Luba and Her Family

By Gilbert Hernandez. Published by Fantagraphics. 

Softcover, 228 pages, B&W, 2014. 

In the tenth Complete Love and Rockets Library comics omnibus, the fourth in the Palomar main storyline, Luba and her family leave Central America for the U.S., where she reunites with her half-sisters, Petra and Fritz.

In the tenth volume of The Complete Love and Rockets Library, and the fourth collecting writer-artist Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar main storyline, his sprawling family saga moves to the United States, where newly immigrated Luba and her sisters, body-builder Petra and therapist/film star Fritz, find their families' and friends' lives becoming more and more intertwined. As the three sisters have "memories of sweet youth," the next generation finds the spotlight: Luba's adult daughter, Doralís, emcees the proceedings in her role as mischievous host of a children's TV show, while Petra's little girl, Venus, has adventures with her aunt Fritz and her best friend Yoshio. At her mother's urging, Venus also writes missives to her fierce, one-armed cousin Casimira, who's back in Palomar. In these stories from 1997–2001 — never before collected together — Venus tells it like it is!

"If the early Palomar stories earned comparisons to Gabriel García Márquez, these stories resemble early Bret Easton Ellis (think the affectless, dry prose style of Less Than Zero), with some Judy Blume thrown in for good measure." — Tim O'Neil - The A.V. Club