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Love and Rockets: New Stories no.2
Sep. 13th, 2009 09:22 amThe "July" issue of Love and Rockets: New Stories just hit the comic shops this week.
Picked it up yesterday and read the whole thing in an hour or so (it's only 100 pages.) It contains 4 sections - 2 each by Jaime and Gilbert. Each Hernandez Brother gets 50 pages, with Jaime taking the first and last 25, while Beto takes the middle.
As usual, Jaime's stuff works best for me. The concluding chapters of Ti-Girls Adventures, which bookend the volume, are brilliant -- funny and touching, with some serious commentary on the treatment of women in mainstream comics. Some of the references are pretty obscure. How many non-Chicano readers will catch the resonances of a superheroine named "Aztlana"? (If not for a Chicano Lit class 25 years ago, it would have flown over my head, too.)
Jaime started writing these characters in the early '80's in a kind of sci--fi world. He eventually abandoned the fantastic trappings (robots, etc.) and settled into about 20 years writing the Locas as a soap opera taking place in, essentially, the Real World. It's been great to see these characters returned to a fantastic setting -- this time, as costumed superheroes. Even Maggie is revealed to have something resembling a superpower. I love this stuff!
Beto's stuff, as in New Stores no.1, is exceptionally weird and surreal. I enjoyed the wordless Hypnotwist, and the more straightforward Sad Girl, but his work doesn't resonate with me the way Jaime's stuff does. He's perhaps more adventurous than his brother, but I guess I'm just a sucker for a good Locas story...
Picked it up yesterday and read the whole thing in an hour or so (it's only 100 pages.) It contains 4 sections - 2 each by Jaime and Gilbert. Each Hernandez Brother gets 50 pages, with Jaime taking the first and last 25, while Beto takes the middle.
As usual, Jaime's stuff works best for me. The concluding chapters of Ti-Girls Adventures, which bookend the volume, are brilliant -- funny and touching, with some serious commentary on the treatment of women in mainstream comics. Some of the references are pretty obscure. How many non-Chicano readers will catch the resonances of a superheroine named "Aztlana"? (If not for a Chicano Lit class 25 years ago, it would have flown over my head, too.)
Jaime started writing these characters in the early '80's in a kind of sci--fi world. He eventually abandoned the fantastic trappings (robots, etc.) and settled into about 20 years writing the Locas as a soap opera taking place in, essentially, the Real World. It's been great to see these characters returned to a fantastic setting -- this time, as costumed superheroes. Even Maggie is revealed to have something resembling a superpower. I love this stuff!
Beto's stuff, as in New Stores no.1, is exceptionally weird and surreal. I enjoyed the wordless Hypnotwist, and the more straightforward Sad Girl, but his work doesn't resonate with me the way Jaime's stuff does. He's perhaps more adventurous than his brother, but I guess I'm just a sucker for a good Locas story...
