(W) Gilbert Hernandez Collecting the first five issues of Gilbert Hernandez's comic book series Blubber, an absurdly X-rated showcase for the most surreally transgressive of Hernandez's short stories. Weirdos (Blubberoo, Mr. Elvis, John Dick, the Mentor), creatures (the Mau Guag, Doogs, and Orlats?), and anthropomorphs (the Cloarks, the Kekeppy) visit places where most comics fear to go. Blubber veers between an absurdist satire of porn (and occasionally nature documentaries) as well as a defiant provocation to those unable to appreciate the difference between cartooning and obscenity. As R. Crumb said, 'It's only lines on paper, folks!' It is also a howlingly funny book, filled with a rogues gallery of colorful comic book monsters (the Pollum, the Junipero Molestat, the mythical Forest Nimmy) and characters (T.A.C. Man, Mr. Hippy, Padre Puto, the Snowman, Baron Mungo, Red Tempest) that echoes the sheer visual imagination of Jack Kirby.

(W/A/CA) Gilbert Hernandez This comics omnibus includes the graphic novels Julio's Day and The Children of Palomar, as well as never-before-collected work by brothers Mario and Gilbert Hernandez, some of which has never been available since its early 2000s run in comic book single issues. Children of Palomar and Other Tales(the fifteenth volume in our Complete Love and Rockets Library omnibuses and the eighth Gilbert volume) begins with 'Me for the Unknown,' uncollected since its original 2001-2004 run in Love and Rockets Vol. II comic books. Written by Mario Hernandez and drawn by Gilbert Hernandez, it traces the Rabelaisian journey of Tagg Lillard. A U.S. citizen with a seemingly perfect life working in Latin America, he escapes a death trap clutching important papers, and an imperious CEO and his manservant pursue him through a land plagued by colonialist/corporate greed. Also collected: one of their joints from 2008, 'Chiro el Indio.' In The Children of Palomar suite of short stories (2006-2007; collected in 2013), there are many mysterious visitors, an apparition that haunts ch

(W/A/CA) Gilbert Hernandez Garden of Flesh is a sexually explicit retelling of the story of Adam and Eve, but one that blurs the lines between erotica and pornography, as only Gilbert Hernandez can. Leave it to Hernandez to explore the story of original Sin from a perspective you didn't get in Sunday school. As an added bonus, longtime Love and Rockets fans will recognize some beloved characters/actors portraying key players.

(W/A/CA) Gilbert Hernandez Kitten, Maribel, and Gaby are childhood friends celebrating their sixteenth birthday. But someone's missing-their fourth friend, Una, is imprisoned in Tijuana. So the girls set out to give Una the ultimate birthday gift-freedom-even if it means taking on an entire city!

(W/A/CA) Gilbert Hernandez Comics luminary Gilbert Hernandez delivers a genre mash-up unlike any other! When Mike Chang wakes up with nothing but a lipstick smudge, someone else's suit, and amnesia, he's thrown into a world of criminal gangs, crime fighters, skin swappers, and a one-eyed girl with bizarre powers! Collects Grip #1-#5.

(W/A/CA) Gilbert Hernandez Collects (and expands!) the graphic novellas 'Hypnotwist' and 'Scarlet by Starlight' from Love and Rockets: New Stories in a handsome 'Double Feature' package. In the Eisner Award-winning wordless comic (silent movie?) 'Hypnotwist,' Hernandez's B-movie star Fritz plays a character who doesn't seem to be going anywhere, until she puts on a pair of glittery pumps. Her wanderings become increasingly surreal as she confronts motherhood, alcoholism, a sinister smiley face, cruelty, and her worst fate: 'Killer' cameos! Includes 16 pages of previously unpublished, additional material. 'Scarlet by Starlight' is a B movie that's Star Trek meets Heart of Darkness. 'Scientists,' or colonizers, are doing research, surrounded by 'primitive' fauna they affectionately nickname or treat like pests. Fritz plays Scarlet, a peaceful, catlike humanoid with a mate and children. When she becomes infatuated with one of the scientists, the fragile web of relationships explodes into violence and death, calling into question who the 'advanced, civilized' creatures really are. The

