Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories (Love and Rockets) [Hardcover]

Gilbert Hernandez (Author)

Book Description

Series: A Love and Rockets Book | Publication Date: July 2003

From the pages of Love & Rockets, an intimate epic from south of the border. For the first time ever, Fantagraphics is proud to present a single-volume collection of Gilbert Hernandez's "Heartbreak Soup" stories from Love & Rockets, which along with RAW magazine defined the modern literary comics movement of the post-underground generation. This massive volume collects every "Heartbreak Soup" story from 1993 to 2002 in one 500-page deluxe hardcover edition, presenting the epic for the first time as the single novel it was always intended to be. Palomar is the mythical Central American town where the "Heartbreak Soup" stories take place. The stories weave in and out of the town's entire population, crafting an intricate tapestry of Latin American experience. Hernandez's densely plotted and deeply imagined tales are often compared with magic realist authors like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende (House of the Spirits). His depictions of women and Mexican-American experience have been universally lauded as the best examples the artform has to offer. Luba, the guiding spirit of Palomar since the outset, has been hailed by The Nation, Rolling Stone, and Time magazine as one of the great characters of contemporary American fiction. Hernandez's work, in addition to the obvious magic realist comparisons, shares an affinity with other Latin American and Spanish writer/artists, like Frida Kahlo, Federico Garcia Lorca and Pablo Picasso, all of whom applied a surrealist eye to what they saw and experienced. Palomar follows the lives of its residents from Luba's arrival in the town to her exit, twenty years later. Included are such classic tales as "Sopa de Gran Pena," "Ecce Homo," "An American in Palomar," "Human Diastrophism," and "Farewell, Mi Palomar." Palomar presents one of the richest accomplishments in the history of the artform in its ideal format for the first time, making it a must-have for longtime Love & Rockets fans and new readers alike. 500 pages b/w illustrations

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1983, Hernandez started writing and drawing short stories in Love and Rockets about a little central American town called Palomar and the interconnected lives of its inhabitants. The "Heartbreak Soup" stories, as they were called, established his reputation, and this mammoth, hugely compelling book collects the first 13 years' worth of them. The earliest stories in the book owe more to magical realism and Gabriel Garcia Marquez than to anything that had been done in comics before. But in later pieces, like the harrowing "Human Diastrophism" and "Luba Conquers the World," Hernandez's style is entirely his own: brutally telegraphic (he can capture an entire emotionally complex scene in a single panel, then imply even more by abruptly cutting to the middle of a later scene), loaded with insight about the bumpy terrain of familial and sexual relationships, swinging wildly in tone between suffocating darkness and sunny charm. His characters have enormous, tangled family trees, and he gradually unfolds their histories: there are some plot developments he sets up a decade or more in advance. And for all the bold roughness of his drawing style, Hernandez is a master of facial expression and body language. He tracks dozens of characters across decades of their lives, and their ages and their distant family resemblances are instantly recognizable, as are their all too human dreams and failings. This is a superb introduction to the work of an extraordinary, eccentric and very literary cartoonist.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

[T]he graphic equivalent to the fabulism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Nobel laureate.

(The Times [London] )

A high point in the comics form, conventional in idiom, but not comparable to any strips before it.

(The Washington Post )

[...] This is a superb introduction to the work of an extraordinary, eccentric and very literary cartoonist.

(Publishers Weekly )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books; 1 edition (July 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560975393
• ISBN-13: 978-1560975397
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.9 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #148,226 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #73 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Publishers > Fantagraphics

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A living, breathing town..., January 28, 2004

By 

Tom Knapp "Rambles.NET editor" (Lancaster, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories (Love and Rockets) (Hardcover)

Palomar is just shy of being an offbeat spot on your tourist map. Gilbert Hernandez, who created the Love & Rockets universe with brother Jaime, has focused much of his attention on this small Latin American town and its people, and over the years it has grown into a living, breathing town. Now, the many tales of Palomar have been collected by Fantagraphics in a new hardback edition that brings its simple joys and tragedies together.

The stories aren't always linear, and characters gain solidity as Gilbert leaps back and forth in the timeline, introducing some as children, some as adults, and filling in various romances, breakups and acts of violence along the way. Key friendships hold firm from start to finish, and it's fascinating to watch them evolve as some characters go their separate ways and others grow closer than ever.

Gilbert's black-and-white art is crisp, clean and realistic. His people are believable; some are beautiful, some ugly, others average -- like those you'd find in any town. Their personalities are also highly defined, and it's fun to see them change as the years roll along.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an imaginary town as real as my own, beautiful and tragic, April 7, 2004

By 

fuzzuck (toronto, canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories (Love and Rockets) (Hardcover)

I didn't read these tales in order, and it didn't really matter. I came to know Palomar as one comes to know any community: through rumour and gossip, little stories told in whispers that slowly piece themselves together. Gilberts' ruggedly elegant linework doesn't get him the same kind of attention that Jaimes' masterly draughtmanship attracts, but to my mind the better writer of the two is Beto, hands down. 'Human Diastrophism', included in this volume, about a serial killer who wreaks havoc on the hearts and minds of the residents of Palomar, is by far the best story published under the 'Love and Rockets' banner, a 120+ page yarn that represents one of the high points in comic art. And that's just one of the many, MANY brilliant moments in this massive 512 page volume. Personally, I wish 'Palomar' had of included 'Poison River', the collection chronicling the early life of Luba, the central character in the Palomar oeuvre, and one of the most complex and ambiguous women in modern fiction... but thats a minor quibble. This album is a masterpiece of labyrinthine plotting and loving character development. It is so rare to find an artist patient enough to spend over twenty years on a story, mapping out the soul of a town and its' people; that kind of passion and integrity deserves to be rewarded with your attention. An incredible work.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Comic Book to throw at "I don't read comics" people, November 20, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories (Love and Rockets) (Hardcover)

I've read Love & Rockets since about 1984. When a new issue of L&R comes out, I always read the Jaime Hernandez half first. I admit it, his art is much more atttractive to me than Gilbert's, and I identify with his characters a lot more, too. But then I settle down and dig into the Beto half. Whereas Jaime's Hoppers sagas could be described as Latino-punk soap operas, it is Beto that is creating new folklore. As much as I love Jaime's clean lines and cute-as-hell females, it is obvious whose craft shows the most depth, the most texture, and the most care, not only between Los Bros Hernandez, but between them and nearly every other comics creator ever. Earthy, sublime, funny, absurd, horrific, romantic, pornographic (in a good way), and honest are only a handful of inadequate adjectives to describe aspects Gilbert's work. This volume represents a large portion of his life, both in terms of time spent creating the contents, and what I'm sure is inside him. To read this is to see a competely new world, one that is the pure encapsulation of one part of the real world.

Now, when is the Complete Maggie & Hopey coming out?