Palomar is just shy of being an offbeat spot on your tourist map. Gilbert Hernandez, who created the Love & Rockets universe with brother Jaime, has focused much of his attention on this small Latin American town and its people, and over the years it has grown into a living, breathing town. Now, the many tales of Palomar have been collected by Fantagraphics in a new hardback edition that brings its simple joys and tragedies together.

The stories aren't always linear, and characters gain solidity as Gilbert leaps back and forth in the timeline, introducing some as children, some as adults, and filling in various romances, breakups and acts of violence along the way. Key friendships hold firm from start to finish, and it's fascinating to watch them evolve as some characters go their separate ways and others grow closer than ever.

Gilbert's black-and-white art is crisp, clean and realistic. His people are believable; some are beautiful, some ugly, others average -- like those you'd find in any town. Their personalities are also highly defined, and it's fun to see them change as the years roll along.

The Heartbreak Soup Stories are a sort of extended soap opera, and it includes the usual ingredients: secret romance, forbidden love, murder, loyalty, betrayal, insanity, imprisonment, sex, marriage, divorce, reunion, corruption, justice and monkeys. There are a few atypical elements, too: ghosts, a witch, a curse, slugs, ancient ruins, human combustion and competitive bath-givers.

Every chapter and story is absorbing, whether humorous or dramatic -- or, as is usually the case, both. Whether your favorite character is Lupa or Heraclio, Chelo or Vicente, you'll find someone to identify with, someone to admire, someone to pity and someone who makes you laugh.

Book a trip to Palomar as soon as you have the time to spend a few hours between these covers. It's a spot you'll remember -- and revisit often.

- Rambles
written by Tom Knapp
published 17 January 2004