Love and Rockets Links: 1/10

charity: Jaime donated items for the successful fundraising campaign over the holiday season for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

preview: Kim Thompson provides us with a glimpse of the back cover to Jaime's much-anticipated GOD AND SCIENCE: THE RETURN OF THE TI-GIRLS.

Gilbert Gets Some, Love That Is: Michael DeForge influenced by, and Marjorie Liu reading his POISON RIVER book.

ebay: Here's a rare French editon of "Death of Speedy"-era Jaime LOCAS stories, titled MODERN SEX.

ebay: Here's a wild Zippo lighter with appropriated Jaime graphics. Great scans.

ebay: Looks like no one bought this super-rare punk rock concert flyer supposedly by Jaime.

*SPOTLIGHT ON TOM SPURGEON:

1. "Deconstructing Comics Podcast #300: Jaime Hernandez" Tom Spurgeon is interviewed by Tim and Kumar on the subject of Jaime Hernandez.

2. "Deconstructing Comics Podcast #305: Gilbert Hernandez" Tom Spurgeon is interviewed by Tim and Kumar on the subject of Gilbert Hernandez. (sorry if these links don't work)

3. I always enjoy Tom Spurgeon's "CR Holiday Interview" series, here's a link that takes you to all of this year's entries. It's stunning to look at the full list and realize that back-in-the-day this would have been a whole year's worth of interviews in THE COMICS JOURNAL. The interview with Kim Thompson is especially recommended by us, as he's kind of the editor of LOVE AND ROCKETS (although Mr. Thompson makes it sound sound like he's Jimmy Olsen to Los Bros Perry White!).

Hernandez Family Appearances at Comic-con 2010

LOVE AND ROCKETS: NEW STORIES 3 cover image (c) 2010 Jaime Hernandez via

Special announcement
from Mike Baehr at FlogBlog: Gilbert's daughter Ms. Hernandez will be signing at Comic-con 2010, along with the elder Hernandez's, in support of the debut of her THE ADVENTURES OF CRYSTAL GIRL #3. Be there or miss out!

Courtesy of Mike Baehr of FlogBlog and Heidi MacDonald at The Beat here are Gilbert and Jaime's (and Mario, too) signing schedule at Comic-con 2010:
Thursday 7/22: Gilbert and Mario at Dark Horse table (#2615) from 1:00-2:00.
Thursday 7/22: Gilbert and Jaime at Fantagraphics table (#1718) from 2:00-4:00
Friday 7/23: Gilbert and Jaime at Fantagraphics table (#1718) from Noon-2:00
Saturday 7/24: Gilbert and Jaime at Fantagraphics table (#1718) from 3:00-5:00
Sunday 7/25: Gilbert and Jaime at Fantagraphics table (#1718) from 2:00-4:00


When you are done experiencing the Hernandez's and buying all their new work, you ought to check out the awesomeness that is Tom Spurgeon on his many Comic-con panel appearances. Mr. Spurgeon is a favorite here, if I may say so while destroying whatever thin line of impartiality I may have had, and his interviewing skills and comics knowledge should make all these varied panels even more enjoyable.

Re-reading Love and Rockets

Tom Spurgeon wrote a great post on his comics reporter website about comics you might re-read and how they might help you reflect back on life in general and specific moments mirrored in comics memories, in particular. I immediately agreed with his choice of Jaime Hernandez's "Death of Speedy" storyline, since I just reread the whole thing a couple months ago. This is probably one of Jaime's shorter storylines, so that may have something to do with why I always pull this story out rather than "100 rooms" or "House of Raging Women" (not to mention the endless saga beginning after the "Death of Speedy"-storyline continuing through the end of the original series). In my opinion, it's Jaime's most realistic story as there really are no fantastic or supernatural elements until the very end (when they really hit hard, emotionally). The artwork is not as good as Jaime's current style, but how I remember copying those panels over and over again when I was in high school. Jaime's style back then was kind of uneven, in a GOOD way, as there were highly realistic renderings next to Harry Lucey-level hijinx next to old-style Mechanics renderings. Just a wonderful transistional phase that I really bought into at the time it was published, and of course still do every time I reread it. However, I didn't recall HOW much I bought into Jaime's story until I read this passage by Spurgeon, "[...]and most importantly have broken with the simple desire it invoked in me to want to live the way Hernandez depicts these people living their lives[...]". I identify with that statement, so much, as I was a very shy, isolated person when these characters dropped in my lap, so to speak. Not necessarily wanting to be a gang member, but just hanging out on the fringe of existence as Ray and Maggie and their ancilliary characters were doing in this story. The last paragraph of Spurgeon's post is probably my favorite writing on LOVE AND ROCKETS I've come across, it definitely lives up to the source that inspired it.

P.S. Steve Ditko's AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and Carl Barks WDC&S 10-pagers, also make my short list.