“Easter Hunt” pg. 1 - Love and Rockets #42 (1993)

Very cool, Mark. I remember this story well. A great time period for Jaime. It's very interesting that Beto originally wrote this. It makes you wonder who his protagonists were. Congrats an a stellar addition to your collection.

Thanks, Bob! This is perhaps my favorite out-of-continuity Locas story and I only recently learned about the backstory from Todd Hignite's book. I assume the earlier protagonists were either Gilbert or neighborhood friends / nemeses but your guess is as good as mine. 

It's awesome that you have a complete "Love&Rockets" story!  Congratulations on these great additions to your collection!

Amazingly fun story that's made even more special due to its connection to the youth of Los Bros. Really great that they had the freedom to revisit this after they had "made it." 

Pure exercise in joy through cartooning.  It is like those self aware cartoons that play with the format to incorporate and string together as many influences and tributes as possible and doesnt need to make narrative sense.  It is the improvisational creative groove and not knowing where it will lead you that makes this exciting.

Couldn't agree more and appreciate your generosity with these comments,

Tremendous.  What a fun complete story.

Thanks, Ben. Much appreciated.

What an adventure!!! The whale page might be my fav, but they sincerely are all great. Huge congrats on getting the whole story, a fantastic add to the collection. Ya did good Mark, real good.

Thanks, Tyler. Gotta say, that whale page might be my fave too. 

Absolutely love the madcap tempo and slapstick cartooning.

It showcases Jaime's polished pro skills while retaining the primitivism and naivity of a child's story and drawing.

Massive win. Another jewel in your fantastic collection.

Hard to pick a favorite page out of this--Jaime is rolling out genius cartooning flexes several times a panel throughout the whole story--but I have two reasons to favor page one especially. One is just that the kinetic moment-before-impact bigfoot cartooning sublimity of the last panel has stayed with me all these years since the comic came out. The other thing I love here is the forgotten girl who seems to be with Maggie in panel two. Or were they just waiting at a light at the same time? When Maggie turns away to join Hopey, it could be a version of their first meeting. Are they goose-stepping in common loyalty to the punk cause? (Some readers might not know that both T-shirts reference bands important to SoCal's hardcore punk scene in the '80s--the plain circle on Maggie's shirt was the symbol of the Germs). Have I reached my 5000 character limit yet? No? Well, pretty cool story bro.

A stunning, madcap, killer score, Mark: 48 panels of unleashed imagination and mischievous glee.  When I think "Easter Hunt", it's the quest for eggs that first comes to mind (of course), but that's all subverted in dashing Jaime style by the end of page one here, with the first prey being poor Hook...  Jaime's unerring sense of design and panel framing and what exactly to show is absolutely THRILLING: his sense of which "snapshots" of which moments to include (and how much he can leave out and still have the narrative - such as it is - be coherent) has always been amazing, and it is in stories like this that he continues to sharpen that toolset and approach.  It's almost like deconstructionist "anti-comics", maybe? - of leaving out as much as possible and having each panel focus on an emotional beat, which forces the reader to invest themselves to decipher his code... and allows the reader a heady rush from leaping from panel to panel in some Easter-candied, sugar-induced stream of consciousness graphical confection.  Six pages of this?!?  Epic score, Mark, and thank you for sharing this with us!  Fantastic add to your awesome gallery!

Many thanks, Jason. Appreciate the thoughtful response to this page. I love the idea of thinking of this story as anti-comics that encourages the reader to decipher!

Love and Rockets has that indie feel, yet became such a breakout in the field.