Heartbreak Soup (Love & Rockets) [Paperback]

Gilbert Hernandez (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 7, 2007

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.

Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2007, Love and Rockets is finally released in its most accessible form yet: As a series of compact, thick, affordable, mass-market volumes that present the whole story in perfect chronological order. This volume collects the first half of Gilbert Hernandez's acclaimed magical-realist tales of "Palomar," the small Central American town, beginning with the groundbreaking "Sopa de Gran Pena" (which introduces most of his main cast of characters as children, plus the imposing newcomer Luba), and continuing on through such modern-day classics as "Ecce Homo," "Act of Contrition," "Duck Feet," and the great love story "For the Love of Carmen." Black-and-white comics throughout

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The Love and Rockets reprints may be my favorite publishing project of the last five years, and there are a lot of fine projects going on... the smaller, bargain-priced volumes [are] the perfect vehicle for that material, the best comics series of all time.” (Tom Spurgeon - The Comics Reporter )

“I've never seen anything else in comics—I guess there might be something in literature—but in comics there's never been anybody that's touched what the Hernandez brothers have.” (R. Crumb )

“An addictive soap opera, replete with humor and heart.” (The Washington Post )

About the Author

Gilbert Hernandez lives in Las Vegas, NV with his wife and daughter. He is co-creator of the long-running, award-winning, and critically-acclaimed series Love and Rockets. His books include Chance in Hell, The Troublemakers, Luba, Palomar, Speak of the Devil, Sloth, The High Soft Lisp, Love from the Shadows, Girl Crazy, Yeah! and many books in the Love and Rockets series. 

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (March 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560977833
• ISBN-13: 978-1560977834
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #44,652 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #18 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Publishers > Fantagraphics

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Marquez in Comic Form, November 20, 2007

By 

P. Gurnamal "Geeky Rockstar" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Heartbreak Soup (Love & Rockets) (Paperback)

A surrealist, sometimes non-linear, story of generations of families in one small, Mexican town. I would say that it felt like I was reading something akin to Gabrieal Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude in comic form. I loved it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Comic in Graphic Novel format, December 12, 2009

By 

M. Ruiz "Lost Inner Space" (Nu-Jork, Ju-Es-Ay) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Heartbreak Soup (Love & Rockets) (Paperback)

These are great illustrated stories. They have the feel of true literature. The drawing style is almost naive but sophisticated in its graphic clarity and concise storytelling. I marvel at Mr. Hernandez' ability to convey emotion through a simple series of panel designs. Great memorable characters and heartfelt dialogue. As I read I got the impression that these are true stories, although a bit exaggerated. Originally released monthly, bi-monthly as 32-46 page comicbooks. These stories are true classics of the comicbook form, and now released as Graphic Novels. Fantastic Comics!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Stories, June 16, 2011

By 

Ricky Pooski "cool" (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heartbreak Soup (Love & Rockets) (Paperback)

Moving back and forth in time, spanning approximately 20 years, this book represents an epic in storytelling. Set in the isolated town of Palomer it moves back and forth through time telling different stories of the residents in their youth and their adulthood. Starting with a prologue about the town midwife and how she helped birth most of the children and watched them grow up. It sets up the first story in which you think that Soledad and Manuel are going to be the main characters of the entire book, but it becomes a self-contained narrative about their positions in the town and their unspoken love that ends tragically even as they circle each other. The next story skips years into the future and you see the kids who are hanging out and being punks as grown men trying to figure out their lives and deal with their wives as well as the children that keep showing up.

What makes this book so amazing is the way it can seamlessly move from one character to the other, showing everyone from a multitude of perspectives filling in blanks left from previous stories and yet keeping some mysteries intact. The only criticism I can make concerns the way certain characters don't seem to age - particularly Luba who looks like Sophia Lauren in her 20s throughout the book. Still that's a very minor quibbling and for a book that succeeds in being the graphic novel tribute to One Hundred Years of Solitude (P.S.) its not important in the overall enjoyment.