# Is "Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories" by Gilbert Hernandez a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories by Gilbert Hernandez (Fantagraphics Books, 2003) is identified by: Oversized cloth hardcover with dust jacket, Fantagraphics, 2003 (released December 2003), ISBN 1-56097-539-3, about 520 pages, collecting the complete Palomar / Heartbreak Soup stories. Stories originally appeared in Love and Rockets (volume one) in the 1980s and 1990s; the 2003 Fantagraphics omnibus is the first single-volume collected edition (first thus).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Oversized cloth hardcover with dust jacket, Fantagraphics, 2003 (released December 2003), ISBN 1-56097-539-3, about 520 pages, collecting the complete Palomar / Heartbreak Soup stories
- A first printing shows no later-printing statement on the indicia
- Correct publisher/imprint: Fantagraphics Books

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Gilbert Hernandez |
| Publisher | Fantagraphics Books |
| Year | 2003 |
| True first | world edition |
| Format | Comic / graphic novel |
| Key point | Oversized cloth hardcover with dust jacket, Fantagraphics, 2003 (released December 2003), ISBN 1-56097-539-3, about 520 pages, collecting… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Oversized cloth hardcover with dust jacket, Fantagraphics, 2003 (released December 2003), ISBN 1-56097-539-3, about 520 pages, collecting the complete Palomar / Heartbreak Soup stories. A first printing shows no later-printing statement on the indicia.

## Is this the true first?
Stories originally appeared in Love and Rockets (volume one) in the 1980s and 1990s; the 2003 Fantagraphics omnibus is the first single-volume collected edition (first thus).

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories* by Gilbert Hernandez a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/palomar-the-heartbreak-soup-stories
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.