Hypnotwist/Scarlet by Starlight

Hernandez collects two wild, woolly, sexually frank stories from the Love and Rockets: New Stories series in this rambunctious if slim volume. “Hypnotwist,” a wordless, surrealist fantasy reminiscent of early Daniel Clowes, follows a woman’s journey through a twilight suburban landscape peppered with symbols of sex, parenthood, consumerism, addiction, and dissipation. In “Scarlet by Starlight,” a ruthlessly cynical deconstruction of pulp science fiction, space colonists study and exploit the hairy, nonverbal “forest people” of an alien planet, with one explorer taking the forest woman Scarlet as his mistress. The two pieces have little in common except for their willingness to push the envelope and their repetition of Hernandez’s signature fascinations: pulp fiction and midnight movies, memory and obsession, and mysterious, alluring, impossibly top-heavy ladies. There’s a B-sides vibe to the volume, but it boasts an intensity that makes it hard to put down—and almost anything from Hernandez is worth a look. (Feb.)