(W/A/CA) Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez Both Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez developed their skills as artists in public, in the pages of Love and Rockets, and as quickly as any artists ever have. The first issue showed two promising young tyros; by the fourth, both brothers were clearly among the foremost cartoonists of their generation. But not all of that development took place on the main stage of their shared magazine. They built up to their 1981 self-published debut with years of experiments, fan art, zine illustrations, early short comics, and gig posters, and continued to work out in personal sketchbooks after establishing themselves as the preeminent cartoonists they became. Fantagraphics published two volumes of this nascent or private drawing in 1989 and 1992. Now, this deluxe hardcover collects the work from these two volumes with other rarely-seen artwork for a new generation of admirers. It's presented as a dual-sided flip book with one cover, and one half of the book, featuring Jaime's work and a second cover, and other half of the book, highlighting Gilbert's work. T

(W) Marc Sobel (A/CA) Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez Love and Rockets by Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario Hernandez is one of the greatest comic series ever created. However, running consistently for 40 years and encompassing a diverse array of characters, settings, and cultural influences, this literary universe can be daunting to explore. With Reading Love and Rockets, writer Marc Sobel offers an accessible entry point into L&R, an invaluable resource to both new readers and fans who want to deepen their understanding of the series.Reading Love and Rockets hones in on the first 50 issues of the series, tracking the evolution of the characters and storylines, as well as the Hernandez Brothers? growth as artists and writers across this 15-year span of creation. Breaking down each issue in sequence, Sobel blends together his own sharp-eyed observations with analysis from a variety of scholars, critics, and fans to provide a well-rounded perspective on the series. Plus, explorations into topics as wide-ranging as magical realism, women?s wrestling, and the Southern California punk scene