Customer Reviews

Love & Rockets Vol. 12: Poison River

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I am really tired of the Gilbert vs. Jaimie debate. When i was younger I prefereed Jaimie because I was a punk and his art looked cooler. But that was it. Jaimie is certainly one of the most incredible artists ever to work in comics, and his stories have been wonderful as well. However, I can't believe people would say Gilbert is a poor artist! He has a distinctly different style that is distinctly different. It is expressive and emotive and powerful and is used with great skill in Poison River. Drawing on folk art and underground artists from Robert Crumb to Jim Woodring, his work is fresh and exciting. Gilbert has spent way too much time in his brothers shadow, and deserves credit for the quality of his art. His skill at storytelling has been critically acclaimed enough that I needen't belabour the point, Poison River is an epic and fascinating tale of sex, politics, violence, family and love.

I was recently lucky enough to hear both Hernandez brothers speak as guests at a comics symposium at the local university. One of the most surprising moments for me was when Gilbert, who has always been one of my biggest heroes as a cartoonist, called Poison River one of his least favorite of his own works. I have been in awe of Poison River for many years. I honestly believe that Gilbert's work is still getting better today, after 30 years, but if I had to name one section of his career that condensed and exemplified everything I love about what he does, it would be Poison River. It's like a prequel, telling the story of how Luba and her family ended up in Palomar in the early issues of Love and Rockets. The events of her life are so bizarre and complex that, despite all the Lynchian insanity, it feels somehow true to life. It is chock full of gangsters but never feels like the gangster genre. Many seem to complain that it becomes too confusing as various factions melt in and out of each other, and even Gilbert Hernandez himself cited this as a problem with the work during his lecture, stating that he got bogged down by the plot in the middle and rushed his way through too quickly to resolve it comfortably. This is a valid criticism but from my own point of view, the total chaos of the plot was always a strength of Poison River, not a weakness. When Hernandez gets to the point where the scene shifts and something important happens in EVERY SINGLE PANEL for dozens of pages, his mastery of comics technique starts to make me dizzy. His art and storytelling improve considerably over the course of the book. The fact that it's really confusing is important--Luba herself never really knows everything that happened, and it is her story. Trying to figure out what the hell went on in the middle section of Poison River, and never quite getting there, is a big part of the book's appeal to me as a multiple read!! So in short, don't be put off by naysayers--Poison River is Gilbert Hernandez's most brutal and heartbreaking representation of human lives...this oversized out-of-print version is the coolest but the modern version, under the title Beyond Palomar, collects this and Gilbert's concurrent punk rock serial Love and Rockets X in a really readable package.

As a huge fan of Jaime Hernandez's work, I never really 'got' that of his brother Gilbert, and generally ignored his sections in the comics. The artwork seemed sloppy and unattractive, the stories seemed a touch sophomoric - relentlessly and earnestly beating us over the head with obvious truths in P.C.-themed narratives. Perhaps all that could be forgiven if there was some warmth or humor at the core of Gilbert's world, but there seems instead to be an atmosphere of nastiness. He loves to use (and show) brutality to make a point, and the characters don't have any empathy with each other. In summary, avoid and concentrate instead on the awesome stuff from Jaime.