History Comicbook / LoveAndRockets

%%* DropTheHammer: Luba's trade mark.

* StylisticSuck: Scenes from Pipo's B-movie loosely based on Palomar, ''Proof That the Devil Loves You'', are interspersed with an in-continuity Palomar tale in ''New Stories'' Vol. 5. The film stars Fritz as the [[NubileSavage tree-dwelling]] BrainlessBeauty "Bula", a [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderized]] [[CompositeCharacter composite]] of Luba and Tonantzin. For protection, she carries a "[[LampshadeHanging symbolic screwdriver]]", lampooning Luba's signature [[DropTheHammer hammer]]. The Sherrif, an over-the-top tinpot dictator with a fondness for striking {{Captain Morgan Pose}}s with her foot resting on thin air, is a TakeThat to Chelo, with whom Pipo has often come into conflict over the latter's illegally short hemlines. Pipo herself serves as the inspiration for an unnamed character who starts a rebellion against the Sherrif and is immediately shot dead, and whom her young son avenges. The dialogue in these sequences is deliberatedly stilted and silly. All together, it serves as Gilbert's [[SelfParody own send-up]] of the Palomar saga.

The original ''Love And Rockets'' ran for fifty issues before a hiatus began in 1996, during which the brothers worked on other projects mainly spun-off from their ongoing plots. A "Volume 2" series began in 2001 and ran for twenty issues until 2007. In 2008, Los Bros bowed to the move from individual issues to larger bound volumes as the primary medium for art comics, and began an annual "Love and Rockets: New Stories" series in book format, but in 2016 returned to comic-book format for "Volume 4".

* BiggerIsBetterInBed: Gato, who has been married to both Pipo and Guadalupe, has a huge one. Pipo has apparently become accustomed to it and doesn't think much of average-sized men. She dates Igor, of comparable size (Gato and Igor actually compare in a bathroom), and later has several sexual encounters with an unnamed, sleazy-looking character who dwarfs even Gato and Igor. She has no problem with his size in any opening. But then there's Fritz, who has a fulfilling sex life with mostly average-sized men - ironically including Pipo's son Sergio - and is twice married to the "love of her life," Scott the Hog. He's described as having a barely functioning "choad."

* TheChainOfHarm: In "Human Diastrophism," the toddler Casimira, exposed to her mother Luba's verbal and physical abuse of her children, starts yelling at and beating up her doll, addressing it by her sisters' names and even her own. Her ten-year-old sister Guadalupe tries in vain to have her cuddle the doll instead.

* ItWorksBetterWithBullets: DoubleSubversion. In "Duck Feet," Chelo, the town sheriff, gives Tonantzín a pistol so she can patrol the village while Chelo is sick. Tonantzín realizes Chelo wouldn't trust her with a loaded gun, and takes the town's other pistol from Chelo's desk instead. Later, when Geraldo takes Tonantzin hostage with that pistol, which he'd earlier stolen from her, Chelo reveals she knew Tonantzin would switch the guns, and so had left the pistol in her desk unloaded too.

* MadArtist: Humberto, in "Human Diastrophism," becomes so obsessed with [[DoingItForTheArt creating art for art's sake]] that when he observes a serial killer in the act, he simply sketches him and doesn't report the murders. He even posts the drawings on the walls of his house and around the village, so removed is he from concern over being caught. When Sheriff Chelo later punishes him with a lifetime ban on drawing or painting, Humberto [[LoopholeAbuse creates sculptures instead]], hiding them at the bottom of the river.

** Tonantzin is at first an upbeat, hedonistic sort who dreams of Hollywood stardom. However, after her own lover, Geraldo, takes her hostage in "Duck Feet," she becomes pathologically obsessed with his radical politics, as well as with [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt doomsday]] scenarios, dressing like her aboriginal ancestors, and prolonged fasting (after [[UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi Gandhi's]] example). Although she seems to recover, she ends up [[spoiler: committing self-immolation at a political protest in the U.S.]].

