Product Description

A brilliant new original work from the creator of Palomar.

Gilbert Hernandez's first original graphic novel from Fantagraphics follows on the heels of his acclaimed Sloth from DC's Vertigo Comics in 2006. Chance In Hell tells the story about a little orphan girl who lives in the slum of slums. Nobody knows who she is or where she's from, but her fellow shantytown inhabitants collectively look over her. The three-act story follows our heroine as she is adopted by a decent man who raises her well, and she eventually marries a kind, well-to-do man, only to discover that she can't relate to the good life and the comforts it provides.

Hernandez wowed critics in 2003 with his epic life's work, Palomar, collecting more than 15 years of groundbreaking comics that Booklist called "the most substantive single work that the comics medium has yet produced." Chance In Hell further establishes Hernandez as one of the great cartoonists of our age.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #664858 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 120 pages

About the Author
Gilbert Hernandez lives in Las Vegas, NV, with his wife and daughter, where he continues to co-create the Love & Rockets comic three times a year.

Customer Reviews

Huh?
I've been trying to expand my exposure to graphic novels so I was excited to learn about Chance in Hell through an article about Latino writers. This adult oriented story follows the life of Empress, an orphan child living in a garbage dump community who is adopted and raised by a kind but self obssessed man. Though out of squalor, Empress spends a lot of her time at a brothel with a friendly young pimp. After a violent incident at the brothel with someone she trusted, the story fast forwards to Empress as a married adult. A theme of violence towards women and children is present throughout the entire novel. Empress doesn't say much, doesn't show much emotion, and is distant and hard for most of the characters in the book to reach. I kept reading hoping it would all come together but it never did. We can speculate about how Empress's childhood has scarred her, how she's always been a wounded duck so to speak, but the brevity of the novel and sparseness of dialog makes it all feel unresolved. Overall a bit of a dissapointment.