Just as Jaime's character Maggie (and, to a lesser extent, Hopey and Penny) dominated the first volume in the Love & Rockets collection, Gilbert's village of Palomar dominates the second. While Jaime certainly gets his licks in, with clever tales like "Maggie vs. Maniakk," in which our bumbling heroine has a brief flirtation with superheroing, the major storyline in Chelo's Burden is Gilbert's "Sopa de Gran Pena," or "Heartbreak Soup."

As the title suggests, it's a moving tale -- but it's not sentimental schlock, either. It's real-life stuff, couched in graphic form and exposing the sometimes-tragic, sometimes-funny lives of Palomar's tiny population.

After a brief introduction (and foreshadowing) of the characters involved, the story begins with domestic abuse against Tip'in Tip'in by Zomba, the beautiful object of his desires. Then we switch to the streets of Palomar, where young Heraclio is sick after an alcoholic binge and Luba (the watermelon-breasted goddess-wannabe from the last book) is setting up shop as a banadora (town bath-giver) in competition with Chelo's thriving business. A gang of boys are huddled over a girly magazine, Tip'in Tip'in has taken refuge from his woe in the mud beneath his house, and tiny Carmen has taken it upon herself (and her family) to rescue him. Gato is seething with rage against the world and his unspoken lust for 14-year-old Pipo, and Manuel -- the town's Lothario -- is circling in for the kill.

It might sound like a soap opera, and in some ways it is. But it's also a riveting read, compressed life in a microscope for everyone to see.

And so it continues. Heraclio discovers the ghost of Pintor under a tree, and Jesus' sickly brother, Toco, keeps laughing himself into coughing spasms. Chelo begins losing customers to Luba, and Gato learns of Manuel's fling with Pipo. Then the town's sheriff/bully gets involved....

It would be easy to describe this tale to its conclusion, but it's something best experienced first-hand. Suffice it to say, there's laughter and tears, and unexpected violence before the end. And life goes on in Palomar.

There's plenty of other good stuff in Chelo's Burden, including Gilbert's "More Music for Monsters," in which Inez and Bang babysit a massive ocean-bound egg, Mario's strange mystery "Somewhere in California," and Jaime's amusing "Out o' Space," in which a wayward Rocky tries to find her way home with the help of a curiously doll-like robot. (Like so many stories in the non-linear world of Los Bros Hernandez, Rocky's background is explained in a later volume.) In Jaime's "100 Rooms," Maggie's quest for way-cool boots sends her, Hopey, Penny and Izzy to an all-expenses paid holiday at a multi-billionaire's manor -- with certain surprise guests and a kidnapping with unexpected results.

If you haven't already hitched a ride on Love & Rockets, now's the time -- before you get lost!