There's some great stuff here! Dark, funny, unsettling… I can imagine, though, how it might throw off unsuspecting, unfamiliar readers. ‘Scarlet by Starlight’ was practically my introduction to Gilbert, as part of Love & Rockets: New Stories #3 (which also included Jaime's similarly-disturbing-yet-universally-praised ‘Love Bunglers/Browntown’). I had no idea of the B-film subtext! It just seemed weird and interesting and then kind of dark and depressing. I was looking for an entry point into L&R, and furry, sexual forest creatures in a retro sci-fi context seemed like a good possibility; I didn't quite know what I was getting into. Nevertheless, I pressed on with the series. I wasn't sure how I felt about the Brothers yet, but there was enough there to keep giving it a try, and I'm glad I did.I soon realized I was a dyed-in-the-wool Gilbert fan. There was something about his writing and cartooning that spoke to me more directly and immediately than Jaime's. It's hard to explain but undeniable. His work is almost without genre classification.‘Hypnotwist’ was the main feature in the issue preceding, New Stories #2. It's an odd piece, entirely without dialog, very abstract and ‘arty’. Both stories were originally presented alongside additional material that introduced us to Killer, a young buxom actress involved in remaking these films some ten years after their original release. Killer was the now-teenaged daughter of Guadalupe, one of Luba's children, as well as Fritz's niece. These stories served as counterweight or grounding to the B-films, helping us understand their fictionality and subtext as well as creating interesting tensions between fiction and ‘reality’.It's been over 10 years since these stories were first published! I've been curious how the material was going to get collected and quite surprised they've decided to excise the Killer components (for now) in order to present these two Fritz B-films by themselves. For fans, I'd consider this a teaser. The real question is what's next, in terms of how the remaining material will be reshaped by subsequent collections. Meanwhile, there are 15 new pages in this installment and a pretty nifty formatting idea allowing for ‘double feature’ billing and two front covers. Let's be clear: These are ‘uncensored’ versions, as Gilbert had originally drawn them. Most of the additions are to Hypnotwist, which now has quite a few sex scenes (that may feel gratuitous to readers of the abridged New Stories version). My only beef is with the book's middle: I think the transition between the two halves is awkward; something is missing. There's no mention of the Fritz B-film series anywhere. The same graphic emblem is used to end each story, where separate graphics would have helped maintain story balance and improved wayfinding (avoiding déjà vu). A splash of color might have aided in bringing a stronger sense of finish to each half.This is the first B-film entry consisting of previously published material, so it feels a little different and harder to assess. The art here is smaller than in New Stories, but the printing is ultra-crisp. I worry that new readers may be just as confused by this book as they were by the inexplicable ‘Garden of the Flesh’, a more recent effort. But I will say, this era was a very good one for Gilbert's work. With the advent of New Stories (circa 2008), he'd begun to simplify his art technique, moving increasingly from brush to pen; the transition point feels like something new. My rating for the book is based on my response to the stories, which would be 5 stars for ‘Scarlet’ and only 3-4 stars for the more challenging, experimental ‘Hypnotwist’.This book is effectively a companion to the other Fritz B-film novels, which include Chance In Hell, The Troublemakers, Maria M., and Love from the Shadows. It is also a follow-up of sorts to 2010's High Soft Lisp (later collected in Three Sisters), which delved deep into Fritz's personal back story. For the full ‘Love & Rockets’ experience, you might even try pairing this with Jaime's The Love Bunglers or God and Science.