Love and Rockets Switches to Annuals

In what seems like a highly symbolic move that speaks to the shape of the comics market today and perhaps all the days yet to come, Fantagraphics announced that Love and Rockets, the book that kicked off the alternative comics movement a quarter-century ago, will switch from a saddle-stitched periodical format to a square-bound annual presentation. The at-least 100-page editions will feature creators Gilbert, Jaime and occasionally Mario Hernandez, and the first edition will be released in summer 2008.

The Hernandez Brothers have been "format forward" at several times in their past. The first 50-issue volume of Love and Rockets was published at a magazine size, a format that at the time many believed help distinguish certain books from the bulk of material being produced. A second series, begun in 2000, was in standard comic-book size to allow for more regular racking by Direct Market owners. Other formats in which Love and Rockets comics have been published include color comic reprints in supplement to the magazine series (Mechanics, 1985), album-sized complete reprint collections (starting with Music for Mechanics), omnibus editions, (Palomar, Locas), a current run of popular smaller-sized reprints separated more cleanly by author (starting with Maggie the Mechanic and Heartbreak Soup), and even concurrent magazine/on-line serialization (Jaime's "La Maggie La Loca" in the New York Times Sunday Magazine and their web site).

Fantagraphics' press release says the latest run of books, seven in all collecting volume one of the magazines, have been successful enough that a move to spine-bear 100-plus page collection will allow to meet the needs of a newer audience they believe is purchasing those books. The company also cites their experience in making issues of ACME Novelty Library similarly available in a format that works outside the Direct Market of comics shops as something that had little effect on sales there. Gilbert Hernandez cited the creative freedom that comes with more pages.

Given the extreme profile of Love and Rockets and that publication's relationship with comic shops going back decades -- it was in the early-1990s the only alternative comic book that was sold in my hometown because the store had grown use to carrying it before the black and white bust and the flood of titles from all corners that kicked off that strange decade -- it's hard not to see this as at least a vote of no-confidence in the comic book periodical format, although I know that Gilbert Hernandez in particular isn't just paying lip service when he talks about relishing the opportunities of a 50-page or so platform with which to present certain work, and that shouldn't be discounted. But when you look at news like this and see occasional casual mentions like SLG's Jennifer de Guzman saying her company isn't interested in series right now, you start to wonder if an entire way of reading comics is slowly moving to the sidelines.

Love and Rockets Vol. 1, #7; 1984
 
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