Love and Rockets #6
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeLove and Rockets vol. 2 #6 (November 2002) sits squarely within the revived second volume that Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez launched in 2001 after years of separate solo series — a reunion of the flagship Fantagraphics anthology that proved the unified format still commanded its audience. The issue advances two of the book's most cherished parallel threads: Jaime's Locas storyline, rooted in the lives of Maggie, Hopey, and their Hoppers apartment community, and Gilbert's post-Palomar work expanding the Luba family mythology into new generations of characters. Its contents were later folded into two of the series' most important trade collections — Jaime's Ghost of Hoppers and Gilbert's Luba: Three Daughters — cementing the issue's place in the ongoing literary architecture of alternative comics' defining long-form serial.
In "Toco," Jaime Hernandez delivers another sharp, character-driven installment in the Love and Rockets series, capturing the quiet rhythms and small tensions of everyday life in the neighborhood. After a minor tremor shakes things loose, Maggie checks in with her neighbors—Vivian wants her stolen trinket back, but it’s unclear if Izzy still has it—while a mysterious nighttime visit from Alarma in full superhero gear adds an unexpected twist. The story unfolds with Hernandez’s signature blend of intimacy and subtle surrealism, rendered in his distinctive, expressive style. Cover by Gilbert Hernandez.
In the quiet aftermath of a minor tremor, Maggie moves through the apartment complex, checking in with neighbors about repairs—Vivian’s desperate to reclaim a stolen trinket from Sid the Knife, though it’s unclear if Izzy still has it. Later, on a late-night errand, Maggie stumbles upon Alarma, transformed into a makeshift superhero, clutching a mysterious package with quiet urgency.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Volume 2 of Love and Rockets launched in 2001 after Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth and the brothers concluded that Gilbert's and Jaime's separate spin-off titles — Luba, Penny Century, and others — were drawing lower sales than the combined anthology format that had run for fifty issues before the 1996 hiatus. Issue #6 arrived in late 2002, the sixth installment of the twenty-issue second volume, published in standard American comic book dimensions rather than the magazine size of the original run. Gilbert and Jaime continued to work independently of each other within each issue, contributing self-contained but serially connected stories that fed into their respective ongoing casts.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published November 2002 by Fantagraphics Books as the sixth issue of Love and Rockets Volume 2, which ran for twenty issues from 2001 to 2007 in standard US comic book format.
- Written and drawn by Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez (Los Bros Hernandez), each contributing separate stories to the anthology — their standard working method throughout the series.
- Jaime's story features Maggie, Hopey, Alarma Kraktovilova, Vivian, Rosie, and Mister Maynez; the Grand Comics Database records Mrs. Kraktovilova (Alarma's mother) as making her first appearance in this issue.
- Gilbert's contributions feature a cast including Captain M'Vina, Genius Jr., Dario, Debra Lillard, Lily Lillard, Taggert Lillard, Taggert Lillard Jr., Lunky, and Magda, alongside Palomar-adjacent characters Pipo, Toco, Julio Reyes, Guadalupe Reyna, and others.
- The Gilbert story titled 'Toco' in this issue is flagged by the GCD as the next Palomar-related narrative following events in Love and Rockets vol. 1 #50, connecting the new volume's continuity directly back to the original series.
- Jaime's material from this issue was later collected in Ghost of Hoppers (Fantagraphics, December 2005), which gathers his stories from Love and Rockets vol. 2 #1–4 and #6–10.
- Gilbert's material from this issue was later collected in Luba: Three Daughters (Fantagraphics, August 2006), which draws on Love and Rockets vol. 2 #6 and issues #11–16 among other sources.
- Stories from this issue were also reprinted in Love and Rockets Library #15 — Children of Palomar and Other Tales (Fantagraphics, 2023), keeping the material continuously in print across multiple generations of collections.
Cast · 27 characters
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories (A Love and Rockets Book) #[nn] (2003), Funny Book #1 (2005), Palomar #1 (2005), The Complete Love & Rockets #[22] (2005), The Complete Love & Rockets #[23] (2006), Love and Rockets Library #[2] (2007), Love and Rockets #2 (2007), Luba #[nn] (2009), Locas #II (2009), Locas, Maggie Chascarrillo & Hopey Glass #[nn] (2010), Love and Rockets Library #[9] (2011), Julio's Day #[nn] (2013), Love and Rockets Library #12 (2016), Love and Rockets Library #[14] (2018), Love and Rockets Library #15 (2023), Palomar #1 (2024)
Key issues in Love and Rockets
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