Alternative Comics: Through the Eyes of the Hernandez Brothers

This is an Archive of a Past Event
The keynote event, to be held on Thursday evening (Oct 9, 2014), 5.30-7.30pm in Annenberg Auditorium, will be a public panel discussion featuring Jaime, Gilbert and Mario Hernandez, in conversation with Ramon Saldivar (Professor, English & Comparative Literature, Stanford) and Scott Bukatman (Professor, Film & Media Studies, Art & Art History, Stanford), moderated by Angela Becerra Vidergar (Ph.D., Comparative Literature, Stanford). This event will address the history of alternative comics writ large, and the crucial roles of the Hernandez Brothers, or Los Bros Hernandez, in this story, as artists, independent producers, and Latinos. This event is free and open to the public.
Speakers: Jaime, Gilbert and Mario Hernandez
As perhaps its most well-known figures, the Hernandez Brothers offer unique insight into the complex dynamics of the alternative comics industry. Love & Rockets, the brainchild of Jaime, Gilbert and Mario Hernandez, emerged from the confluence of punk rock culture and the Latino community in Los Angeles in the 1980s. Subversive and groundbreaking, Love and Rockets would come to virtually define alternative comics. With its cast of highly individual, strongly-characterized women, its richly rendered and evocative depictions of barrio life, masterful cartooning and characters that aged in real time, Love and Rockets set the stage for an incredible flowering in alternative comics not seen since the 60s. Not only did they reveal the potential of comics as a medium for profound individual and community expression, they demonstrated the hunger and breadth of its reading audience. Still running after thirty years, Love and Rockets has proven the staying power of the long-form serial narrative in alternative comics. Their perspective as independent artists who have flourished for three decades offers amazing insight into sustaining an authentic artistic practice in a challenging and continually evolving industry. As figures who have been at the forefront of the alternative comics industry nearly since its inception, they are able to speak to its history with great clarity.