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Love & Rockets #20  56pp  b&w and colour US comic   $7.99/£5.50

Just to show how much we get over-charged in the UK,I’d like to point out that £5.50 means we pay double what US readers do.

That said,how the hell could I not buy L&R?!

I fell in love with Jaime’s artwork…20 years ago? Jeez,I could swear it was only,what,20 years ago?  This issue,remember L&R is only published three times a year,has a split Jaime and Gilbert cover.  The really big treats are inside.

Keeping to the split comic theme,with Jaime’s 24 pp being one full colour strip running along the top of each page and a b&w strip along the bottom of the pages [see below].

“Gold Diggers Of 1969″ is a more cartoony style looking back at Maggie as a very young girl.  This is lovely with dramatic moments,lots of fun and I like the way it shows Maggie’s future relationships developing.  Nice clean b&w work -but what else would you expect?

“La Maggie La Loca” is well coloured by Steven Weissman and does not detract from Jaime’s inks.  The subject looks at Maggie’s current life and relationship with former dynamic dame,Rena Titanon.  The story had me “aaw-ing” and “aaah-ing”. A little tear -no,you’ll never swallow that one.  But this was Jaime in top form.

Gilbert’s contributions are “Venus And You”,”Pedro” [inspired by Sesame Street?],”Untitled”,”You People”,”The High Road” -Tia Fritz being the character connecting the strips.  If you’ve followed Gilbert’s creations over the years you’ll know Tia Fritz and some of the others.

Gilbert must be working like crazy to get all this work out as well as Speak Of The Devil [see review elsewhere on this site].  There is something about his art style that is quite appealing and you’ll enjoy these strips.  You will.

L&R may no longer have any Rockets..or dinosaurs,but it is still a fantastic comic!