* StylisticSuck: Scenes from Pipo's B-movie loosely based on Palomar, ''Proof That the Devil Loves You'', are interspersed with an in-continuity Palomar tale in ''New Stories'' Vol. 5. The film stars Fritz as the [[NubileSavage tree-dwelling]] BrainlessBeauty "Bula," a [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderized]] [[CompositeCharacter composite]] of Luba and Tonantzin. For protection, she carries a "[[LampshadeHanging symbolic screwdriver]]," lampooning Luba's signature [[DropTheHammer hammer]]. The Sherrif, an over-the-top tinpot dictator with a fondness for striking {{Captain Morgan Pose}}s with her foot resting on thin air, is a TakeThat to Chelo, with whom Pipo has often come into conflict over the latter's illegally short hemlines. Pipo herself serves as the inspiration for an unnamed character who starts a rebellion against the Sherrif and is immediately shot dead, and whom her young son avenges. The dialogue in these sequences is deliberatedly stilted and silly. All together, it serves as Gilbert's [[SelfParody own send-up]] of the Palomar saga.
* TakeThat: The "Love And Rockets X" storyline set in LA contains several playful barbs aimed at the popular British post-punk band who had adopted the name "Love And Rockets" without the Hernandez brothers' permission.

* AllJustADream: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] towards the end of "Bob Richardson," the final "Locas" story of Volume 1. Just as Maggie and Hopey are about to be reunited for the second time, there's a three-page sequence in which a noticeably younger Maggie wakes up to find that everything that's happened from "The Return of Ray D.," when she and Hopey split for the first time many years earlier, has been a dream. However, the setting then jumps right back to just before their second reunion.

** The second, more significant instance takes place in 1985, shortly after the conclusion of the final SF/action-adventure arc, "Las Mujeres Perdidas." Here the ink lines become bolder and more assured, and there's increased use of shading and {{Chiaroscuro}}. Of note is that this art style, which Jaime is best known for, initially appears in "How to Kill a... (By Isabel Ruebens)," the second-ever "Locas" story in the very first issue, in between two thinner-lined, "creepy eye" stories, thus making it an ArtShift here.
* ArtShift: Apart from the isolated one in the first issue (see above under ArtEvolution), the major instance throughout "Locas" occurs whenever there are scenes centering on very young children and the adults who interact with them. Jaime typically draws these sequences in a minimalist, gag-a-day NewspaperComic style influenced by Charles M Schulz and Ernie Bushmiller. The major exception to this is "Browntown," which features a realistic style throughout, suiting the story's dark and ultimately [[{{Tragedy}} tragic]] tone.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Maggie and [[spoiler:Ray]], at the conclusion of "The Love Bunglers," finally find lasting love with each other, but not until they reunite after two years because she'd been unaware [[spoiler:her long-lost mentally ill brother Calvin had beaten Ray and left him with a long period of recovery from brain damage]].

** In the AlternateUniverse story "God and Science: Return of the Ti-Girls," Penny gains super powers, for her and her children, from a sorceress's magic bath. It turns out that "the gift" of such powers is [[spoiler: [[ItWasWithYouAllAlong every woman's birthright]]]], and that Penny had previously failed to manifest her gift because she'd [[spoiler:[[YouWereTryingTooHard wanted it too much]]]].

* SealedEvilInACan: Parodied in "Maggie vs Maniakk." Maggie plays with a "Mayamese mini transporter" and accidentally frees Maniakk, a costumed super evil trapped in the ninth dimension by Ultimax, a superhero now down on his luck.

* ShoutOut: The in-universe ''Professor Enigma'' TV show in volume 3 is a blatant CaptainErsatz of ''Series/DoctorWho''. At one point, Professor Enigma says that he's just had lunch with the Doctor and Professor Franchise/{{Quatermass}}.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Many characters walk around barefoot from time to time, which isn't so odd in a place like Palomar. Doralis, however, goes barefoot, indoors and outdoors, even in LA (although she does sometimes wear boots as part of her TV show costume).
* [[DrivenToSuicide Driven To]] HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Tonantzin]]
* DropTheHammer: Luba's trade mark.

* ReallyGetsAround: Tonantzin has many many lovers.

* RetiredBadass: Gorgo.
* RichBoredom: Young Luba.

* DepravedBisexual: Lois.
* DoesNotLikeShoes: Several characters, most notably Maggie, often go barefoot outdoors.
* DrivenToSuicide: Speedy.

