Comic book series : Luba

Here at last, the long-awaited sequel to Palomar.

Now older but perhaps not so very much wiser, the hammer-wielding matriarch Luba has relocated to the United States of America, where she continues to contend not only, as an immigrant, with a brand new and not always welcoming culture but also her tempestuous extended family — her eccentric sisters Fritz and Petra, her nurturing but often disapproving cousin Ofelia, her many children ranging from the fully grown (Guadalupe and Doralis) to the latest brood sired by her husband Khamo (Casimira, Socorro, Joselito, and Conchita) — many of them in turn each with her own network of family members, lovers, and friends (including a number of other escapees from Palomar).

These “America” stories — over 100 of them, ranging from quick one-page blackout sketches to bona fide graphic novellas — were originally published in a number of different comics and reprinted in a trilogy of oversized paperbacks. Luba finally collects in one compact, affordable hardcover the entirety of these tales, showcasing Gilbert Hernandez’s wicked wit, great compassion, and uncanny understanding of how human beings love, squabble, and ultimately find a way to make it through this life. Tales of sex, violence and rock and roll rub elbows with stories of love, sensitivity, and understanding — and thanks to the miraculous alchemy of Hernandez’s peerless storytelling, what emerges is a coherent, exciting, funny portrait of one of the richest group of fictional characters ever to spring from a cartoonist’s mind.

Finalist, 2009 Graphic Novel Prize, Los Angeles Times Book Prizes (winners announced April 23, 2010)

#7, Best Archival/Reprints of 2009, The Comics Reporter

"Fiery, wildly raunchy, deliriously complicated, and bubbling over with life, Hernandez's epic about three half sisters and their extended family zooms wherever the hell he feels like going for 600 riveting pages. He's got a phenomenal sense of body language — you can tell almost everything about his characters just by looking at them — and the absolutely assured weirdness of a born raconteur." – Douglas Wolk, The Best Graphic Novels of 2009, The Barnes & Noble Review

"…[C]razily great… [and] totally all over the place: a wild, flapping, sprawling story with a huge cast (every one of whom seems to have his or her own substantial narrative), over-the-top raunchiness, gentle comedy, bizarre soap operatics, and a sea monster. Somehow, it all pulls together into a portrait of how completely freaking weird California is." – Douglas Wolk, TIME/Techland

"Certainly Luba is one of the most complex figures in recent American fiction." – The Nation

"[T]hese satirical, blatantly erotic stories are... marked by [Gilbert] Hernandez's engaging representations of female personality, resilience and determination. He has created an episodic saga that lampoons Latino generational epics, Anglo-influenced Latino pop culture and all manner of sexual couplings... Hernandez's is one of the most engagingly bizarre, sexy and unpredictably funny comics soap operas readers are likely to encounter." – Publishers Weekly

(Note to collectors: this volume collects stories which originally appeared in the comics series Measles, Luba and Luba's Comics and Stories and were previously collected in the softcover collections Luba in America, Luba: The Book of Ofelia, and Luba: Three Daughters; the final chapter, from Love and Rockets Vol. II #20, is previously uncollected.)