Love and Rockets #4
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeLove and Rockets #4 (Fall 1983) is the conclusion of the original oversized magazine run — the last 64-page issue before the series contracted to a leaner format — and it delivers two of the Hernandez brothers' most accomplished early stories back to back. Jaime's '100 Rooms' is a sprawling, architecturally inventive Locas adventure that deepened the emotional geometry between Maggie, Hopey, and Penny Century, while Gilbert's 'Heartbreak Soup Part 2' brought his Palomar saga to a devastating close with the death of Manuel at Soledad's hand and the transfer of civic power to Chelo — events that locked in the serialized, novelistic stakes that would define all of Gilbert's subsequent Palomar work. Together, the two anchor stories announced that Love and Rockets was no longer an experiment: it was a sustained literary achievement in comics form, one that — as its characters aged in real time across decades — would reshape expectations for what the medium could do.
In "Locas Tambien: 100 Rooms," Gilbert Hernandez crafts a tense, character-driven tale where rival bar owners Chelo and Luba are thrown together in a jail cell by the corrupt Borro, setting off a chain of unexpected alliances and simmering tensions. As the town grapples with shifting loyalties and simmering passions, Manuel’s dangerous entanglements with Pipo and Soledad lead to a tragic end, reshaping the town’s power dynamics. The issue’s sharp storytelling and layered relationships are brought to life by Gilbert Hernandez’s distinctive art, with a dynamic cover collaboration by Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez.
In "Locas Tambien: 100 Rooms," Hopey and Maggie are drawn into the eerie grandeur of H. R. Costigan’s vast, labyrinthine mansion, where isolation and shifting dynamics begin to blur the line between sanctuary and trap. As Maggie becomes entangled with a fugitive named Casey, the house itself feels like a living presence, its endless rooms amplifying tension and desire.
In "More Music for Monsters III," two versions of Inez—separated by time and circumstance—find themselves adrift on the sea, their paths colliding when one crash-lands and the other is babysitting. As their fragile electro-pod fails and a monstrous presence rises from the waves, the two Inezes must navigate the sudden chaos, their shared name echoing through the storm.
In "Sopa de Gran Pena, Part Two," Chelo’s rivalry with Luba escalates when she has her arrested, only to end up locked in the same cell. The tension between them turns unexpected when they find common ground, surprising even the boys who rush in to separate them. As Manuel’s risky romance with Pipo reaches a tragic end, Chelo rises to become the new sheriff—her past and power now inextricably linked to the town’s shifting fate.
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By the time issue #4 hit stands in the fall of 1983, Fantagraphics had already established the series as a flagship alternative title, publishing it in an oversized magazine format under editor Gary Groth. The Hernandez brothers — Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario — each produced their material independently, and this issue reflects both the freedom and the discipline that arrangement encouraged: Gilbert was deepening his Palomar world-building issue by issue while Jaime was learning, through long-form stories like '100 Rooms,' to let character interiority drive plot rather than science-fiction premise. Issue #4 was the last of the four 64-page 'big and crazy' issues before the series shifted to a smaller page count beginning with #5, giving it a natural status as the end of the series' sprawling, anything-goes opening chapter.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published October/November 1983 by Fantagraphics Books (1st printing cover-dated Fall 1983; on-sale date November 7, 1983); edited by Gary Groth; recommended for mature readers.
- Issue #4 is the last in the original oversized 64-page magazine format — beginning with issue #5, Love and Rockets moved to a 32-page format, reducing room for the variety of short stories that characterized the early run.
- Jaime Hernandez's lead story, '100 Rooms,' is a 26-page Locas epic in which Penny Century brings Maggie, Hopey, and Izzy to H. R. Costigan's enormous mansion, where Maggie is held captive by a fugitive named Casey while a supervillain confrontation unfolds elsewhere in the house — one of Jaime's most ambitious early storytelling showcases.
- Gilbert Hernandez's 'Heartbreak Soup Part 2' (21 pages) concludes the inaugural Palomar story: Manuel is shot and killed by a jealous Soledad after his affairs with Pipo and others, and Chelo is installed as the new sheriff of Palomar — a pivotal power shift in the village's fictional history.
- Jaime also contributes 'Out O' Space,' a short science-fiction strip starring Rocky and her robot Fumble stranded on a small asteroid, in a tone reminiscent of Jetsons-era cartoons — one of the few remaining sci-fi-flavored Jaime strips before the Locas stories fully transitioned to grounded slice-of-life.
- The issue's letter column includes correspondence from notable figures in the alternative-comics community, among them illustrator Steve Leialoha and artist Scott Hampton, reflecting the rapid critical attention the series was attracting from peers in the field.
- The stories from this issue were collected in Chelo's Burden (The Complete Love & Rockets #2, Fantagraphics, June 1986, 144 pages, preface by Gary Groth), and have since been reprinted in the Locas and Palomar/Heartbreak Soup Library editions, as well as the 2022 facsimile box set Love and Rockets: The First Fifty.
- The issue also contains the first textual mention of the character Del Chimney (referenced only through news of his death), a figure who would be cited several more times in the series before ever appearing physically on the page — a characteristic piece of Gilbert's slow-burn, off-panel world-building.
Cast · 40 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Epix #8/1984 (1984), Pox #11/1985 (1985), Pox #5/1985 (1985), Mechanics #2 (1985), 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), Den skrattande solen #[nn] (1988), Love and Rockets #2 (1991), Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories (A Love and Rockets Book) #[nn] (2003), Palomar #1 (2005), Love and Rockets Library #[2] (2007), Love and Rockets #2 (2007), Love and Rockets Library #[7] (2008), Love and Rockets #7 (2008), Love and Rockets: The Covers #[nn] (2013), The Love and Rockets Companion: 30 Years (And Counting) #[nn] (2013), Love and Rockets: The First Fifty: The Classic 40th Anniversary Collection #[1] (2022), Palomar #1 (2024)
Key issues in Love and Rockets
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