* BuxomIsBetter: This trope gets PlayedWith many different ways throughout the series. Luba's breasts are enormous. So are those belonging to most of her female relatives, especially her mother Maria and half-sisters Fritz and Petra. Their huge busts are constantly commented on by others and are a very integral part of the character arcs of Luba, Maria, and the rest of the girls in the family. The attention they receive runs the realistic gamut from fascinated and aroused men, disgusted men with a preference for thinner women, and jealous women who call them names like "blimp-chest." Luba in particular has complained that her build makes people automatically assume that she's a whore.

** The first instance occurs in Volume 1 Issue #2, with the first long "Locas" arc, "Mechanics." Characters lose their somewhat UncannyValley eyes, with their wide inverted (white) pupils, in favour of more realistic eyes.
** The second, more significant instance takes place in 1985, shortly after the conclusion of the final SF/action-adventure arc, "Las Mujeres Perdidas." Here the ink lines become bolder and more assured, and there's increased use of shading and {{Chiaroscuro}}. Of note is that this art style, which Jaime is best known for, initially appears in "How to Kill a... (By Isabel Ruebens)," the second-ever "Locas" story in the very first issue, in between two thinner-lined, "UncannyValley eye" stories, thus making it an ArtShift here.

* EverybodyHasLotsOfSex: The Volume 1 stories feature a great deal of non-marital sexual activity, considering their being set mostly in a tiny, insular, defiantly [[NewTechnologyIsEvil pre-technological]] (no phones, TV or computers; few cars) Central American village. In the miniseries and Volume 2 stories, set mainly in Los Angeles, this trope is dialed UpToEleven, at times approaching SelfParody. Whether the activity is opposite-sex, same-sex, two-person, multiple-partner, vanilla or kink... apart from prepubescent children, the very elderly and infirm, and the mentally disabled, there's scarcely a character who's neither said to have had, nor depicted having, sex at least once.

* LittleMissSnarker: Venus, Petra's daughter.
* LoveDodecahedron: This happens often.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters

[[caption-width-right:350:LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters]]

* StylisticSuck: Scenes from Pipo's B-movie loosely based on Palomar, ''Proof That the Devil Loves You'', are interspersed with an in-continuity Palomar tale in ''New Stories'' Vol. 5. The film stars Fritz as the [[NubileSavage tree-dwelling]] BrainlessBeauty "Bula," a [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderized]] [[CompositeCharacter composite]] of Luba and Tonantzin. For protection, she carries a "[[LampshadeHanging symbolic screwdriver]]," lampooning Luba's signature [[DropTheHammer hammer]]. The Sherrif, an over-the-top tinpot dictator with a fondness for striking {{Captain Morgan Pose}}s with her foot resting on thin air, is a TakeThat to Chelo, with whom Pipo has often come into conflict over the latter's illegally short hemlines. Pipo herself serves as the inspiration for an unnamed MarySue character who starts a rebellion against the Sherrif and is immediately shot dead, and whom her young son avenges. The dialogue in these sequences is deliberatedly stilted and silly. All together, it serves as Gilbert's [[SelfParody own send-up]] of the Palomar saga.

* FunnyFlashbackHaircut: Flashbacks to the past show that Fritz and Khamo went through punk phases when they were younger, with Fritz sporting a long side cut and Khamo having a mohawk. Both ended up having to settle down soon afterwards; Fritz barely managed to avoid an arrest for underage drinking, which inspired her to get her act together and go to college, while Khamo ended up severely burned and decided to marry Luba because she was the only one of his lovers who would stay with him after he was disfigured.

* SmallTownBigHell: Gilbert Hernandez's stories in the first volume, about the sleepy Central American town of Palomar, are clearly inspired by this genre.

* TheJailBaitWait: In the WholeEpisodeFlashback "Bay of Threes," H.R. (Herv) Costigan and Penny play a chaste cat-and-mouse game as they meet on three separate occasions as she moves from childhood to adulthood. Approaches {{Squick}} territory in that Herv launches a "stay in school" lecture tour of West Coast high schools just to track her down. The story [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this when he asks Penny's principal if there aren't any ''female'' problem students he can talk to and the principal upbraids him for treating her pupils like "death row inmates." Herv and Penny finally hook up once she's legal.