Gilbert Hernandez

Gilbert Hernandez : 2013 National Book Festival

Julio's Day
by Gilbert Hernandez

http://www.fantagraphics.com/juliosday

104-page black & white 7.5" x 10.75" hardcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-606-5

It begins in the year 1900, with the scream of a newborn. It ends, 100 pages later, in the year 2000, with the death rattle of a 100-year-old man. The infant and the old man are both Julio, and Gilbert Hernandez's Julio's Day (originally serialized in Love and Rockets Vol. II but never completed until now) is his latest graphic novel, a masterpiece of elliptical, emotional storytelling that traces one life — indeed, one century in a human life — through a series of carefully crafted, consistently surprising and enthralling vignettes.

There is hope and joy, there is bullying and grief, there is war (so much war — this is after all the 20th century), there is love, there is heartbreak. While Julio's Day has some settings and elements in common with Hernandez's Palomar cycle (the Central American protagonists and milieu, the vivid characters, the strong familial and social ties), this is a very much a singular, standalone story that will help cement his position as one of the strongest and most original cartoonists of this, or any other, century.

"Julio's Day is a story of one man's life, but it's a great deal more than that as well. It's the story of the life of a century, also told as if a day. Beginning with Julio's birth in 1900 and ending with his death in 2000, the graphic novel touches on most of the major events that shaped the 20th century." -- Brian Evenson, from his introduction

"A haunting performance and about as perfect a literary work as I've read in years. Hernandez accomplishes in 100 pages what most novelists only dream of — rendering the closeted phlegmatic Julio in all his confounding complexity and in the process creating an unflinching biography of a community, a country and a century. A masterpiece." -- Junot Díaz

... about gilbert hernandez' empathy for children & his awareness of modern art.

(from the book "Blut von Palomar" (Reprodukt) / in english: "heartbreak soup" & "human diastrophism" (Fantagraphics)

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 Hernandezs 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 Hernandezs peerless storytelling, what emerges is a coherent, exciting, funny portrait of one of the richest group of fictional characters ever to spring from a cartoonists mind.

"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

600-page black & white 7" x 10.25" hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-56097-960-9

In stock: April 2009
In stores: May 2009

Gilbert Hernandez and his brothers launched the alternative comics era with their epoch-defining series Love and Rockets. Gilbert first made his mark with his Palomar stories, an intergenerational saga detailing life and love in a fictional Central American town. But a parallel strand of Gilbert's restless oeuvre has since taken center stage in new graphic novels and stories that combine formal play with genre experimentation to open another window into the workings of the human heart. Gilbert will discuss his work with critic Sean T. Collins.

Luba and Her Family (The Love and Rockets Library)
by Gilbert Hernandez

Jian speaks with celebrated cartoonist, Gilbert Hernandez, about his new graphic novel 'Marble Season', a sentimental portrayal of childhood (and a departure from his more gritty work), and ask him to reflect on writing female characters and Latinos, and how things have changed in the comics world since he started over 30 years ago.