Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: Love and Rockets

Jaime Hernandez — Love & Other Strange Tales Of Summer

Original Art and The Artists

“Love and the Space Phantom,” Strange Tales II #2, January 2011

Jaime Hernandez writing and drawing a light-hearted story with the women of Marvel? In their beach best? How did I miss this one?

Scott Eder broke up the originals to the complete short story back in this past Spring and I happened to see it just as it became available.

All the pages are fun, and the cover (with the goofy supervillains lurking in the background) is naturally terrific —and priced accordingly — but I think I did pretty well with this great one-of-a-kind splash.

Extra dividend: The published story features spot-on coloring by the uber-talented Laura Allred.

Jaime (Xaime) Hernandez — ?!?!?

Original Art and The Artists

Centrifugal Bumble-Puppy #4, December 1987

All-star creator Jaime Hernandez delivers a great cover — full of quirky fun — for the short-lived Fantagraphics humor publication, Centrifugal Bumble-Puppy.

Coincidentally, this cover appeared at the same time (December 1987) as one of Jamie’s best-known Love & Rockets covers, #24, which, among other swipes and homages, has been purloined by a number of musical acts for posters.

(That original published Jamie image remains iconic — It’s still available as a t-shirt, nearly forty years later.)

Sadly, the Bumble-Puppy cover isn’t available as a t-shirt.

 Not yet, anyway.

Jaime Hernandez — Brotherly Love

Original Art and The Artists

Love and Rockets #7, July 1984

Concluding our month long celebration of the “Independents” — Independent creators and projects that continue to impact the comic book medium.

Love and Rockets is likely the most important “alternative” comic book of all time.

For nearly 40 years, The Hernandez Brothers — Gilbert, Jaime and Mario — have brought their unique vision to comics storytelling, completely independent in form and format. There has been nothing quite like it in comics before or since.

To paraphrase Frank Sinatra, they did it their way. And their way was the road to excellence.

This early L&R page by Jaime Hernandez captures the essence of the storytelling and art style that has made him a favorite for years.

In other words, a creator’s creator.

“I was an enormous fan,” says Neil Gaiman, the multi-award-winning author and graphic novelist. “I still am. I don’t really understand why the material of Love and Rockets isn’t widely regarded as one of the finest pieces of fiction of the last 35 years. Because it is.”

Don’t worry Neil. I think the world caught up to its greatness.

The first issue of Love and Rockets was self published with a print run of about 800 copies. It caught the eye of Fantagraphics, and quickly became one of their most important projects.