Love and Rockets (comics)  Love and Rockets (often abbreviated L&R) is a comic book series by the Hernandez brothers: Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario. It was one of the first comic books in the alternative comics movement of the 1980s. The Hernandez brothers produced stories in the series independently of each other. Gilbert and Jaime produced the majority of the material, and tended to focus on particular casts of characters and settings. Those of Gilbert usually focused on a cast of characters in the fictional Central American village of Palomar; the stories often featured magic realist elements. The "Locas" stories of Jaime centered on a social group in Los Angeles, particularly the Latin-American friends and sometime-lovers Maggie and Hopey. The brothers Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario Hernandez self-published the first issue of "Love and Rockets" in 1981. In 1982, Fantagraphics Books republished this issue with a color cover. The series was published at magazine size, larger than typical American comic books. Either Gilbert or Jaime, the series' main contributors, would provide the front cover for a given issue, and the other the back; they alternated these duties each issue. The first volume ended with the 50th issue in 1996. The second volume ran for twenty issues from 2001 to 2007 in standard US comic book size. A third series, "Love and Rockets: New Stories", which ran for eight issues, began in 2008, published annually in 100-page, graphic novel-sized issues. In 2016, the series returned to its original, magazine-sized format. The Hernandez brothers self-published the first issue of "Love and Rockets" in 1981, but since 1982 it has been published by Fantagraphics Books. The brothers sent a copy of their self-published comic to The Comics Journal, an imprint of Fantagraphics, for a review. Gary Groth was so impressed with it that the company offered them a publishing deal. The magazine temporarily ceased publication in 1996 after the release of issue #50, while Gilbert and Jaime went on to do separate series involving many of the same characters. However, in 2001 "Los Bros Hernandez" (as they are often referred to) revived the series as "Love and Rockets" Volume 2. "Love and Rockets" contains several ongoing serial narratives, the most prominent being Gilbert's "Palomar" stories and Jaime's "Hoppers 13" (aka "Locas") stories. It also contains one-offs, shorter stories, surrealist jokes, and more.