As the summary on the back cover of this collection attests, "in the third issue of Love and Rockets, Gilbert Hernandez abruptly jettisoned his Marvel and Heavy Metal-influenced sci-fi yarns to focus on the day to day tribulations of a tiny Central American hamlet more or less untouched by time--Palomar." Mr. Hernandez gives his readers a clue to this transition in the story "Love Bites." As the story opens, Heraclio begs his lover Carmen not to destroy his copy of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, which has displaced her in his attention and, presumably, affection.

It seems to me quite clear that Beto Hernandez (as his fans know him) fell under the sway of Latin American magical realism in general and Mr. Marquez in particular. Like other stories in the huge Love and Rockets saga, these are simply brilliant: extremely well written and drawn with lavish beauty. If there weren't strong sexual undercurrents running through these stories, I would use them in the classroom.

My only criticism of this, such as it is, if of myself and my occasionally out-of-sync reading habits. I read One Hundred Years of Solitude at age 17 while a senior in high school; frankly, I failed utterly to understand it, and have it marked for an encore. Like the stories in Beto's earlier collection, Maggie the Mechanic, these were written and published in the early eighties, when I had much stronger eyes and would have more greatly appreciated the energy and raw beauty of these stories.

A true classic. I'm glad I finally read it, if only to experience a truly unique voice in comics, especially when it came out in the early 80's. Beautiful art, lovely writing, and a true sense of the wonder that runs beneath normal, ordinary lives. ( )

Although I've known about the [[Hernandez]] Brothers' "Love & Rockets" for the past quarter century -- because of my affinity for the band Love & Rickets, which took its name from the comics -- if always put off reading them in favor of something more action oriented: "The Crow", "Y: The Last Man", or anything with Batman. But now that I've read the first dozen or so stories of the series, I wish I'd started reading them back in 1990, when I first saw an issue on the shelf at store where my future brother-in-law bought all of his X-men comics.

The mixture of comedy and tragedy, the mundane and extraordinary is simply astounding. The range of emotion experienced by the characters and the readers goes beyond most contemporary fiction. All this miraculous storytelling is enhanced by the masterful manipulation of the craft of comic art. Gilbert Hernandez follows only behind Will Eisner in his power with this medium. ( )

Eh. So many intro characters I had trouble caring. ( )

Having originally read these stories in the individual issues of Love and Rockets many years ago, it's remarkable to me how much I missed the first time around, and how much easier it is to appreciate Gilbert Hernandez's sweeping accomplishment when the early stories of Palomar are brought together in a single volume with a chronological ordering.

The Heartbreak Soup stories are non-standard comics fare to be sure, and what's all the more amazing is how successful Hernandez is at making it all work so brilliantly. The key is his richly developed set of characters, and the magic really stems from his ability to draw the many threads of his story along over a wide scope of time (and pages!) while only rarely falling back on stereotypes or cliches. The principal characters (particularly Luba and Chelo) are particularly well-articulated, but the lesser characters do not disappoint - Hernandez has defined them all with thought and depth, and the result is one of the most rewarding long narratives in modern comics history. ( )