I have no idea, but there is no way in heck that the Love and Rockets guy still looks that young.
Until I read woozy’s comment @1, I thought that all three of the figures in panels 2-4 were just random inventions, rather than actual references to existing characters.
‘What? Me? A nerd? No, I’m cool…I’m not excited about this for any particular reason.’ Which may have been true at one point, but now that he’s dating a nerd, she’s probably rubbed off on him. (… Not in that way, you pervs.)
Kilby – I guess you’re entirely not connected with fandom at all? The only one of those three that’s particularly obscure is the Aztec Zombie, who is from an indie comic that I never heard of until looking it up, inspired by this strip…Love and Rockets is one of the Big Names of indie comics (one of those books which almost everybody knows, even if only a minuscule number have actually read it), and Naruto (the character in the fourth panel) is popular to the point of its fans being…well, less than popular, thanks to their ubiquity making avoiding the annoying ones harder.
I remember despising Love and Rockets decades ago. The creator wasn’t young then.
For some reason, a lot of comics/media cons end up with a display of custom cars or motorcycles somewhere in the place. Sometimes comics-related (a Batman and Nightwing pair of motorcycles shows up at local cons a lot), but not always.
Kamino Neko: I’m into fandom and I’ve barely heard of Naruto (and never heard of the other two). What I’m not into is anime and manga. =)
This many comments in and no one has bothered to point out that Love and Rockets has 2 (or 3, if your’e pedantic) creators? OK, they’re all brothers, but still… And considering that Jaime and Gilbert do their two, only very slightly inter-related, separate things, it is important which one you are talking about.
The “Love and Rockets” guy that I’m familiar with is singer Daniel Ash, he’s about 60 yrs old now : > ]
So… Does the cartoonist of Baldo have no idea who created Love and Rockets but knows it is a cool alternative comic (with latino roots) and just imagines what such a cartoonist might look like? That’s the only possible explanation as the comic came out in 1981 and the Hernandez brothers are 60 and 58 for eff sake! But … wouldn’t he think one of his readers might know what they look like and call him on it? And considering it takes a *minimum* amount of research… I am utter flummoxed. Is the cartoonist confusing Love and Rockets with only more recent title.
>>>”no one has bothered to point out that Love and Rockets has 2 (or 3, if your’e pedantic) creators?”
Why? *NONE* of them look like the guy in the comic.
>>Why? *NONE* of them look like the guy in the comic.
Well, it’s a given that the Baldo guy is utterly clueless and faking it (and not just in this particular comic); I was referring to all the commentors tripping over each other to flash their geek cred (interestingly either by showing their knowledge, or disdaining all knowledge)…
Well, it wasn’t particularly germane to the points anyone was making. How many there are doesn’t change that that doesn’t resemble any of them, nor that L&R an extremely well known comic as indie comics go (but apparently not known to a surprising number of people here). (Sidenote – while he doesn’t look anything like that, if I saw Jaime Hernandez without knowing he’d been working in comics since the early 80s, I’d think he was about my age (early 40s)…or younger if it was in a low-resolution picture that didn’t show the grey in his beard well.) Also, despite being inaccurate, ‘the L&R guy’ isn’t a particularly improbable phrasing, especially from a nerd neonate who knows of the comic, but hasn’t read it, yet.
There’s a second possibility in play.
The “Love and Rockets guy” might not be a creator of the book. It might be someone who cosplays as one of the characters. Many cosplayers have rather substantial Internet followings.
@ Kamino Neko (far above) – My knowledge of comic books (as opposed to newspaper comics) is extremely tangential, other than the mainstream characters like Batman and Superman. I know enough to appreciate (and enjoy) various parodies (the “Incredibles” and “Captain Underpants” come to mind), but I’ve never been that interested in the genre, and have no appreciation for manga or anime whatsoever (although I did enjoy “Big Hero 6”).
P.S. @ larK – “…no one has bothered to point out that…”
If that’s not “flashing geek cred”, then I don’t know what is. ;-)
Kilby: why, yes, I am the kettle of all pots; is that germane? ;-)
@ larK – That last word looked like a perfect invitation for a groaner pun in connection with “germanic”, but the pots and kettles seemed to require working “black” into the equation, and I am simply too tired to tiptoe between the landmines of political correctness while composing an effective dig at the virtually monochromatic society in which I reside.
“Well, it’s a given that the Baldo guy is utterly clueless and faking it”
Is it? I have a bit of a hard time conceiving of attempting to fake something that is can be so easily called out upon.
