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Art School Confidential: B- »

Gilbert Hernandez is 1/3 of Los Bros Hernandez, the creative siblings behind Love & Rockets, one of the most influential indie comics ever made. Gilbert's "Palomar" story has unfolded since the beginning of L&R and here in this oversized hardcover is the entire story from volume 1 of L&R, traversing back and forth across more than 20 years of both publishing time and story time. I have never read anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez but I have read a lot of praise about "Palomar" that indicates that Hernandez was very much inspired b Marquez' work.

Hernandez tells the story of a fictional south-of-the-border town called Palomar and it's many inhabitants including: the tough, matriarchal, abnormally large breasted Luba who runs the local bathhouse and is very much the cener of attention in town; the former midwife turned sheriff, Chelo; the soccer-playing tomboy turned heartbreaker, Pipo; hapless teeanager turned devoted husband, Heraclio and his short, fiery tempered, caring wife, Carmen; the Luba-infatuated ex-con, Jesus; and the naive and tragic Tonantzin, among others. Many of these characters we meet as children but see later on as adults as the stories span nearly their lifetimes. Hernandez mixes realistic emotions with surreal happenings and throws in a healthy dose of explicit sex to make this addictively fun and hearbreakingly touching. Probably one of the top 5 comics I have ever read.

Posted at May 31, 2006 03:42 PM