LOVE & ROCKETS Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez at Bart’s

Join us at Bart’s Books in Ojai on Saturday, November 5th at 5:00pm as we welcome Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez, two of the greatest cartoonists in the history of the medium, in honor of L&R 40th Anniversary!

When Gilbert, Jaime, and their brothers were growing up in Oxnard in the ‘60s and ‘70s, comics were everywhere. They seemed to have the only mother in the nation’s history who encouraged them to collect, and even revere, comic books rather than throwing them out.

Watch the PBS Artbound episode about Love & Rockets for free here!

“My brother and I were just doing comics just because it was something to do. And that was great because just using the basic background of Oxnard, which is agricultural, low key — but having our enthusiasm for music — punk music, regular rock and roll music — movies, comics. We just decided to set our comics in a different place than normal. Comics at the time were mostly superhero in New York, but we just thought, “What it would be like doing comics where there’s nothing going on?” said Gilbert.

In 1981, Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez wrote “Love and Rockets #1,” a self-published comic book edited by their brother Mario. They sold that first issue at conventions for a dollar apiece and submitted it to be reviewed at The Comics Journal. Instead, Gary Groth, offered to republish it through Fantagraphics. The brothers accepted and made graphic novel publishing history. Over the course of L&R’s multi-decade run, its characters have aged in real time, lending these stories a depth and weight that few literary works achieve. Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez are now recognized as two of the greatest cartoonists in the history of the medium — award-winning, world-renowned, critically acclaimed. Love and Rockets has appeared in a variety of formats over the years and continues to this day, but the original 50-issue run represents a milestone in comics history.

Fantagraphics is celebrating and honoring the 40th anniversary of Love and Rockets and the debut of the Hernandez’s’ first published comics with a gigantic eight-volume slipcase reprinting each issue in a facsimile edition.

Fantagraphics honors the original quarterly format by presenting the comics as they appeared between 1981 and 1996, recreating not only the reading experience of tens of thousands of fans, but of a particularly fecund period in comics history when a new generation of cartoonists was exploding the idea of what comics could be. Painstakingly recreated in issue-by-issue facsimile, this boxed set includes every cover, comics page, and letter column (even advertising!) in seven hardcover volumes. An eighth volume densely collates selected essays, reviews, and profiles that appeared in the popular (and unpopular) press between 1981 and 1996, along with over 100 pages of additional, rarely-seen comics from the period by all three Brothers, plus dozens of book and magazine covers – a virtual history of the growth of Love and Rockets and the simultaneous rise of the literary comics movement of which they were exemplars and trailblazers.

Bart’s Books is honored to welcome legendary Oxnard authors Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez on Saturday, November 5th at 5:00 pm. A selection of Love & Rockets graphic novels will be available to purchase & the special 40th anniversary boxed set will be available to pre-order at the event! RSVP guarantees your spot in our courtyard. Stay in the loop about our courtyard events by joining our newsletter!