Broken Frontier

On the campus of Pasadena City College is a small art gallery. Usually the gallery features shows by student artists or the many artists-in-residence that provide works for the institution, but currently hanging from the walls are images that are quite different. The new show in the quaint academic setting highlights the artwork featured in, of all things, a comic book. To those familiar with graphic story-telling in general, or with the work of Los Bros. Hernandez in specific this should come as no surprise. Their book, called Love and Rockets, has been published for over twenty years and played an unmeasurable role in changing the public perception of comic books and the comics community at large.

The exhibition showcases the work of Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez, the two brothers from Oxnard, CA who were the primary creators behind the long-running series of comics stories. Their comic, called Love and Rockets, is a landmark comic book that was first published by Fantagraphics Press in the early 1980s. The first issue was originally self-published by the brothers in a photocopied-and-stapled mini-comics form (on display in a glass showcase) at the instigation of Mario Hernandez, the oldest sibling of the Hernandez clan. Expanded for the Fantagraphics edition, the original Love and Rockets was a loopy science fiction romp, replete with bug-eyed monsters, large-breasted amazons, bisexual mechanics and an investigator with a secret. Even in this prototypical stage, it was apparent that the book was something different; it was one of the first comics to bring a punk rock mentality to comics. This influence is so apparent that former members of the post-punk group named themselves Love and Rockets, and went on to make waves in the early days of the new wave music scene.

“My older brother Mario saw a comic book in a store and my mom said ‘oh, buy that!,’” reported Gilber Hernandez at a Q and A held in honor of the new gallery show, nervously wringing a copy of the original mini-comic in his hands. “She thought it was okay to read comics, unlike most parents in those days. I think it was because my mother’s mother, my grandmother, would take my mother’s comics and throw them away.” Their entire family were raised reading and creating comics. It only makes sense that they would continue to find make careers in the medium. At the reception for the exhibit the night before, Jaime and Gilbert greeted crowds of fans and well-wishers.

The book would shift in tone drastically, shortly after its initial release. Maggie and Hopey, stars of the futuristic Mechan-X, found themselves in a modern day Southern California barrio called Hoppers, in a new strip called Locas. Luba, the aforementioned large-breasted amazon was elected Sheriff in the Central American town called Palomar. The brother’s work was moving in a direction that seemed inspired by Gabriel Garcia Marquez more than by The Late, Late, Late Show. Acclaim for the book and for the brothers was widespread.

The fascinating new exhibit is the brainchild of Brian Tucker, the new director of the PCC gallery. Tucker is a perennial reader of Love and Rockets and a strong proponent of the brothers’ work. The collection of original black and white pages looks a bit spare against the plain white and light green walls of the room. In a corner of the room, a television plays a single show, The Naked Cosmos, written and directed by Gilbert, and starring he and his wife Carole Kovinick. Next to that is a living room sofa, and on the coffee table in front of it, lay the most recent issues of Love and Rockets, as well as two dense hardcover collections of the brothers’ work, Locas and Palomar.

If you look closely at the artwork on the wall, you’ll see little splotches of correction fluid, whiting out changes that the creators made on each page. Outfits are subtly changed, bodies repositioned, facial expressions altered. Taken out of their intended context emphasizes the fact that these pieces of paper decorated with ink were meant as a technical tool, rather than art in and of themselves. Displayed like this, these images don’t combine to create their stories, but they carry an indelible mood. Shown as individual pieces, they feel somehow incomplete, a rude means to a somewhat more meaningful end.

The brothers themselves, in their work in Love and Rockets, seem to aspire to greatness. Gilbert’s own work references artistic influences as disparate as Cubism and Frida Kahlo. Jaime captures elements of barrio culture that most visual story-tellers simply get wrong.

“Some of you may be new to this work,” said Tucker, addressing a full house of students, faculty and fans. “Maybe new to the idea that the form of comics could be something that could contain serious themes, ideas and other hallmarks of adult-oriented art.” At the Q and A with Gilbert Hernandez, the audience asked questions about how people could be inspired to create their own great works, or about the various comics connected with Love and Rockets.

The work stands for itself. It seems like this gallery show will bring a number of new readers to an old classic.

The show continues until December 3rd.

PASADENA CITY COLLEGE ART GALLERY1570 East Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91106
Recorded Gallery information: (626) 585-3285
Additional information: (626) 585-7238