Locas: Nationals at Phillies gamethread, July 10, 2013

So, far be it for me to make a substantive comment in two consecutive gamethreads. So maybe let's talk about comics.

Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez (along with their brother Mario sometimes) started their seminal alt. comic series, Love and Rockets, in 1981. Save a brief hiatus from 1996-2001, the comic has been published continuously, moving from a photocopied alt zine style to a professional Fantagraphics production. The series follows two arcs -- Jaime's work focusing on a bunch of Latino teens and adults in the punk (and later post punk) scene of Huerta, California or "Hoppers;" Gilbert's work falls more into the Gabriel Garcia Marquez style of magical realism, charting a family drama in the town of Palomar.

I'm more familiar (I've even presented scholarly work on) Jaime's work, so that's what I'm drifting back to tonight. It's odd, Jaime's stories in L&R, collected in the massive Locas collections, are kind of geek treasure troves. Clearly Jaime is influenced by punk and 80's alt California, but he's also really into superheroes, luchadores, and monster movies, so you get this weird melange of nostalgia for all of this old nerd culture. And let me add -- nerd culture before it became the commodified geek pride that you get with Batman shirts onsale at Target and the Big Bang Theory. Like the stuff you had to work at -- like researching how many heralds Galactus had or playing a beat Ibanez bass at a graduation party.

But there's never anything about baseball. Sports in general, I guess, are sort of ignored. But it strikes me that, for all of the "I don't read, lol" culture we get with Jonathan Papelbon (and to a lesser extent, Cliff Lee), that baseball's the last bit of max effort/minimal reward geek investment we have left. 162 games, 9 innings, 4 hour game times...I mean come on. That's gold. But neither Jaime nor Gilbert are all that into it. Maybe if they came into the sport today, with its patina of nostalgia and regret, they might've. But for now, we basically just have to imagine Jonathan Pettibone sending excited texts across state lines to Vance Worley about discovering the Bros. Hernandez.

I can't be the only one who's thinking that, right? ...right?

...discuss odd hallucinations and the surging Phillies below.

Gio Gonzalez

#47 / Pitcher / Washington Nationals

Height: 6-0

Weight: 205

Bats: R

Throws: L

Born: Sep 19, 1985

Cliff Lee

#33 / Pitcher / Philadelphia Phillies

Height: 6-3

Weight: 190

Bats: L

Throws: L

Born: Aug 30, 1978

Since I forgot the tunes last night, here are two Bros. Hernandez inspired joints.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/KCIktx6zpSY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/gw1G5yBwPT0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>