Letty Chavez

Letty Chavez is a supporting character in Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar stories, inhabiting the richly drawn world of Latin American small-town life and its diaspora that runs through Love and Rockets alongside figures like Maggie Chascarillo and Hopey Glass.

Stepping out of the sun-drenched, emotionally complex world of Palomar and its orbit, Letty Chavez made her debut in Love and Rockets #13 in 1985 — right in the heart of the Bronze Age — introduced by the incomparable Gilbert Hernandez as part of one of alternative comics' most celebrated universes. Over a span of nearly three decades, she moves through the pages of Love and Rockets and Love and Rockets: New Stories, keeping vivid company with beloved figures like Maggie Chascarillo, Hopey Glass, and Speedy Ortiz. Her appearances are select rather than sprawling, which gives each one a certain weight — in Hernandez's richly human storytelling, even a supporting presence carries real texture and feeling. For fans who love literary comics with deep roots and lasting resonance, tracking down Letty Chavez is exactly the kind of rewarding dig that makes collecting Love and Rockets such a joy.