Love and Rockets #10
Love and Rockets #10 (January 1985) arrives at a pivotal moment in the series' evolution, when both Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez were deepening their respective fictional worlds beyond their early genre-adventure roots. Jaime's installment of the 'Las Mujeres Perdidas' arc — in which Maggie and pro-wrestler Rena Titañon navigate the aftermath of their Chepan adventure while Hoppers grieves Maggie as dead — marks a decisive shift toward the emotionally grounded, real-time character aging that would come to define the Locas saga. Gilbert's two Palomar contributions, 'Act of Contrition' and 'The Laughing Son,' demonstrate his expanding range: the former a tender, magic-realist piece centering Luba, the latter a raw, almost noir pursuit story involving the men of Palomar that draws on the same densely populated small-town ensemble he had been building since issue #3. Together, they solidify Love and Rockets' place as one of the foundational works of the American alternative-comics movement of the 1980s.
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By issue #10, Fantagraphics had been publishing Love and Rockets in magazine format for roughly three years, following Gary Groth's offer of a publishing deal after the Hernandez brothers' self-published 1981 debut caught the attention of The Comics Journal. Gilbert and Jaime worked independently within each issue, alternating front and back cover duties and developing their respective Palomar and Locas story-worlds without editorial interference — a creative autonomy that was unusual in American comics publishing at the time. The stories in this issue were subsequently collected in multiple trade formats: the Jaime material in The Complete Love & Rockets Vol. 3: Las Mujeres Perdidas (1987) and later the Love and Rockets Library edition Maggie the Mechanic (2007), and Gilbert's Palomar work in Complete Love & Rockets Vol. 4: Tears from Heaven (1988) and the Library edition Heartbreak Soup (2007).
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published January 1985 by Fantagraphics as part of Love and Rockets Vol. 1, which ran in oversized magazine format for 50 issues from 1982 to 1996.
- Jaime Hernandez contributes a chapter of the 'Las Mujeres Perdidas' arc, in which Maggie and Rena Titañon escape the Chepan sewer tunnel and reach a desert, while back in Hoppers the community believes Maggie is dead — the arc's title is not revealed until the following issue.
- Gilbert Hernandez contributes 'Act of Contrition,' a Heartbreak Soup story centered on Luba and her semi-romantic relationship with Archie, and 'The Laughing Son,' a darker tale in which the men of Palomar (including Heraclio, Satch, Vicente, and Israel Díaz) pursue the unstable Jesús Ángel into the hills after a violent episode.
- The issue includes a short metafictional strip by Gilbert in which Luba, Errata Stigmata, and Tonantzín Villaseñor break the fourth wall to complain about their fictional condition.
- A companion meta-strip by Jaime features Maggie and Hopey discussing getting a new writer and artist — a playful piece of self-aware humor within the anthology's editorial DNA.
- The issue also features a Los Bros. Hernandez sketchbook section with approximately thirty-two illustrations.
- Stories from this issue have been reprinted across numerous collections including The Complete Love & Rockets Vol. 3: Las Mujeres Perdidas (1987), Tears from Heaven (1988), the Love and Rockets Library editions Maggie the Mechanic and Heartbreak Soup (both 2007), Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories (2003), and Love and Rockets: The First Fifty — The Classic 40th Anniversary Collection Vol. 2 (2022).
- The issue has at least two printings (a second printing is documented in the Grand Comics Database), reflecting consistent reader demand during the series' mid-1980s growth period.
Cast · 40 characters
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Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
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Letters of comment from Beth Adams, Boston MA; Jack Neigenfind Dauphin PA; Karl Heitmueller Jr, Lancaster PA; Chris Brasted, Southampton UK; Kate Coffee, Indianola OK; Monica Sharp, Holtville CA; John MacLeod, Ontario CN
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).