Love and Rockets: New Stories No. 5 (LOVE AND ROCKETS NEW STORIES TP) Paperback – September 25, 2012

It is true what it said in the product description that Jaime was going to have a hard time following his work in issue #4...that issue pretty culminated the entire 30 year history of Maggie, especially her relationship with Ray. That was the happy ending fans had been waiting for, but the book ain't cancelled and it's time to move on. Instead of continuing on with Maggie and Ray's storyline (indeed, they only appear on one page), Jaime has instead decided to concentrate on a newer character, "Tonta," who is the half-sister of fan-favorite Vivian, aka "Frogmouth." Tonta is like the loser version of Maggie. (That's her on the cover, with the blue hair and big sun hat). She's a buck-toothed, hapless, nincompoop, but she has her good qualities and seems well-liked by her friends. The storyline concerns the efforts of Froggy's gang-banger friends trying to hide a gun in her underwear drawer... 'cuz they're trying to shoot some old, rich dude. Most of that is in the periphery--the story centers on Tonta, so there's all this scary murder stuff going on the background and Tonta doesn't care because she's too busy trying on Froggy's lingerie. A 3-pager rounds out Jaime's half of the issue--this one a life story of another old favorite, Doyle, and we probably learn more about Doyle in those three pages than we've learned about him in the past 25 years of his existence. Over in Beto-land, we at last have a proper return to Palomar! He's finally done it after all these years--we meet up with old friends like Tip'n Tip'n, Sheriff Chelo, Vicente, Pipo, Carmen and Heraclio. Yes, they're all still alive and well and waiting within these pages. The storyline, however, revolves Killer's vacation in Palomar. There are many new characters for her to meet; lots of sweet new Palomar oddballs. And a couple of murders. But I digress. There's a lot going on in the 48 page main story "Proof That The Devil Loves You." It ranks up there with Beto's best Palomar stories. Two shorter Palomar stories round out the issue.

I like this book. I think it's interesting. I first saw it in a local bookstore in the 1990s. I heard that the band with the title Love and Rockets named themselves after this book.

Very good artwork and dialogue.

Loved this volume!