Love and Rockets (1982)

The Hernandez brothers printed about 800 copies of the first Love and Rockets in 1981 and folded and stapled every one themselves. They sent a copy to The Comics Journal for review, and within a year Fantagraphics had picked it up, reprinting that first issue in September 1982 with new color covers. That leap from a homemade magazine to a series the brothers are still making decades later is the clearest case for mailing your book to the right people. Inside, Jaime's punk Locas stories and Gilbert's Palomar stories about a Latin American village are two separate worlds, so pick one. The Fantagraphics paperback library editions, such as Maggie the Mechanic and Heartbreak Soup, are the easiest way in.