Love and Rockets: New Stories No. 7

In this seminal graphic novel series’ latest installment, Maggie and Hopey finally go on a road trip, and there’s more B movie fun with Fritz and Killer.

The seventh annual volume of Love and Rockets: New Stories, the most important and enduring alternative comics series in the history of the medium, finds Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez writing and drawing at the top of their game. In Jaime’s stories, Maggie and Hopey take a much-needed break from their humdrum domestic lives and go on a road trip to visit a “sick friend.” And, when the cat’s away, Ray visits some old, sick friends of his own. Plus Tonta’s nutty family! Gilbert offers a suite of stories, including “The Magic Voyage of Aladdin,” a sweeping epic of derring-do in which Morgan Le Fey (Fritz) teams up with Aladdin to stop the evil Circle from obtaining the magic lamp; “The Golem Suit,” a WWII sci-fi thriller starring “Killer”; and “Daughters and Mothers and Daughters,” in which flashbacks to Luba’s mother Maria reveal how ugly secrets of the past affect their family today. Black & white