Oh, wait… do you mean the *character* is faking it and this is supposed to be how a poseur imagines something he knows not? That takes the narrative to an interesting level I had not considered.
Baldo’s obviously not ‘faking it’, because a) there’s no reason to pretend to be nerdier than he is with his dad (if he was talking to Estella, I could buy it, but not Sergio), b) he then goes on to deny it.
As to Cantu and Castellanos*, since the attempt is to portray Baldo as a (budding) nerd (in denial), and not themselves, it’s weird to call it ‘faking it’ and not ‘a critical research failure’.
* It’s amusingly ironic to call them out on misidentifying how many creators Love and Rockets has while doing the same to them.
Yeah no, I meant the Baldo creator(s) are faking it, and since they don’t care much, I don’t care much about who or how many of them there are.
The fact that they fake it over something that is so easily called out is exactly what I’m on about.
Seriously, what do you think they’re faking? They’ve not made any Dan Brown-esque claim that every use of Estella (and now Baldo)’s geekery is meticulously researched, or that they’re huge fans of L&R/the Hernandez brothers. (Although, frankly, the fact that they managed to find El Muerto and Love & Rockets at all means their research is better than most cartoonists referencing things that aren’t in their wheelhouse.) You’re reading like you’re making a moral issue out of a research failure.
I think they’re faking their whole comic strip, not just this one particular fail, which you seem to be laser focused on. Step back, and look at the whole effort, which is milquetoasty and lame, a poor latino version of Zits, its poorness arising solely from the fact that the authors just seem to be phoning it in (both art and writing). I don’t know if it’s because the syndicate is restricting them, forcing them to produce this bland, offensively inoffensive offal, or what, but the end result is a mediocre strip that really doesn’t deserve the high placement it gets in a lot of papers.
You might not agree. Great, that’s your prerogative. I’m not going to convince you, and you are not going to convince me. Just understand that I’m not basing my assessment of the entire strip on this one fail, rather I’m seeing this fail as a typical and perfect example of the lameness of the whole strip. And remember, this particular strip itself is only here because it was incomprehensible to someone (ie: lame), and that had nothing to do with the number or age or appearance of the creators of Love and Rockets — that was just a gratuitous fail on top of a general fail.
Brings back memories of James Bond conventions in NYC – a few decades ago before everything ended in “con”.
Comics I Don't Understand 
I have no idea, but there is no way in heck that the Love and Rockets guy still looks that young.
Until I read woozy’s comment @1, I thought that all three of the figures in panels 2-4 were just random inventions, rather than actual references to existing characters.
‘What? Me? A nerd? No, I’m cool…I’m not excited about this for any particular reason.’ Which may have been true at one point, but now that he’s dating a nerd, she’s probably rubbed off on him. (… Not in that way, you pervs.)
Kilby – I guess you’re entirely not connected with fandom at all? The only one of those three that’s particularly obscure is the Aztec Zombie, who is from an indie comic that I never heard of until looking it up, inspired by this strip…Love and Rockets is one of the Big Names of indie comics (one of those books which almost everybody knows, even if only a minuscule number have actually read it), and Naruto (the character in the fourth panel) is popular to the point of its fans being…well, less than popular, thanks to their ubiquity making avoiding the annoying ones harder.
I remember despising Love and Rockets decades ago. The creator wasn’t young then.
For some reason, a lot of comics/media cons end up with a display of custom cars or motorcycles somewhere in the place. Sometimes comics-related (a Batman and Nightwing pair of motorcycles shows up at local cons a lot), but not always.
Kamino Neko: I’m into fandom and I’ve barely heard of Naruto (and never heard of the other two). What I’m not into is anime and manga. =)
This many comments in and no one has bothered to point out that Love and Rockets has 2 (or 3, if your’e pedantic) creators? OK, they’re all brothers, but still… And considering that Jaime and Gilbert do their two, only very slightly inter-related, separate things, it is important which one you are talking about.
The “Love and Rockets” guy that I’m familiar with is singer Daniel Ash, he’s about 60 yrs old now : > ]
So… Does the cartoonist of Baldo have no idea who created Love and Rockets but knows it is a cool alternative comic (with latino roots) and just imagines what such a cartoonist might look like? That’s the only possible explanation as the comic came out in 1981 and the Hernandez brothers are 60 and 58 for eff sake! But … wouldn’t he think one of his readers might know what they look like and call him on it? And considering it takes a *minimum* amount of research… I am utter flummoxed. Is the cartoonist confusing Love and Rockets with only more recent title.
>>>”no one has bothered to point out that Love and Rockets has 2 (or 3, if your’e pedantic) creators?”
