Blubber #2
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeBlubber #2 marks a deliberate narrative escalation within Gilbert Hernandez's most transgressive solo project: it is the issue where human characters enter a cast that had previously consisted entirely of invented creatures and anthropomorphs, signaling the series' gradual drift from alien surrealism toward recognizable — if grotesquely distorted — human behavior. The appearance of Pupusi, a character with roots in Hernandez's long-running Love and Rockets universe, knits the Blubber world into a broader personal mythology, demonstrating that even Hernandez's most unrestrained work participates in a continuous, self-referential creative conversation. As part of the six-issue run that Fantagraphics later preserved in a hardcover collection, issue #2 sits at the formal center of one of the most openly provocative pamphlet comics published by a mainstream alternative press in the 2010s, pushing against the implicit content boundaries of the direct-market format in a tradition extending from underground comix through Hernandez's own earlier adult work Birdland.
In "XXX Superstar Pupusi and Her Pals!", Gilbert Hernandez delivers a delightfully bizarre and offbeat adventure where an out-of-shape robot named Tamperrrrr flings the Chuntomee high into the air, only to find himself outmatched by the surprisingly formidable Junipero Molestat. With his signature blend of surreal humor and eccentric character design, Hernandez crafts a story that’s as unpredictable as it is visually arresting—drawn, inked, and lettered entirely by him, with a cover that matches the interior’s chaotic charm.
In "Tamperrrrrr," a lanky, out-of-shape robot named Tamperrrrr accidentally launches the Chuntomee high into the air with a clumsy throw—only to find himself quickly outmatched by the surprisingly fierce Junipero Molestat. The story unfolds in four pages of chaotic, slapstick humor, where oversized antics and absurd physics take center stage.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Blubber was conceived as a standalone outlet for the most extreme, unconstrained corner of Gilbert Hernandez's imagination — material that fell outside even the generous editorial latitude of Love and Rockets. Hernandez wrote, drew, and lettered every issue himself, with Fantagraphics serving as publisher throughout the series' run from 2015 to approximately 2020–2021. Issue #2 shipped to comic shops on January 27, 2016, and was solicited under the Fantagraphics 'Adults Only' imprint, continuing the format established by issue #1: a 24-page, black-and-white interior pamphlet with a color cover by Hernandez.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published January 27, 2016 by Fantagraphics Books; 24 pages, black-and-white interiors with a color cover, adults-only rating.
- All story, art, and cover work by Gilbert Hernandez ('Beto') — a complete solo production with no additional credited collaborators.
- Issue #2 is the first installment in the series to introduce human characters alongside the established menagerie of invented creatures and anthropomorphs.
- Pupusi — a minor character originating in Hernandez's Love and Rockets stories and also featured in the 2016 graphic novel Garden of the Flesh — appears in the segment titled 'XXX Superstar Pupusi And Her Pals,' one of her earliest appearances in the Blubber series.
- Confirmed story segments include: 'XXX Superstar Pupusi And Her Pals,' 'T.A.C. Man vs. The Pollum,' 'Who Fears the Froat?,' 'Sweet,' 'Tamperrrrrr,' 'Padre Puto,' and 'The Marsh Man's Folly.'
- T.A.C. Man, introduced in Blubber #1, continues into issue #2 with the story 'T.A.C. Man vs. The Pollum,' a follow-up to the carnivorous Pollum storyline from the debut issue.
- The Blubber series ran for six issues (2015–2021) and was subsequently collected in a hardcover edition published by Fantagraphics in 2022.
- Critically, the series was positioned by reviewers and Fantagraphics itself as a deliberate exploration of the line between cartooning and obscenity, drawing comparisons to the underground comix tradition of R. Crumb.
Cast · 4 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Blubber #[nn] (2022)
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