Review:
Gilbert Hernandez Gives us a Non-Love and Rockets Graphic Novel--Sort of

First off let me tell you I'm a massive Love and Rockets fan. No not the music, the comic. I've come to love both brothers equally. Originally I was all about Jaime and his Hopey, Maggie and Ray characters. But with Gilbert's more recent work, his Luba in America story line has really propelled him up for me. Now I don't always read all of Gilbert's non-Love and Rockets comics. Sometimes they are a little too out there for me or the story doesn't sound appealing. A few weeks back, he released a new original graphic novel called the Troublemakers, which isn't about his Love and Rockets characters--sort of.

The Troublemakers is a comic book movie adaption of a movie that Gilbert’s Love and Rockets character Fritz stars in within the Love and Rockets comic book. Yeah that's a mouthful.  Fritz is Luba’s half sister, former therapist and current B movie star. So in the book, it's not Fritz, but the character Nala is played by Fritz. I was really intrigued by the concept, plus Fritz happens to be my favor character of Gilbert's. I've loved her even before she was an official part of the Luba universe, back when she first appeared in his adult comic Birdland.

I wasn't sure I was going to pick this book up when I originally heard of it. But after reading that Fritz was "starring" in it, I had to get it. I love that kind of thing in stories, a comic about a movie that was mentioned in another comic. And I'm really glad I did because it's a great read.

The book focuses on three characters-- Vincene, Nala, and Wes aka the Troublemakers. Wes and Nala are attempting to steal two hundred grand off a guy named Dewey. Vincene is working her own angle on Dewey. She has her own sorted history with Wes. She also has a strange past with Nala as she had carjacked her and put her in her own trunk. When she stopped to let her out, she was already gone leaving only her magician’s assistant gear behind. Now Vincene is obsessed with how Nala got out. And then there’s the hotel’s security guard. And how does Wes trinket fit into all of this?