Why? *NONE* of them look like the guy in the comic.
>>Why? *NONE* of them look like the guy in the comic.
Well, it’s a given that the Baldo guy is utterly clueless and faking it (and not just in this particular comic); I was referring to all the commentors tripping over each other to flash their geek cred (interestingly either by showing their knowledge, or disdaining all knowledge)…
Well, it wasn’t particularly germane to the points anyone was making. How many there are doesn’t change that that doesn’t resemble any of them, nor that L&R an extremely well known comic as indie comics go (but apparently not known to a surprising number of people here). (Sidenote – while he doesn’t look anything like that, if I saw Jaime Hernandez without knowing he’d been working in comics since the early 80s, I’d think he was about my age (early 40s)…or younger if it was in a low-resolution picture that didn’t show the grey in his beard well.) Also, despite being inaccurate, ‘the L&R guy’ isn’t a particularly improbable phrasing, especially from a nerd neonate who knows of the comic, but hasn’t read it, yet.
There’s a second possibility in play.
The “Love and Rockets guy” might not be a creator of the book. It might be someone who cosplays as one of the characters. Many cosplayers have rather substantial Internet followings.
@ Kamino Neko (far above) – My knowledge of comic books (as opposed to newspaper comics) is extremely tangential, other than the mainstream characters like Batman and Superman. I know enough to appreciate (and enjoy) various parodies (the “Incredibles” and “Captain Underpants” come to mind), but I’ve never been that interested in the genre, and have no appreciation for manga or anime whatsoever (although I did enjoy “Big Hero 6”).
P.S. @ larK – “…no one has bothered to point out that…”
If that’s not “flashing geek cred”, then I don’t know what is. ;-)
Kilby: why, yes, I am the kettle of all pots; is that germane? ;-)
@ larK – That last word looked like a perfect invitation for a groaner pun in connection with “germanic”, but the pots and kettles seemed to require working “black” into the equation, and I am simply too tired to tiptoe between the landmines of political correctness while composing an effective dig at the virtually monochromatic society in which I reside.
“Well, it’s a given that the Baldo guy is utterly clueless and faking it”
Is it? I have a bit of a hard time conceiving of attempting to fake something that is can be so easily called out upon.
Oh, wait… do you mean the *character* is faking it and this is supposed to be how a poseur imagines something he knows not? That takes the narrative to an interesting level I had not considered.
Baldo’s obviously not ‘faking it’, because a) there’s no reason to pretend to be nerdier than he is with his dad (if he was talking to Estella, I could buy it, but not Sergio), b) he then goes on to deny it.
As to Cantu and Castellanos*, since the attempt is to portray Baldo as a (budding) nerd (in denial), and not themselves, it’s weird to call it ‘faking it’ and not ‘a critical research failure’.
* It’s amusingly ironic to call them out on misidentifying how many creators Love and Rockets has while doing the same to them.
Yeah no, I meant the Baldo creator(s) are faking it, and since they don’t care much, I don’t care much about who or how many of them there are.
The fact that they fake it over something that is so easily called out is exactly what I’m on about.
Seriously, what do you think they’re faking? They’ve not made any Dan Brown-esque claim that every use of Estella (and now Baldo)’s geekery is meticulously researched, or that they’re huge fans of L&R/the Hernandez brothers. (Although, frankly, the fact that they managed to find El Muerto and Love & Rockets at all means their research is better than most cartoonists referencing things that aren’t in their wheelhouse.) You’re reading like you’re making a moral issue out of a research failure.
I think they’re faking their whole comic strip, not just this one particular fail, which you seem to be laser focused on. Step back, and look at the whole effort, which is milquetoasty and lame, a poor latino version of Zits, its poorness arising solely from the fact that the authors just seem to be phoning it in (both art and writing). I don’t know if it’s because the syndicate is restricting them, forcing them to produce this bland, offensively inoffensive offal, or what, but the end result is a mediocre strip that really doesn’t deserve the high placement it gets in a lot of papers.
You might not agree. Great, that’s your prerogative. I’m not going to convince you, and you are not going to convince me. Just understand that I’m not basing my assessment of the entire strip on this one fail, rather I’m seeing this fail as a typical and perfect example of the lameness of the whole strip. And remember, this particular strip itself is only here because it was incomprehensible to someone (ie: lame), and that had nothing to do with the number or age or appearance of the creators of Love and Rockets — that was just a gratuitous fail on top of a general fail.
Brings back memories of James Bond conventions in NYC – a few decades ago before everything ended in “con”.