LOVE AND ROCKETS: NEW STORIES #4

After nearly 30 years, Love and Rockets just keeps getting better, and this issue of the annual 3rd incarnation finds the Brothers Hernandez at the peak of their storytelling powers. Jaime Hernandez's emotionally powerful stories in the last issue of Love and Rockets: New Stories ("The Love Bunglers" and "Browntown") were among the most critically-acclaimed comics of the year. In this new issue, Jaime ups the ante even more. The final chapters of "The Love Bunglers" continue tracking Maggie's romantic travails in the here and now, with an escalating series of entanglements and a shocking event which sends things hurtling to a stunning conclusion over the breathtaking and heartrending final ten pages. Nestled in the midst of this is the masterful "Return for Me," a sequel of sorts to "Browntown" in which teenage Maggie returns to Hoppers and a new life. Meanwhile, on the Gilbert side, things lead off with the 35-page cover story "King Vampire": Two lovable teens, Cecil and Trini, want to join a local vampire club, but real vampires show up and things get deadly serious. Cecil loves it but Trini has her doubts about going all the way. It's another starring role for budding starlet "Killer" — and one of those vampires looks an awful lot like a certain Z-movie actress from Gilbert's post-Palomar world… Then High Soft Lisp's Fritz returns in "And Then Reality Kicks In," a 15-page walk-and-talk in which Fritz reunites with an old beau. This complex and layered dialogue may be Gilbert's finest piece of writing yet. Plus an all-star all-cartoonists letters column!

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