Love and Rockets New Stories TPB (2008- Fantagraphics) comic books 2008-2010

Volume 1 - 1st printing. By The Brothers Hernandez. Love & Rockets: New Stories #1 reboots the beloved ongoing Love & Rockets comic into a fat, annual graphic novel-length package! Jaime launches the new format with a story that's unusual even for him - a full-on, pulse-pounding super-hero yarn! Maggie's longtime friend Penny Century has finally realized her longtime dream of acquiring super-powers, but at a terrible personal cost. Now she rampages through the galaxy, half mad with grief, and a motley group of super-heroes assembles to try to stop her - led by Maggie's girlfriend Angel and her mysterious neighbor Alarma, and involving a number of characters longtime Love and Rockets fans will delight in recognizing. The epic-length 50-page story (only the first half of the saga!) combines Jaime's razor sharp characterization and superlative art with wildly inventive, Kirby-style slam-bang super-hero action. Then Gilbert Hernandez explodes with a similarly generous helping of his fantastically creative one-shot short stories: "Tamanny" (rookie cop vs. demonic drug users); "Papa" (a turn-of-the-century story involving a traveling businessman); "The New Adventures of Duke and Sammy" (super-powered Martin and Lewis impostors in outer space); "The Tender Room" (Into the Wild as re-imagined by Beto); "Chiro el Indio" (written by third brother Mario Hernandez); and "Never Say Never" (a kangaroo gets lucky in Las Vegas). One hundred pages of Jaime, Gilbert and Mario Hernandez at the peak of their powers! Softcover, 104 pages, B&W. Mature Readers Cover price $14.99.

Volume 1 - 2nd and later printings. By The Brothers Hernandez. Love & Rockets: New Stories #1 reboots the beloved ongoing Love & Rockets comic into a fat, annual graphic novel-length package! Jaime launches the new format with a story that's unusual even for him - a full-on, pulse-pounding super-hero yarn! Maggie's longtime friend Penny Century has finally realized her longtime dream of acquiring super-powers, but at a terrible personal cost. Now she rampages through the galaxy, half mad with grief, and a motley group of super-heroes assembles to try to stop her - led by Maggie's girlfriend Angel and her mysterious neighbor Alarma, and involving a number of characters longtime Love and Rockets fans will delight in recognizing. The epic-length 50-page story (only the first half of the saga!) combines Jaime's razor sharp characterization and superlative art with wildly inventive, Kirby-style slam-bang super-hero action. Then Gilbert Hernandez explodes with a similarly generous helping of his fantastically creative one-shot short stories: "Tamanny" (rookie cop vs. demonic drug users); "Papa" (a turn-of-the-century story involving a traveling businessman); "The New Adventures of Duke and Sammy" (super-powered Martin and Lewis impostors in outer space); "The Tender Room" (Into the Wild as re-imagined by Beto); "Chiro el Indio" (written by third brother Mario Hernandez); and "Never Say Never" (a kangaroo gets lucky in Las Vegas). One hundred pages of Jaime, Gilbert and Mario Hernandez at the peak of their powers! Softcover, 104 pages, B&W. Mature Readers Cover price $14.99.

Volume 2 - 1st printing. By The Brothers Hernandez. This volume gets off to a flying start with "Hypnotwist," Gilbert's epic story of a beautiful, leggy redhead's surreal journey into a night filled with mysterious shady characters, dreamlike violence, and sparkling retro spike heels. Then, in the concluding 50-page chapter of Jaime's outrageous, acclaimed, superhero mash-up "Ti-Girls Adventures," our protagonist, rookie do-gooder Boot Angel, learns more hard lessons about becoming a superheroine. Eventually, just about the entire cast gets together for a reunion that unexpectedly takes place in Maggie's tiny bedroom apartment. Finally, Beto gets top heavy with "Sad Girl," and introduces Killer! the sweetest teen starlet of the solar system! Forget WATCHMEN, LOVE AND ROCKETS is the big one! Softcover, 104 pages, B&W. Mature Readers Cover price $14.99.

Volume 3 - 1st printing. By The Brothers Hernandez. After Jaime's two-part super-hero epic from Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 and #2, we return to the enthralling minutiae of the "Locas" cast's lives for the first time in three years. In the main story Ray finally gets his date with Maggie: The couple goes to an art opening and to dinner, they discuss the crazy world of dreams, and Maggie asks Ray for a huge favor. Also in this volume, "Brown Town, Blue Sun," a new installment in Jaime's beloved "little kids" flashback series: A ten-year-old Maggie and her family move away from Hoppers to a desert ghost town... And on the Gilbert side of the ledger, "Scarlet by Starlight" is a story starring Fritz (of High Soft Lisp fame) that (in contrast to #2's silent masterpiece "Hypnotwist") consists entirely of a 14-page dialogue scene. "Killer/Sad Girl/Star" picks up the "Sad Girl" character from LRNS #2, and how no one in her family takes her budding film career seriously. Softcover, 7 1/2-in. x 9-in., 104 pages, B&W. Mature Readers Cover price $14.99.