(W) Gilbert Hernandez & Various (A) Jaime Hernandez & Various (CA) TBD Fantagraphics celebrates the 40th anniversary of Love and Rockets and the debut of the Hernandezes' first published comics with an impressive eight-volume slipcase collecting the series' first 50 issues. Painstakingly compiled in issue by- issue facsimile - including every cover, comics page, letter column, and even ads! - the comic books are presented just as they appeared between 1982 and 1996, recreating not only the reading experience of tens of thousands of fans, but of a particularly fecund period in comics history when a new generation of cartoonists was exploding the idea of what comics could be. An eighth volume contains numerous other essays, reviews, and profiles written concurrently, a virtual history of the growth of Love and Rockets and the simultaneous rise of the literary comics movement of which they were exemplars and trailblazers.

(W/A/CA) Gilbert Hernandez This beautiful, affordable volume collects the first half of Gilbert's modern-day classic, featuring the acclaimed magical-realist tales of Palomar, the Central American hamlet, and its memorable inhabitants.

(W/A/CA) Gilbert Hernandez Comics Dementia collects buried treasures, oddities, and rarities from outposts of the Love and Rockets galaxy by Gilbert Hernandez. Most of these stories haven't been available since the 1990s. Saints, sinners, and the Candidelike Roy mingle in jungles, cocktail lounges, living rooms and outer space. Ditko meets Melville meets Bob Hope-but the party really starts when the Alfred E. Neuman of the Love and Rockets multi-verse, Errata Stigmata, makes her entrance.

(W/A/CA) Gilbert Hernandez High Soft Lisp, and more, the children are growing up and lovers have come and gone. Luba, Petra, and Fritz have all settled in Los Angeles are moving on to the next phases of their lives and careers. Venus shoots a backyard superhero movie, Fritz becomes a B movie actress, and children's TV show host Doralis has the grandest of finales.

(W) Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez (A) Jaime Hernandez, Gilbert Hernandez (CA) Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez The seventh volume of Love and Rockets: New Storiesfinds Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez writing and drawing at the top of their game. In Jaime's stories, Maggie and Hopey take a road trip to visit a 'sick friend' while Ray visits some old sick friends of his own. Gilbert offers a suite of stories, including a sweeping epic of derring-do in which Fritz as Morgan Le Fey teams up with Aladdin; a WWII sci-fi thriller and 'Daughters and Mothers and Daughters,' in which flashbacks to Luba's mother Maria reveal how old secrets affect their family today.

(W/A/CA) Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez Jaime takes us to the punk reunion that Maggie & Hopey were road tripping to in the last issue where lots of old friends and enemies make appearances. Meanwhile, Gilbert serves up the second and concluding part of 'The Magic Voyage of Aladdin,' which establishes the rivalry of its two stars, Fritz and Mila. Who's Mila, you ask? You'll have to read Love and Rockets: New Stories No. 8 to find out!

(W/A/CA) Gilbert Hernandez This crime thriller tells the story of Maria M., whose life south of the border is a tale of sex, drugs, violence, and power. She later marries a drug kingpin, whose son learns Maria's secret, leading to a violent gangland bloodbath. Maria M. collects 2013's Maria M. Book One and the never-before-published Book Two for the first time. Longtime Love & Rockets readers will recognize a metatwist: Maria M. doubles as a 'biopic' of the mother of Hernandez's most beloved character: Luba from Love and Rockets!

(W/A/CA) Gilbert Hernandez Proof That the Devil Loves You is the latest in a series of graphic novels featuring Gilbert Hernandez's character Fritz, a B-movie actress (and half-sister to his iconic Love and Rockets character, Luba) whose hourglass figure has earned her a cult following. While Gilbert often explores Fritz's troubled life off-screen in Love and Rockets, for years he has also been 'adapting' her exploitation films in various forms, including a series of standalone graphic novels that include Chance in Hell, The Troublemakers, Garden of the Flesh, Maria M., and Hypnotwist/Scarlet By Starlight.

(W/A) Gilbert Hernandez & Various (CA) Paul Pope Comics' top talents, including some making their Vertigo debut, take on the classic DC Comics anthology title for strange, scary and sensational sports stories from the four-issue miniseries!