After the underground success of “Love and Rockets” comics series came to a screeching temporary halt in 1996, one half of the duo shit his shorts, dived in and swam in the surrealistic and absurd ocean of his own comic, “New Love”. “Fear of Comics” compiles these stories as well as stories from other sources and is volume 17 in the “Love and Rockets” compilations put out by Fantagraphics. While “Love and Rockets” was about young people in lust and love going to punk rock shows, “Fear of Comics” follows the antics of giant moles fucking opera singers, tribes men eating brains, forgotten saints, alien invasion, squadrons of flying women (not in planes either) who dress like retro 1950’s cigarette sales girls fighting giant babies etc. All of the inside pages are in black and white.
On the surface this comic anthology looks like a bunch of nonsense, nonsense for nonsense sake. But noise addicts know to look past the static and drink it all in and there is a lot to drink in, it might get you drunk. While Gilbert has his own style he blends different styles into his own, the prime example being his dead on homage of the artist Herge of Belgian comic “Tin Tin” fame and too be honest, I find “Fear of Comics” more interesting then “Love and Rockets” but that is because I am weirdo. It is a lot less sexual than “Love and Rockets” and the Hernandez brother’s other projects, I mean don’t get me wrong this isn’t G Rated stuff, more like an “R”, unlike Gilbert’s other comic “Blubber” that is a straight up “XXX” and is being put out in a compilation by Fantagraphics in winter, 2021.
Sadly there is no new copies of this anthology out, like all good things Fantagraphics puts out they don’t ever seem to do reprints, no matter how much the fans and other people complain it seems to not phase them one bit. Hell, I’ve even tried to message them with complaints because some of us don’t want to pay astronomical prices for used physical items and to all you “tech cloud” fetishists out there who ejaculate at the fact that everything is digital and think I am a “boomer” for actually wanting to hold something in my hands unlike you guys who seem not to care that the only thing you hold physically in your hand is your shrunken, unused, mommy basement dweller Vienna sausages, good luck finding this anthology on archives or other digital comic sites oh and don’t come crying to me when your external hard drive croaks and all your other back up USBs are corrupted. RANT OVER.
So I bet your asking yourself where can I get “Fear of Comics”? Well stop being afraid and go over here: https://www.amazon.com/Comics-Rockets-Gilbert-Hernandez-2000-11-07/dp/B01FGKWWCW
There is a few copies that are still affordable better get em’ while their hot!
