The Troublemakers [Hardcover]

Gilbert Hernandez (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 2009

Low-life drug dealer Dewey Booth has $200,000 that even-lower-lifes want. Wes is a rock and roll loser that only wants to buy a club where nobody can tell him he can't sing or perform. He's known Dewey for years, but that isn't enough to get his dough. Wes needs help. Nala is an uber-stacked bombshell whose pleasure in life is to seduce and then humiliate men dumb enough to fall for her. For half the dough, she agrees to help Wes get Dewey's ill-gotten goods. Things don't go so well when a wily grifter from Wes's past shows up to complicate things. Vincenze is another troublemaker who enjoys wrecking people's plans and wants the Dewey dough, too. In the end, deadly fires ignite, heads literally roll, eyes are shot out and-all Wes wants to do is sing in a rock and roll club. The Troublemakers is Gilbert Hernandez's second, original graphic novel for Fantagraphics, following 2007's Chance In Hell. This hard-boiled, pulp graphic novel will delight longtime Hernandez fans as well as provide a perfect introduction to newcomers to Hernandez's work.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hernandez combines magical realism with the glories of a pulp movie in this comic adaptation of an imaginary movie starring Rosabella Fritz Martinez from Love and Rockets. In this tale, four characters living on the fringes of society cross and double-cross each other in the quest for money and erotic pleasure. Wes, an aspiring rocker, plots to steal $200,000 from drug dealer Dewey, with the help of a bombshell magician's assistant named Nala. The devious pixie Vincenze complicates matters, and soon no one knows whom to trust. Hernandez employs uniform panels in the proportions of a movie screen to emphasize the cinematic inspiration and tone of the story. Each one almost vibrates with the frenetic, desperate energy of the characters as they try to pull off their cons. That energy explodes in the final pages, as the story comes to a dramatic but ambiguous conclusion. In the end, the work offers an homage to B-movies while standing out as a graphic novel. The Troublemakers will please long-term Hernandez fans. It also should serve as a good introduction to newcomers looking to jump into the Love and Rockets universe. (Dec.)
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From Booklist

Hernandez’s work is divisible into Love and Rockets stories chronicling the lives of the extended family of sisters and daughters and freestanding, one-off graphic novels. Here he mingles those two types in a piece that’s ostensibly a B-movie starring sometime-actress Fritz, an L&R mainstay. She plays Nala, one of a trio of grifters—the others are failed rock musician Wes and his ex-lover Vincene—trying to separate drug dealer Dewey from an ill-gotten $200,000. In typical genre fashion, all three are wily but ultimately none-too-bright. The outlandish plot piles double-crosses upon double-crosses, leading up to an over-the-top, apocalyptic denouement. It’s pulpy fun that, appropriately, has the dashed-off, anything-goes spirit of a straight-to-video caper flick. The cinematic feel is accentuated by Hernandez’s use of uniformly sized panels matching the proportions of a wide-screen film. While this self-imposed restriction limits the artist’s visual flourishes, it accentuates his other graphic strengths—powerfully bold compositions, vivid character design—as well as serving to ground the often-hyperbolic goings-on. --Gordon Flagg

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 120 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (December 31, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560979224
• ISBN-13: 978-1560979227
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,195,123 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Eh. Was so-so., September 4, 2011

By 

VaVa Doom (Detroit, MI) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Troublemakers (Hardcover)

This was a super short read. I enjoy most Love and Rockets stuff but this just didn't seem to do it for me. The story just never seemed to go anywhere and didn't provide much humor. Wasn't horrible, but definitely wasn't the best I've seen from Gilbert Hernandez.

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable on its own merits, July 17, 2011

By 

Tim Lieder "Founder of Dybbuk Press" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Troublemakers (Hardcover)

One of the things about the Love & Rockets universe is the intricate manner that every story is more or less related to the other stories. One character from a story will show up in a tangential way in another one and then another one will refer back to the rest of the series. This particular book is a movie starring the sister of Luba from the series about the small town in Mexico where time has more or less stopped. Only this movie is "based on" the "true" story from Speak of the Devil which is a much more straightforward storyline about a peeping tom (or peeping jane) who becomes part of a crime spree.

Got that?

Well it doesn't matter. If you read the Luba stories or the Speak of the Devil book then you can see the way the books are in negotiation with each other with this one as the "official Hollywood" version and the other one as the real one. Anyhow, it might be best to read this one on its own. The three characters in this book are messy and backstabbing and yet strangely endearing. They steal money and rely on each other when they know that they are untrustworthy. This is a fine noir thriller that should keep you reading for an afternoon.