C O M I C - C O N 2 012 A N N I V E R S A R Y C E L E B R A T I O N
Life Drawing
30th
SARY
ANNIVER
HOW LOVE & ROCKETS BROUGHT COMICS DOWN TO EARTH BY Charles Brownstein In 1982 comics were in the process of becoming something new. Creators and publishers were taking chances with more-sophisticated stories that appealed to the savvier clientele frequenting the growing comics specialty store market. The result was a year of auspicious work. Frank Miller, well into his groundbreaking run on Daredevil, shocked fandom by killing off his signature character Elektra. Archie Goodwin and Al Milgrom launched the Epic line at Marvel, creating a home for creator-owned work by domestic and international creators in the Direct Market. Jack Kirby debuted Captain Victory, a creator-owned series through
San Diego independent publisher Pacific Comics. Over in England, newcomer Alan Moore began his landmark stories Marvelman and V For Vendetta in the pages of Warrior magazine. Throughout these and other events rocking the comics world, the underlying theme was that the medium was growing up. Yet all of the comics making waves were still firmly entrenched within traditionally understood escapist genres. It was another 1982 debut that would truly move comics into the realm of unqualified adult fiction—a magazine-sized anthology by three brothers from
Southern California called Love & Rockets. Instigated by eldest brother Mario Hernandez as a showcase for his work and that of his younger siblings Gilbert and Jaime, Love & Rockets started life as a self-published fanzine late in 1981. Gilbert worked up the nerve to send a copy to The Comics Journal, hoping for a review in the firebrand magazine. Instead he received an offer from its editor Gary Groth to publish the comic as an ongoing series. Love & Rockets #1 hit comic store shelves in the summer of 1982, marking the dual entry of Los Bros. Hernandez and Fantagraphics into the comics publishing marketplace. The early issues of Love & Rockets were informed by a completely unchauvinistic history of comics. As boys, the brothers had absorbed their mother’s affection for the medium and were exposed to a wide range of material, from the cartoony kids humor of Dennis the Menace, Hot Stuff, and Archie to the heroes and monsters of Marvel legends Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. In the late ’60s and early ’70s Mario began bringing ZAP and other undergrounds home, introducing the work of greats like R. Crumb and Gilbert Shelton to their visual vocabulary. These influences worked their way into each brother’s art styles. Mario’s work paid homage to the heavy line of underground masters Spain and Rand Holmes. Gilbert mixed the monsters of Gil Kane with the curvy heroines of Wally Wood and infused his stories with an unapologetic sexuality. Jaime was the most polished of the three, and his stories were immediately appealing for their extraordinarily charming heroines who looked like they came from a planet where Dan DeCarlo and Frank Frazetta jammed on an adventure strip. Alongside each other, their comics affirmed the visual diversity of the medium as a powerful means of personal expression. Just as important as the comics history on view in the drawings is that they weren’t the only influences Los Bros. brought into their comics. It was clear that comics were an important aspect of their lives, but they weren’t life itself. Jaime and Gilbert were both steeped in the Los Angeles punk scene, and their
Art © Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez