Children of Palomar and Other Tales(the fifteenth volume in our Complete Love and Rockets Library omnibuses and the eighth Gilbert volume) begins with “Me for the Unknown,” uncollected since its original 2001–2004 run in Love and Rockets Vol. II comic books. Written by Mario Hernandez and drawn by Gilbert Hernandez, it traces the Rabelaisian journey of Tagg Lillard. A U.S. citizen with a seemingly perfect life working in Latin America, he escapes a death trap clutching important papers, and an imperious CEO and his manservant pursue him through a land plagued by colonialist/corporate greed. Also collected: one of their joints from 2008, “Chiro el Indio.” In The Children of Palomar suite of short stories (2006–2007; collected in 2013), there are many mysterious visitors, an apparition that haunts childless women, and readers learn how Chelo lost her eye. And in Julio’s Day, which originally ran from 2001–2008 and was collected in 2013, a man’s life—threaded with war, loss, illness, and forbidden love—spans a century.
