Jaime Hernandez Books

This collects the stories from Vol. 3 of the Love and Rockets comic book, including the LA Times Book Prize-winning Love Bunglers, and much more. The sublime, the superpowered, and the senior citizen converge in Angels and Magpies, which collects the Gods and Science: Return of the Ti-Girls and Love Bunglers storylines from the Love and Rockets: New Stories series, as well as Hernandez’s 2006 serial for the New York Times. In the latter, Maggie pays a visit to Queen Rena, who is living out her twilight days on an island after a lifetime as a wrestler and an adventuress. In the Ti-Girls segment, superheroics get a screwball spin when Angel of Tarzana and Maggie square off against Dark Penny Century. In the "Love Bunglers," held as perhaps Hernandez’s greatest masterpiece in his thirty-five-year career, and one of the great graphic novels of all time (it was hailed by Slate and Publishers Weekly as one of the best stories of the year), the past and present converge as Maggie and Ray’s reunion is threatened by long-buried family secrets.

As Hernandez puts it, “It’s my Love and Rockets world that’s not my Love and Rockets world.” This best-of book spotlights the women who are often ignored in pro wrestling in 125 full color illustrations: pin-ups, action shots, fake wrestling magazine covers, all presented in a large paperback format that echoes the lucha libre magazines of the 1960s. Hernandez also discusses the work in an interview with fellow cartoonist Katie Skelly.Despite having created one of the most expansive and remarkable casts of characters of any cartoonist who ever lived (under the umbrella of the ongoing L comic book series), acclaimed graphic novelist Jaime Hernandez — Will Eisner Hall of Famer; Eisner, Harvey, Ignatz, and PEN Award winner; L.A. Times Book Prize winner; and on a very short list of contenders for the title of America’s Greatest Living Cartoonist — has been privately amassing a body of work that no one else has ever seen for over 40 years. Until now.

In these classic "Locas" stories, Jaime drops a narrative bomb on Hopey (and us) in "Wigwam Bam"; Maggie contends with her inner demons, a murderous hooker, and an amorous lady wrestler; and Maggie, getting married?

In this batch of “Locas” stories by Jaime Hernandez from the pages of Love and Rockets Volume II (picking up where 2010’s Penny Century collection left off), an older and wiser Maggie faces down her old demons and the “Ghost of Hoppers” in a full-length graphic novel (which also introduces one of Jaime’s greatest recent characters, Vivian the “Frogmouth,” the near-psychotic bombshell). Meanwhile, the ever-feisty but maturing Hopey (her Spanish birth name giving this collection its title) transitions from tending bar to teaching kindergarten (while still juggling a complex love life), and the final quarter of the book shows Maggie’s lovable ex Ray Dominguez being dragged into the aftermath of a grisly murder thanks to his falling for the Frogmouth.

The 25th anniversary Love and Rockets celebration continues withthis, the second of three volumes collecting the adventures of thespunky Maggie; her annoying, pixie-ish best friend and sometime loverHopey; and their circle of friends, including their bombshell friendPenny Century, Maggie's weirdo mentor Izzy—as well as the aging butstill heroic wrestler Rena Titañon and Maggie's handsome love interest,Rand Race. After the sci-fi trappings of his earliest stories (as seenin Maggie the Mechanic, the first volume in this series),Hernandez refined his approach, settling on the more naturalisticenvironment of the fictional Los Angeles barrio, Hoppers, and the livesof the young Mexican-Americans and punk rockers who live there. Acentral story and one of Jaime's absolute peaks is "The Death ofSpeedy." Such is Jaime's mastery that even though the end of the storyis telegraphed from the very title, the downhill spiral of Speedy, thelocal heartthrob, is utterly compelling and ultimately quitesurprising. Also in this volume, Maggie begins her on-again off-againromance with Ray D., leading to friction and an eventual separationfrom Hopey.(Note: A number of these stories, including a whole cycleof wrestling stories starring or co-starring Rena Titañon, were notcollected in the hardcover Locas.)

Follows the adventures of the spunky Maggie Chascarillo, her annoying friend and sometime lover Hopey and their circle of friends, including bombshell Penny Century, weirdo Izzy and her gangster broher Speedy, would-be boyfriend Ray Dominguez, Hopey's no-talent punk band and wrestlers Vicki Glori and Rena Titanon.

Picking up right after Perla La Loca, the third volume of the definitive Maggie series repackaging, this compilation of stories from Jaime Hernandez s solo comic Penny Century and his subsequent return to Love and Rockets(Volume II) charts the further lives of his beloved Locas. But first... wrestling Penny Century starts off with a blast with Whoa, Nellie , a unique graphic novelette in which Maggie, who has settled in withher pro-wrestler aunt for a while, experiences that wild and woolly world first-hand.Then it s back to chills and spills with the old cast of Hopey, Ray Dominguez, and Izzy Ortiz including Maggie sromantic dream fantasia The Race and the definitive Ray story, Everybody Loves Me, Baby. Penny Century also features two major flashback stories: Bay of Threes finally reveals the full back story behindBeatriz Penny Century Garcia, Maggie s long-time, bleached-blonde bombshell friend (who gives this volume its nameand can currently be seen as a super-villainess in Love and Rockets: New Stories), while Home School is one of Hernandez s popular looks at his characters lives from when they were little kids, drawn in an adorable simplified Dennis theMenace type style.

The "director's cut" edition of the sprawling super-hero epic from Love and Rockets. Originally serialized in Love and Rockets New Stories, “Ti-Girls Adventures” managed to be both a rollickingly creative super-hero joyride (featuring three separate super-teams and over two dozen characters) that ranged from the other side of the universe to Maggie’s shabby apartment, and a genuinely dramatic fable about madness, grief, and motherhood as Penny Century’s decades-long quest to become a genuine super-heroine are finally, and tragically, fulfilled. In addition to introducing a plethora of wild new characters, God and Science brings in many older characters from Jaime’s universe, some from seemingly throwaway shorter strips and some from Maggie’s day-to-day world (including some real surprises). The main heroine of the story, forming a bridge between the “realistic” Maggie stories and the super-heroic extravaganza is “Angel,” Maggie’s sweet-tempered and athletic new roommate and best friend, and now herself an aspiring super-heroine.

The suppression of family history is the initial thread that ties together The Love Bunglers, featuring Hernandez's longtime Love and Rockets heroine Maggie. Because these secrets can't be dealt with openly, their lingering effect is even more powerful. But Maggie's ability to navigate and find meaning in her life - despite losing her culture, her brother, her profession, and her friends - is what's made her a compelling character. After a lifetime of losses, Maggie finds, in the second half, her longtime off and on lover, Ray Dominguez. Much like John Updike in his four Rabbitnovels, Jaime Hernandez has been following his longtime character Maggie around for several decades, all of which has seemed to be building towards this book in particular.