256 pages; soft cover; black & white

Beyond Palomar collected two of Hernandez's ground-breaking works about the Central American village in a single affordable book. "Poison River" traces the pre-Palomar childhood of Luba, her teenage marriage to gangster Peter Rio, the secrets behind her mysterious mother, all the way up to her eventual escape and arrival in Palomar. "Love and Rockets X" takes us from Beverly Hills to the dangerous east side and introduces us to a diverse cast of characters, including a lowlife rock 'n' roll band, a posse of black youths, a ditzy Hollywood mom and her spoiled son, a gay activist filmmaker and his rebellious, half-Iraqi daughter, and a group of racist thugs that set the story in motion.