Thursday, November 13, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Skylight Books, Los Angeles
 **In the next chapter of the Palomar saga, actress Fritz contends with a sex cult, mad scientists, and her inner demons.** The first story collection in Gilbert Hernandez’s Palomar saga to take place after the events of 2010’s _High Soft Lisp_ is torn from the pages of _Love and Rockets: New Stories, Love and Rockets Vol. IV_, and _Psychodrama Illustrated_—and expanded with 14 new pages! In _Lovers and Haters_, 50-year-old cult movie actress Fritz, in addition to her alcoholism and the ups and downs of her career, must also contend with a controlling lover, Danny; a jealous rival, Mila; a score of younger Fritz imitators, a sex cult; and mad scientists. Also in her orbit is her niece, Killer (sometimes literally, as seen in a _Doctor Who_\-inspired TV show), a teen actress trying to launch a singing career while solving math problems. The specter of Fritz’s mother, Maria — also a cult movie actress — haunts them all with her beauty from beyond the grave. With a sprawling cast, _Lovers and Haters_ is about mothers and daughters, aunts and nieces, complex and often toxic relationships, artists and exploiters, personas and obsessions. It reads like an X-rated _The Substance_ mixed with _Mommy Dearest_ and _Performance_, with an added dash of _giallo_. **Gilbert Hernandez** was born in 1957 in Oxnard, California, and is considered one of the greatest living comics writer-artists in the world. In 1982, Hernandez co-created, along with his brothers Mario and Jaime, the ongoing, iconic, internationally acclaimed comic book series Love and Rockets, one of the greatest bodies of work the medium has ever seen. In addition to his work on Love and Rockets, its spinoffs, and side series, Hernandez has released a prodigious amount of original graphic novels and miniseries, such as Sloth, Bumperhead, and Marble Season. He also collaborated with Darwyn Cooke on The Twilight Children for DC. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2017 and is the recipient of a Fellow Award from United States Artists and a PEN Center USA’s Graphic Literature Award for Outstanding Body of Work. Hernandez lives in Ventura, CA, with his wife and daughter. **Chris Estrada** is a stand-up comedian, writer, and producer. He is the co-creator and star of the Hulu comedy series This Fool (2022–2023).