Creator Beto Hernandez released Luba's Comics and Stories simultaneous to the regular Luba series, which I knew when I was reading Luba, but didn’t attempt to read both in publication order. I’ve been a little worried about it, and, based on the first issue, it certainly seems possible there are going to be connections I’ll miss. However, I’m confident Beto will deliver, regardless of whether I forget some minutiae.
On the last page of this issue—which has a feature with Fritz, Petra, and Luba (though Luba’s just an observer) and then a backup with Venus—there’s a scene about Fritz’s belly-dancing, which I remember was a brief subplot in the regular series. Now I’m wondering if there’s a great panel of Venus looking at the reader only without the commentary until now.
And the first story opens with a gallery show, and I wonder if there’s a crossover with the main book.
Comics and Stories is going to focus on supporting characters from the Luba cast, though Fritz and Petra have both been protagonists in their own right over the years. This adventure has Petra hijacking a sisters’ night out; Fritz wanted to take everyone to her boyfriend’s S&M photography showcase (the boyfriend’s a model, not the photographer), but then Petra got drunk and decided it was time to roam around.
They have a handful of adventures in the present, one sister telling Luba about the other, and then the comic goes into flashback, giving some insight into Fritz and Petra’s pasts. Petra gets the first story, Fritz the second. Both are bittersweet tales, which Venus’s backup later makes even more so. There’s a lot more humor to the Venus backup because she’s such a great narrator, but Beto also incorporates it into the feature. The Fritz and Petra story ends on a narrative gag, only to find an immediate wistful follow-up, which gives it a lovely conclusion.
It’ll be interesting to see what Beto will do with an interconnected companion anthology spin-off for his interconnected anthology series. It will continue being great, but these stories are both relatively familiar (i.e., Fritz and Petra have already played protagonist, Beto’s already done Venus backups). A whole series of character development for great characters doesn’t sound bad, and Beto’s way of echoing between the two stories is phenomenal.
After one issue, Comics and Stories is almost exactly what I figured it’d be, though potentially with more Easter eggs (reverse Easter eggs? Inverted Easter eggs?). Hopefully, they don’t become too relevant to the plots, and I can’t keep up.
But the comic? It’s awesome. More, please.
Leave a Reply