Jaime Hernandez

This issue represents a true pinnacle in a fine series.

Both Jaime and Gilbert have found a way to incorporate stories employing genre elements into their more "real world" sagas. Gilbert is now telling stories about a teenage actress called Killer who appears in the B-movies that are the fantasy tales. Jaime's fantasy tales often star his real world characters, but they play out in other dimensions, as shown in the last issue, where Maggie is sent "home" from the superhero universe she had show more been inhabiting.

In this issue, Jaime's (real world) Maggie is the star. Maggie is a character who ages in real time. Being a fan of such a character (as I am) can be a bittersweet experience. Comics (most of the really good ones anyway), are a slow, labor intensive process. Over the years, we've gotten no more than four installments of L&R every year. Maggie and her supporting cast thus seemed to morph more quickly and terrifyingly into middle age than they should have, even though I have only to look in the mirror to see that I've taken the same journey myself, just in a more continuous way. But in a way, it's more comforting to know that Maggie will always be about four years younger than me. I remember the weird feeling I'd get on realizing that my age had caught up to and surpassed certain comic book characters: Archie Andrews, Peter Parker, Kal-el, etc.

Anyway, fans of Maggie will find a lot to savor in this fine issue. It has been said in the past that of the Hernandez brothers, Gilbert had the more novelistic approach: the stories better constructed, with the flashbacks, revelations, symbolism, etc., all perfectly placed. Stories that seemed like they knew where they're going. On the other hand, Jaime, while praised as an artist, never got that kind of kudos as a writer. His stories seemed more made up on the fly. This issue turns all those stereotypes on their heads. We get the story of Ray Dominguez, in the present, trying to grab the chance at a relationship with Maggie that he's missed, coupled with a story from Maggie's childhood, filling in more than we ever knew about her early family life. The way the past informs the present is poignant and artistically thrilling. It's amazing to see an artist (who was great in his youth) continue to mature and deepen thirty years on, while at the same time telling stories of the same characters he started out on. Simply amazing! show less

I am embarrassed to admit just HOW LONG this has been on my shelves unread. I did really want to read it! I love Maggie & Hopey! But as convenient as it was to have all these stories together in one place, it did NOT make for the most convenient format to read. Eight million pages and seven hundred pounds, this book. Not a book to slip in your purse or read in bed, or even very comfortably hold in your lap.

BUT, the Sapphic September challenge finally gave me the much needed push to get this show more book out and I am SO GLAD that I did. In fact, my only criticism of this book is that there wasn't MORE!?

For the uninitiated, Maggie & Hopey are recurring characters created by Jaime Hernandez in the Hernandez brothers' long running comic series Love and Rockets. They are bisexual Mexican-American women in Southern California who become friends, sometimes lovers, but always present in each other's tumultuous lives. Their storylines start out larger than life, with Maggie a rocket mechanic and also dinosaurs? The storylines get more human-sized before long (though they never abandon this backstory). The scale of that life is still pretty large, with punk bands on tour and professional wrestling and Penny puttering around in mansions, but the heart of the story is always these two girls, and how they keep finding each other even as their lives seem to keep pulling them apart.

I love them so much. show less

For the uninitiated, Locas collects the Maggie & Hopey stories from Love & Rockets. Well, the subtitle says Maggie, Hopey, & Ray, but frankly I could do with a lot less of Ray (even if the Ray stories get me a lot more of Vivian, who I also love). I was so delighted to get a copy of Locas II, which finally catches up to where I had started reading Love & Rockets during my all too brief single-issue comics-buying days.

I love these queer aging Mexican American girls, both the realistic bits & show more the surreal ghosts & the incredible shrinking Izzy bits. I love the weaving story- and time-lines, the tiny little micro stories that take place on a single page, but then tie into larger storylines much later. I love their messy relationships & self doubt.

I also love that I saved this for a readathon, it was great to snuggle up with this monster of a book and catch up with old friends. show less

I've taken a long break from the worlds of Los Bros Hernandez, so it was good to get back to them.

This is much darker than the first two volumes in the New Stories edition and the quality of the writing and artwork is as great as ever. Gilbert's stories of a scientific expedition on a distant planet which goes horribly wrong, and the sort-of-linked story of b-movie actress, KIller, are visceral and disturbing.

Jaime's stories, The Love Bunglers and Browntown are quite superb. His artwork is show more fantastic as ever and it was good to catch up with Maggie and Ray and their romantic complications. Browntown is a flashback to the childhood of Maggie and a disturbing incident involving her brother, Calvin (who also pops up in The Love Bunglers.....).

If I could draw like anyone it would be Jaime. Great stuff. show less