Still In Palomar

I am more and more impressed with Heartbreak Soup. I don't know if we're still supposed to be looking at it, but I really can't stop. I keep dipping back into to take another look at this story or that. Particularly, I am loving the way that Hernandez tackles the subject of community and leverages his form in doing so. The way that some graphic serials work is perfect for telling the story of multi-layered, long-ranging community life.

The individual strips dip in and out of the town's history. They can be read individually, as little stories. In this capacity, they explore a single layer of Palomar, or a single concept (for example, "The Laughing Sun", one of my favorites, deals with the fact contrast between the way we expect things to turn out when we are young, versus the reality of what happens in adult life). Hernandez does a brilliant job with these stories because each one is filled with extremely keen observations about the way that humans behave, towards themselves and with one another.

Taken together as a collection, all of these little stories can be synthesized to represent a study of humans in community--with all of the heartbreaking complexity and fascinating incongruities. Again, Hernandex does this with gret aplomb, He the back-stories and side-stories he creates for each character are faithfully carried out throughout the timeline of the collection, making it so that the more you know from previous stories, the more any given story will mean to you. The characters are not-onedimensional in their motives, behaviors or impulses, but he manages to imbue each one with consistent personality-- throughout it all, Israel, with all of his varying behaviors, has the same heart.

Visually, he "grows" each character in such a way that they remain recognizable (with the occasional help of textual cues). His use of physical stereotypes common to comics and graphic novels, (muscular women, slick playboys, etc) is another very fascinating topic, and has something to do with this, but is mainly a discussion for another entry. The key is that, even while Hernandez maintains the consistencies the both form (graphic serial) and content (the story of a set of specific characters over time) demands, he never falls into the trap of stereotype in plot or, ultimately, in character.

Each person develops along a path that is believable and revealing, but also surprising and intriguing. While many of the theme that Hernandez explores are universal, each event befalls the characters in way that absorbs the reader into the narrative. In this sense, Hernandez walks a fine line, allowing is his audience to make explorations both narrative and pedantic, without falling into the trap of either.