Heartbreak Soup
The very first tales of Palomar! In the third issue of "Love and Rockets," Gilbert Hernandez abruptly jettisoned his Marvel- and "Heavy Metal"-influenced sci-fi yarns to focus on the day-to-day tribulations of the inhabitants of a tiny Central American hamlet more or less untouched by time - Palomar. The resultant graphic novelette, "Sopa de Gran Pena," sent shock waves through the comics field, and launched what would become one of the greatest comics works of the latter part of the 20th century. "Heartbreak Soup" features not only that original "Sopa" story, but the subsequent suite of tales that presented and defined the ever-evolving cast of characters from Palomar. Here, assembled for the first time in perfect chronological order and in an accessible softcover format, are the stories that propelled Hernandez to the forefront of modern-day cartoonists.