Love and Rockets #24
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeLove and Rockets #24 (November 1987) sits at the narrative crossroads of two of alternative comics' most ambitious concurrent arcs: Jaime Hernandez's 'Vida Loca: The Death of Speedy Ortiz' and Gilbert Hernandez's serialized graphic novel 'Human Diastrophism,' which spans issues #21–26 and is recognized by The Comics Journal as one of the greatest comic book stories of the 20th century. This issue deepens the Locas storyline by placing Maggie in an emotionally charged new domestic situation with Ray Dominguez — a relationship pivot that would define the Locas cast for decades — while simultaneously advancing Gilbert's Palomar serial through mounting dread around a serial killer, Tonantzin's political radicalization, and the social fractures tearing apart an insular village. Together, the two strands in this single issue demonstrate the extraordinary dual ambition that made Love and Rockets the flagship of the American alternative comics movement. Its dense, interlocking cast of Latinx characters — portrayed with the psychological specificity that was virtually absent from mainstream American comics of the era — represents a cultural and artistic benchmark that the medium rarely equaled before or since.
In "The Night Ape Sex Came Home to Play," Gilbert Hernandez weaves a tense, intimate web in Palomar, where secrets and desire collide. Miguel returns to the quiet town to rekindle his romance with Chelo, while Khamo struggles to keep his new affair with Pipo hidden from Luba. Amid rising tension, Tonantzin collapses from fasting, and the discovery of two dead boys stirs fear—especially as Humberto’s drawings point to Tomaso, and a battered Chancla turns up by the waterfront. With emotional stakes high and the town on edge, the search for the killer deepens in this layered, character-driven installment. The cover, by Jaime Hernandez, captures the mood with a striking, surreal image.
In this quietly charged four-page story from *Love and Rockets* #24, Jo and her friends chase a sold-out Ape Sex concert, only to be left outside the door—while Maggie wrestles with unanswered letters from Hopey, and Joey drops a quiet, unsettling truth about Maggie and Hopey that shifts the air between them.
In "Jerry Slum and the Crickettes (Vida Loca)," Hopey grapples with the aftermath of her band’s sudden breakup, burning her instruments in a moment of raw emotion before spending the night in the silent, broken-down station wagon that once carried their dreams. The story captures a fleeting, intimate moment of loss and solitude, rendered with quiet intensity.
In "Human Diastrophism, Part Four," the tensions in Palomar deepen as Miguel returns to the town’s quiet streets to rekindle his connection with Chelo, while Khamo struggles to navigate his shifting affections between Luba and Pipo. Amid the growing unease, Tonantzin collapses from fasting in her ceremonial attire, prompting Diana and the pregnant Carmen to intervene, while Chelo discovers a secret moment between Riri and Maricela. As Humberto spreads drawings implicating Tomaso, the discovery of two dead boys raises the stakes—then Khamo finds the missing Chancla, alive but broken, by the waterfront.
In "A Mess of Skin...", Ray’s unexpected encounter with Doyle’s girlfriend, the striking stripper Lily Rivera, sets off a chain of quiet tensions at Bumper’s topless club. When Maggie and Daffy flee from Maddog’s club and stumble into the wrong pickup truck, their panic leads them to Ray’s doorstep—and a night that blurs lines between safety, memory, and the fragile intimacy of shared space.
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Issue #24 was edited by Gary Groth and published by Fantagraphics Books on a bi-monthly schedule, with the issue carrying a November 1987 cover date. It appeared during the height of what critics have called Love and Rockets' most ambitious serialization phase, with Jaime and Gilbert each sustaining multi-issue novel-length narratives simultaneously in the same magazine. The cover is by Jaime Hernandez. The series had originated when the Hernandez brothers self-published their first issue and sent it to The Comics Journal, whose publishers at Fantagraphics were sufficiently impressed to take on the series as an ongoing title — a publishing origin story that itself became part of alt-comics lore.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published November 1987 by Fantagraphics Books, edited by Gary Groth; cover art by Jaime Hernandez.
- Contains a chapter of Jaime Hernandez's 'Vida Loca: The Death of Speedy Ortiz' arc (serialized across issues #20–27), in which Ray meets Doyle Blackburn's girlfriend Lily Rivera, and Maggie Chascarillo ends up staying over at Doyle's apartment with Ray — a pivotal early moment in the Maggie–Ray relationship.
- Contains a chapter of Gilbert Hernandez's 'Human Diastrophism' (serialized across issues #21–26), in which Tonantzin's political fasting causes her to faint, Humberto distributes drawings identifying Tomaso as the serial killer, two additional dead boys are found suggesting copycat killings, and Khamo discovers the missing Chancla alive but badly injured near the waterfront.
- 'Human Diastrophism' was later named one of the greatest comic book stories of the 20th century by The Comics Journal; it is also described as the only full graphic-novel-length Palomar story Gilbert Hernandez ever created.
- The Palomar cast appearing in this issue — including Luba, Chelo, Tonantzín, Khamo, Casimira, Ofelia, Maricela, Guadalupe, Carmen, Heraclio, Diana, Doralis, and others — represents one of the most expansive single-issue deployments of Gilbert's Palomar ensemble, reflecting his soap-opera-scale, multi-generational storytelling.
- The issue has been reprinted in multiple collected editions: the Locas content was collected in The Complete Love & Rockets Vol. 7: The Death of Speedy (1989), then in the Locas omnibus (2004), in Love and Rockets Library Vol. 3: The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S. (2007), and in the 40th-anniversary Love and Rockets: The First Fifty box set (2022); the Palomar content was collected in The Complete Love & Rockets Vol. 8: Blood of Palomar (1989) and Love and Rockets Library Vol. 4: Human Diastrophism (2007).
- The series as a whole — of which this issue is a representative example — was noted for its 'sensitive portrayals of prominent female and multiethnic characters — especially Latinos — which were uncommon in American comics of the time,' per scholarship cited in the Wikipedia entry on Human Diastrophism.
- Love and Rockets ran for fifty issues in its original volume before a hiatus in 1996; this issue falls roughly at the midpoint of that run, during what many readers and critics consider the creative peak of both the Locas and Palomar storylines.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Heartbreak Soup #3 (1989), Epix #4/1989 (60) (1989), Love & Rockets #3 (1989), The Complete Love & Rockets #7 (1989), The Complete Love & Rockets #8 (1989), Locas #[nn] (2004), Locas #2 (2006), Love and Rockets Library #[3] (2007), Love and Rockets #3 (2007), Love and Rockets: The Covers #[nn] (2013), Love and Rockets: The First Fifty: The Classic 40th Anniversary Collection #[4] (2022), Locas: Maggie y Hopey #1
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