Love and Rockets #3
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeIn "Love and Rockets," Gilbert Hernandez crafts a quietly devastating portrait of longing and connection in the small town of Palomar. When Tipin' Tipin' awakens from a self-imposed sleep after being evicted, Carmen takes him in—only to face the tangled emotions of Gato’s jealousy and Manuel’s unexpected romance, while newcomer Luba draws attention to her bañadora shop and Toco’s fleeting presence ends in sudden, tragic laughter. The story unfolds with Hernandez’s signature blend of humor, melancholy, and keen observation, all rendered in his distinctive, expressive style.
In "Sopa de Gran Pena (part one)," Tipin' Tipin drifts in a deep sleep beneath the house he’s been evicted from, until Carmen and the boys pull him out—only to find no one willing to take him in. With nowhere else to go, Carmen brings him to her home, where tensions simmer as Gato resents Pipo and Manuel’s growing closeness, and Toco’s reckless antics end in a sudden, tragic laugh. Meanwhile, Luba’s arrival in Palomar stirs curiosity and draws crowds to her bañadora business, leaving Chelo quietly amused.
In "Maggie vs. Maniakk," Maggie Chascarillo recounts the wild turn her life took after accidentally freeing the supervillain Maniakk, leading her to track down the heroic Ultimax and ultimately becoming his unlikely sidekick. The story unfolds with a mix of gritty realism and superhero flair, anchored in Maggie’s sharp voice and the electric tension between her past and her new role.
In "null," Brian’s quiet world fractures when he unknowingly drinks from a stolen goblet housing the ancient entity El Ofre, triggering a chain of events that draws the dangerous attention of the enigmatic Doctor Amorte and the elusive resistance group known as The Black Sunset. The story unfolds with a quiet dread, as Brian finds himself caught between forces he doesn’t understand, navigating a reality that feels increasingly unstable.
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We Buy Collections ▸Trivia · 7 facts
- Contains the canonical first appearance of the village of Palomar and nearly all of its main cast (Chelo, Heraclio, Sheriff Borro, Satch, Gato, Pipo, Carmen, Arturo, Augustín, Israel, Jesús Ángel, Guero, Lucia, Maricela, Ofelia, Pintor, Soledad Marquez, Toco, Toyo, Vicente, and others) in Gilbert Hernandez's story 'Sopa de Gran Pena' ('Heartbreak Soup'); Luba and Tipin' Tipin' had technical prior appearances in the non-canonical 'BEM' story from issue #1.
- "Sopa de Gran Pena" is the opening chapter of what became Gilbert's landmark Palomar/Heartbreak Soup saga, later described by multiple publishers and critics as a groundbreaking work of magical-realist comics fiction; the story continues in issue #4.
- Jaime Hernandez contributes at least one Locas story featuring Maggie, Hopey, Penny Century, Daffy, Terry, Izzy, Joey Glass, and Tony, deepening the Southern California punk ensemble; Duke Morales, Speedy, La Chota, Roy Cowboy, and Rand Race also appear in Jaime-adjacent stories in this issue.
- Maniakk, Giggles Galore, Venetia Vendetta, and Ultimax appear in this issue and are identified by the Grand Comics Database as making their first and only appearances in the series.
- The front cover is by Jaime Hernandez (red title text, distinctive first-printing identifier); the back cover is by Mario Hernandez.
- Stories from this issue were first collected in trade form as Complete Love & Rockets Vol. 2, 'Chelo's Burden' (Fantagraphics, June 1986, preface by Gary Groth), and have since been reprinted in the Heartbreak Soup and Maggie the Mechanic library volumes, the Palomar omnibus (2003), and the eight-volume facsimile box set Love and Rockets: The First Fifty (Fantagraphics, 2022).
- The second printing of this issue replaces the original Kim Thompson editorial text piece with a new page containing a staff box, table of contents, and cover credits — a reliable way to distinguish printings.
Cast · 40 characters
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Pox #4/1985 (1985), Epix #8/1985 (1985), Spécial USA #17 (1985), Mechanics #3 (1985), Pox Special #2/1986 (1986), The Complete Love & Rockets #2 (1986), The Complete Love & Rockets #2 (1986), The Complete Love & Rockets #2 (1986), Heartbreak Soup #[nn] (1987), Love & Rockets #[nn] (1987), Heartbreak Soup and Other Stories #[nn] (1987), Love & Rockets: Short Stories #[nn] (1987), Den skrattande solen #[nn] (1988), Comic Art #44 (1988), Love & Rockets #2 (1988), Rakkautta ja raketteja #[nn] (1990), Love and Rockets #2 (1991), Ten Years of Love and Rockets #[nn] (1992), Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories (A Love and Rockets Book) #[nn] (2003), Locas #[nn] (2004), Palomar #1 (2005), Locas #1 (2006), Love and Rockets Library #[1] (2007), Love and Rockets Library #[2] (2007) + 8 more
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