Love and Rockets #1
Love and Rockets #1 is the founding document of the American alternative comics movement: a self-published, magazine-format anthology by three Mexican-American brothers from Oxnard, California, it placed complex, working-class Latina characters and punk-inflected storytelling at the center of comics at a moment when the medium was almost entirely dominated by superhero publishers. The issue marks the debut of Maggie Chascarrillo, Hopey Glass, Penny Century, and Luba — characters who would age in real time across four decades and become among the most fully realized figures in the history of graphic fiction. Its DIY origin story demonstrated that ambitious, character-driven, mature comics could exist entirely outside Marvel and DC, helping to open the door for the broader indie and literary comics explosion of the 1980s and 1990s. The series it launched won Harvey Awards for Best Continuing Series in 1989 and 1990 and has been critically compared to the foundational works of Herriman, Segar, and Windsor McCay.
"Love and Rockets #1" kicks off with "BEM [Chapter 1]," a strikingly personal exploration of artistic struggle as Jaime Hernandez portrays Isabel, a writer paralyzed by creative doubt, who ventures into a cave and confronts surreal visions after consuming a mysterious potion. This early chapter, drawn, inked, and lettered entirely by Jaime, captures the raw, dreamlike turbulence of inspiration, all framed by a striking cover by Gilbert Hernandez that hints at the story’s otherworldly tone.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
In 1981, brothers Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario Hernandez — all raised on a mix of Carl Barks, Archie comics, Jack Kirby, and the underground comix of Robert Crumb — self-published a 32-page black-and-white anthology using a printing press accessed through a friend of Mario's, then hand-folded and stapled all 800 copies themselves, selling them at conventions for one dollar each. They sent a copy to The Comics Journal for review; Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth was so struck by the work that he offered the brothers a full publishing deal, and within a year Fantagraphics republished the material as an expanded 68-page magazine-format issue with a new color cover — the foundation of what became Fantagraphics' flagship title. The Fantagraphics edition included a half-page introduction by Groth comparing the brothers' work to Krazy Kat, classic Popeye, and Little Nemo.
Trivia · 8 facts
- The 1981 self-published issue was a 32-page, 8.5×11-inch black-and-white magazine, produced in a print run of 800 copies, hand-assembled by the brothers themselves.
- First appearances of Maggie Chascarrillo, Hopey Glass, and Penny Century (Jaime Hernandez characters) in the story 'Mechan-X' and accompanying Locas vignettes.
- First appearance of Luba (Gilbert Hernandez character) in the multi-part story 'BEM,' though this early version is generally considered out-of-continuity with her canonical Palomar characterization.
- First appearances of Rand Race, Isabel Ruebens, Castle Radium, Duke Morales, Yax Haxley, Paulo P. Piñata, Leonore, Babe, La Chota, Bang, and Inez across the issue's interlocking stories.
- Gilbert's 'BEM' was originally a two-part story in the 1981 self-published version; when Fantagraphics commissioned the expanded edition, Gilbert restructured and extended it to five chapters.
- The Fantagraphics Vol. 1 #1 (September 1982) is an expanded, 68-page version of the 1981 zine, adding stories, a color cover, and Gary Groth's editorial introduction — making the two editions meaningfully distinct.
- Material from this issue was collected in 'Music for Mechanics' (October 1985, the first Complete Love & Rockets volume), in the Love and Rockets Library's 'Maggie the Mechanic' and 'Amor y Cohetes' volumes (2007–2008), and in the 40th Anniversary 'Love and Rockets: The First Fifty' facsimile box set (Fantagraphics, 2022).
- The series went on to win Harvey Awards for Best Continuing Series in 1989 and 1990; Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez were inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Industry Hall of Fame in 2017.
Cast · 16 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Isabel, suffering writer's block, drives into a cave and experiences a series of hallucinations after drinking a potion in this visualization of the creative process.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).