Ordinarily, I'd be thrilled with a book like this. The early tales of Palomar, Gilbert Hernandez's Latin American village setting, are among the best, and I think it's great that he's writing in that period again.

But this magazine-sized book presents only one fairly short tale, "The Children of Palomar," which seems small incentive to pay out the $7.95 cover price. And while the art is as good as we've come to expect from the Hernandez brothers, the story doesn't fit the Palomar mold.

A large crack has appeared in the ground near Palomar, and several of the town's youngsters -- Manuel, Gato, Pintor and others -- have crossed it on a rickety log. On the other side, they are gassed and abducted by a group of people who speak a strange language and wear what appears to be space suits. Chelo, who runs Palomar's bathhouse, goes looking for the missing kids. Everyone has strange dreams.

I love Palomar's rich tapestry of stories and its varied, always fascinating population. But this story left me scratching my head. I'm just not sure what the point of it was, and I'm glad this review copy came free in the mail.