Love & Rockets New Stories no. 4
Oct. 11th, 2011 08:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daddytoddOn the way home from the airport yesterday (coming home from OctobearFest in Denver) I stopped by the comic shop to pick up my hold -- it had been a couple weeks since I was in.
The new Love & Rockets was in my hold -- Vol. 4 on the now-once-a-year schedule. It's not often enough, but I'll take what they can give me.
I read the Jaime parts last night -- I always read his chapters first.
It was absolutely amazing. It's the continuation of the Maggie story from last year's volume, with an ending that reduced me to tears. I re-read last year's opening parts of the story, and re-read the new stuff again tonight. It's one of the most amazing things I've read in ages.
It's hard to explain -- on the surface, it's pretty ordinary, kind of soap-operatic stuff, but Hernandez gives us a portrait of Maggie that starts when she's 11 (around 1976) and finishes in the present day -- she looks to be in her mid to late 40's by the end (if not older.) But he manages to give his characters the kind of rounded, complete lives that nobody else even seems to attempt. And he makes it look effortless. I guess there's a reason it takes him 2 years to come up with ~130 pages of art & story.
I've been reading Jaime Hernandez's stories about Maggie and her friends for well over 20 years now, and he just keeps getting better. He may never tell another Maggie story (this has all the hallmarks of being some kind of ending) and if he doesn't, that will be OK, because he nailed this so completely and utterly, that I really don't need for him to ever do any more. It's complete and perfect.
How often does that ever happen?
I'll say it again: if Jaime Hernandez were writing prose, it would garner awards and be taught at every university that has a "Chicano Studies" program. I hope they're using his graphic novels as texts somewhere, because his body of work is as good, and as significant, as anything I read when I took a couple Chicano Studies classes back in the mid-80's. Jaime Hernandez is simply one of the finest graphic novelists in the world.
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Rockets-New-Stories-Vol/dp/1606994905/
The new Love & Rockets was in my hold -- Vol. 4 on the now-once-a-year schedule. It's not often enough, but I'll take what they can give me.
I read the Jaime parts last night -- I always read his chapters first.
It was absolutely amazing. It's the continuation of the Maggie story from last year's volume, with an ending that reduced me to tears. I re-read last year's opening parts of the story, and re-read the new stuff again tonight. It's one of the most amazing things I've read in ages.
It's hard to explain -- on the surface, it's pretty ordinary, kind of soap-operatic stuff, but Hernandez gives us a portrait of Maggie that starts when she's 11 (around 1976) and finishes in the present day -- she looks to be in her mid to late 40's by the end (if not older.) But he manages to give his characters the kind of rounded, complete lives that nobody else even seems to attempt. And he makes it look effortless. I guess there's a reason it takes him 2 years to come up with ~130 pages of art & story.
I've been reading Jaime Hernandez's stories about Maggie and her friends for well over 20 years now, and he just keeps getting better. He may never tell another Maggie story (this has all the hallmarks of being some kind of ending) and if he doesn't, that will be OK, because he nailed this so completely and utterly, that I really don't need for him to ever do any more. It's complete and perfect.
How often does that ever happen?
I'll say it again: if Jaime Hernandez were writing prose, it would garner awards and be taught at every university that has a "Chicano Studies" program. I hope they're using his graphic novels as texts somewhere, because his body of work is as good, and as significant, as anything I read when I took a couple Chicano Studies classes back in the mid-80's. Jaime Hernandez is simply one of the finest graphic novelists in the world.
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Rockets-New-Stories-Vol/dp/1606994905/
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Comix geekery
Date: 2011-10-13 05:33 am (UTC)Thanks for alerting me that this is out. Jaime's work was always good, but he went into overdrive starting with L&RII. Just phenomenal storytelling.