How a 40-Year Old Comic Series Grew Out of a Punk Mentality
For one trio of brothers raised in Oxnard, there was no use in asking for permission to make their comics. They didn't need it. With all the trademarks of an '80s punk mentality, Mario, Jaime and Gilbert began sharing their work on their own.
Fast forward a few decades and the fandom for the Hernandez brothers still runs deep. There are plenty of YouTube videos in which fans and artists alike praise the ways in which the brothers have shaped the history of American comics. They didn't see comics like theirs, so they made them and sold them.
Fans quickly followed, and their fervor remained steady, as did the brothers' creative output. "Love & Rockets," the brothers' ongoing series — now helmed by Gilbert and Jaime — is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
The ripple effects are manifold: there are the fans, who see themselves represented in comic pages for the first time. There are the readers who fall headfirst into the brothers' mash-up of science fiction, magical realism and down-to-earth, punk-forward storylines. And there's everyone else in between.
In one video, Chris of YouTube channel ComicTropes breaks down the major tropes that make up the staying power of the Hernandez brothers' comics. He puts sticky notes on the wall and takes a shot every time he sees another trope, steadily growing drunker. Remezcla reporter Barbara Calderón spoke to a fan, who got a tattoo of the iconic character Maggie on her arm.
When the brothers hear about the latter anecdote over a Zoom interview, they seem impressed and surprised, as if every new fan is still a thrill to them. Gilbert says that any time new readers say the duo's work is their new favorite, he feels especially proud.
"This is stuff we did 35 years ago, some of the stuff they're talking about," says Gilbert. "That makes me very happy, that we can connect to a younger, new audience which obviously has different outlets… to say they like our comic as well as modern entertainment is very good. That means our writing has lasted."
Many reports of the brothers' trajectory point out that when "Love & Rockets" was released in the early '80s, the mainstream world wondered where the brothers came from. Gilbert says they'd been making comics for most of their lives.
The brothers' mom collected comic books in the '40s and often copied drawings of characters. Mario, the older brother, started collecting comics like Robert Crumb's "Zap Comix." As part of the tapestry of their cultural influences, Mexican music and rock 'n roll played in their home. Gilbert watched "so many hours of crappy movies" that informed his sci-fi sensibilities. The brothers soon started going to live shows every weekend, seeing bands like the Germs and X. Punk taught them to follow their instincts.
"We just wanted to do what we wanted to do, and there was no one to tell us no," says Jaime. "And if they did say no, we weren't going to listen… it was very liberating to do it this way, because we had nothing to lose."
...let's just do something different, something we want to do.Gilbert Hernandez
Rather than aiming for a job at Marvel or DC, the brothers forged their own path. They sent the first issue of "Love & Rockets" to The Comics Journal for review consideration. Instead of a write-up, they received an offer for publication from Fantagraphics.
Their tangled web of characters fall in and out of love, headbang at live shows and hop across parties and friend groups. They age over the years, right there on the comics' pages. It's hard to distill the brothers' universe down into a sound bit. Within the universe of "Love & Rockets,: Jaime wrote issues such as "Maggie the Mechanic" which follows Maggie and her occasional-lover Hopey, who live in the fiction neighborhood called Hoppers (it's also part of the "Locas" storyline). Gilbert brought to life "Beyond Palomar" — Palomar being a main storyline, and a place inspired by Oxnard — which follows Luba and her family's migration to the U.S. On the other end of the spectrum, volumes like "Amor y Cohotes" are billed as Los Bros Hernandez.
When they grew more in the mainstream spotlight, Gilbert says they were nudged to include more male characters.
"I was like, why? There's thousands of comics about guys — TV shows, movies, great books, great movies with guys," says Gilbert. "So let's just do something different, something we want to do."
Another major theme of the duo's work lies in their homage to Southern California.
The fictional town of Palomar is largely inspired by Oxnard, where the brothers grew up. Jaime says he wanted to create stories about what he knew — and he realized the value of comics about SoCal rather than the usual suspects (i.e. New York).
"I did embrace it with a feeling of pride because this is my town," says Jaime. "Most of the people in the world don't even know this exists. So that drove me a lot."
Gilbert echoes that sentiment, stressing that "Love & Rockets" has always been about portraying the humanity of its characters.
"'Love and Rockets' was simply using our past because we figured nobody else knew it," says Gilbert. "Nobody else was going to do it, or we didn't like the way they were doing it. We thought, Latinos are funny. Latinos are alive… It is just an open world that nobody knew about, and we knew it was rich and funny and fun and loving and crazy."
But the influence of "Love and Rockets" goes beyond Southern California; one YouTube commenter says they first read the brothers' work in a Scotland comic book shop. The brothers say not much has changed about the way they approach the comics; it all still comes back to the fans.
"We're just going to go with our feelings, go with our DIY attitude and just be true to ourselves and to the readers," says Gilbert. "It's very important to hear when the readers really like our work, because we made it — we connected, we did it. That part is the finishing touch."
Four decades into their careers, Jaime often thinks back to the brothers' love of comics as kids.
"I still think there's that connection — that we're two little guys sitting back to back in a bedroom drawing," says Jaime. "I still get that feeling."
