbert Hernandez Books

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Palomar The Heartbreak Soup Stories A Love and Rockets Book Gilbert Hernandez Books

I thought I'd over extended when I bought it a coupla years ago. Now I see it was a worthy investment. There is so much here. It's actually a heavy book, literally. I can't even dig all into it and it's comics. There's just a ton here and it continues to wait for me to dig further. There are so many stories and you enter a world that you know exists somewhere out there, portrayed lovingly in these pages. Definitely worth getting, though now it's a steeper price. I wonder if it'll cost more in 3 years? 10? Comics with a Mexican flavor yet straight outta the heart of the Chicano life. I dig it. I think you will too if yer considering buying it.


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Palomar The Heartbreak Soup Stories A Love and Rockets Book Gilbert Hernandez Books Reviews

Palomar is just shy of being an offbeat spot on your tourist map. Gilbert Hernandez, who created the Love & Rockets universe with brother Jaime, has focused much of his attention on this small Latin American town and its people, and over the years it has grown into a living, breathing town. Now, the many tales of Palomar have been collected by Fantagraphics in a new hardback edition that brings its simple joys and tragedies together.
The stories aren't always linear, and characters gain solidity as Gilbert leaps back and forth in the timeline, introducing some as children, some as adults, and filling in various romances, breakups and acts of violence along the way. Key friendships hold firm from start to finish, and it's fascinating to watch them evolve as some characters go their separate ways and others grow closer than ever.
Gilbert's black-and-white art is crisp, clean and realistic. His people are believable; some are beautiful, some ugly, others average -- like those you'd find in any town. Their personalities are also highly defined, and it's fun to see them change as the years roll along.
Whoever complains about comics not being compiled into complete books upon their release has obviously never taken on this 9-by-11-inch, 522-page, 5-pound hardcover. This collection has every issue of the "Palomar" series, written and drawn by Gilbert "Beto" Hernandez from 1982 to 1996. The story follows an extremely well-endowed bathhouse owner, a female sheriff, and a dozen other characters as they meet their fate over the course of 20 years. This is a whole lot of ground to cover, with stories going back and forth from past to present while keeping track of each character and his/her traits. Also, "Palomar" mixes the Latin American experience with social commentary like any other work of its kind, except that it adds soap opera clichés and even sexual gratification and miraculously, it all comes together flawlessly--assuming you don't get loss while reading. On top of that, not only is the story populated by strong and independent (but charismatic) female leads, but we get to see them grow and age over time, a recurring trait in the other stories of the Hernandez Bros. My hat goes off to Hernandez for mastering such depth and complexity. "Palomar" wouldn't compare to, say, "War and Peace," but it sure is a `heavyweight' in its own right.

This comic is unrated Violence, Nudity, Adult Language, Adult Situations, Strong Sexual Content.
The reason that I read this collection of stories is because one of my favorite comic book writers Alan Moore praised Gilbert Hernandez's writing. If a comic book legend like him held this in such high regard then it was obviously something special. Upon reading the first few stories, I wasn't terribly impressed with the story or the art and I thought to myself "What? This is it? Well I guess this is mildly interesting. Let's see where it goes." Before I knew it, I had read nearly halfway through the entire book within the night, only stopping because I needed to sleep. Somewhere along the way, the characters that inhabited the small village of Palomar became important to me. To fully appreciate these stories, you MUST start from the beginning, do not skip around the book! Continuity is very important so you can fully understand what is going on and why you should care. There are seemingly minor moments (sometimes only a small panel or background character) which may SEEM to be completely random or unimportant at first that are actually referencing something that has happened in much earlier stories or are seeds being discretely planted for future tales. Going back to re-read is rewarding.

Now, you may be wondering why I didn't give this 5 stars if I loved it so much. Well, I feel that the writing was weaker towards the end and the art was pretty rough in the first half of the book. However, the whole is greater then the sum of its parts.
I started reading Love & Rockets when I was in college in the mid 80s. It blew me away in terms of writing, style, layout. Gilbert is not the best technically, but he more than makes up for it in his storytelling and pacing. I continued reading the stories of Palomar until the mid 90s when other life issues took up most of my time. It was wonderful rediscovering this magnificent work in a single volume. Likewise, Locas by Gilbert's brother Jaime is a superlative body of work (700 pages!). Both volumes should take their deserved place on any comic book lovers shelf.
I've loved the Palomar stories ever since a friend handed me "Heartbreak Soup" (an earlier compilation of a few of the stories). The characters are wonderfully real, the art is expressive, and the strange, strange stories are always entertaining.
What a treat to have all of the Palomar stories in one (huge) volume! I totally agree with the reviewer who said that now Jaime Hernandez should follow suit, and release "Locas The Maggie and Hopey Stories" (or whatever title he likes, as long as it's the complete Maggie and Hopey).
I thought I'd over extended when I bought it a coupla years ago. Now I see it was a worthy investment. There is so much here. It's actually a heavy book, literally. I can't even dig all into it and it's comics. There's just a ton here and it continues to wait for me to dig further. There are so many stories and you enter a world that you know exists somewhere out there, portrayed lovingly in these pages. Definitely worth getting, though now it's a steeper price. I wonder if it'll cost more in 3 years? 10? Comics with a Mexican flavor yet straight outta the heart of the Chicano life. I dig it. I think you will too if yer considering buying it.