Maggie the Mechanic

This is really a key piece of American literature from the late twentieth century, at least in viewing that literature as a whole that is more than large enough to include the work being done in comics, cartoons, and/or graphic novels (pick your preferred term). Hernandez's Maggie and Hopey stories were always the standout thread in the rich tapestry of Love & Rockets, bringing the earliest stories together in a single volume like this is indispensable for appreciating the breathtaking scope of the Locas stories.

Even more so than his brother Gilbert, Jaime Hernandez has a remarkable ability to mix up reality and fantasy in a wild mash of pop culture and contemporary American life that both draws on the history of cartooning and pushes show more the medium in all sorts of new directions. And to top it off, he is a simply stunning artist of powerful black-and-white images that astound all the more when you realize that he uses solid blacks and whites most of the time - his technique is so strong and powerfully framed that he has little need of small stylistic flourishes to get his ideas across.

It should lastly be noted that Maggie Chascarrillo, Hernandez's central character, is really one of the great characters of recent American literature. She is a bundle of contradictions, and is nowhere near perfect, but she is richly defined and so thoroughly human that it's difficult not to fall in love with her. The real blessing is that Maggie's story has been picked up in the second volume of Love & Rockets, meaning that this wonderful character has more of her intriguing life to share with us yet. show less

I know this is a popular comic, but reading this it just feels like every independent black and white comic published in the 80s. Its not bad so much as unremarkable. That being said, there are certainly some good aspects to the book, and I'd like to see more of where this title goes, as I think the creators have a lot of potential and I imagine later volumes are excellent.

The seminal series Love and Rockets from the Hernandez brothers was divided into two streams: Heartbreak Soup and Las Locas. This book is the first collection of the Las Locas series, centred on Maggie and her friends Hopey, Izzy, Penny and others.

Hernandez set these stories in a milieu of the 80s punk scene in LA, blended with Latino culture and a dose of science fiction. Maggie has ambitions to be a prosolar mechanic, having globetrotting adventures working on rockets and robots. She becomes the assistant of hunky celebrity mechanic Rand Race who competes for her affections with rebellious girl punk Hopey, with whom she lives.

The stories are far-fetched yet do not stretch credulity too far. I like that Hernandez is prepared to age show more them over the series, having them go through different hairstyles and looks, put on and lose weight and so on. This dose of reality helps keep the stories from being too silly. show less

Too young before; now, I love 'em.

Not my thing.