Love & Rockets

So, when I first entered comics professionally (back in the Stone Age), I began working for a small local company called Fantagraphics. At that time they published The Comics Journal and Amazing Heroes. They were also getting into publishing some independent comics, one of them was Love and Rockets (later on an indie rock band appropriated the name for themselves).

Well, I began read L&R back then because well, two reasons really, they were free (because I worked there), and they were really different and somewhat subversive from what I normally read (Marvel’s DC and the like). It was like an underground Archie, with Hispanic characters, plus it was literally oozing with a sensuality that simply couldn't be found in mainstream funnybooks. Oh yeah, every once in a while it flashed some skin, but while that was what got me started reading them, what kept me was the intricate and powerful stories, as well as the truly intriguing art.

Yep, I loved these books.

Not entirely sure why, but somewhere along the way, I stopped reading them (long after I stopped getting them for free and had been spending my own money buying them). Well, this past Free Comic Book Day I managed to score the free L&R and read the new adventures, and was reminded of how much I truly enjoyed this series. So when I was up in Falmouth, MA at A Blast from the Past, I purchased a new graphic album of L&R adventures and was totally blown away as to how good it still is, and to how much I really missed reading about these characters.

If you have the opportunity to pick up any L&R comics, I highly recommend it, as it is still some of the consistently very best comics that is being produced.