The return of Maggie and Hopey
May 5, 2019 11:06 AM Subscribe
Jaime Hernandez returns with a new graphic novel, Is This How You See Me? based on his classic Love and Rockets characters Maggie and Hopey, and reflects on life’s changes to Carolina Miranda of the L.A. Times in a thoughtful interview.
A MeFi member has a babby Maggie (born last year) who is a Maggie because of this Maggie. (Not my babby, though.)
Long-time readers of Love and Rockets know that Maggie’s family nickname is Perla or Perlita. Turns out that “Margaret” names are derived via Greek from Old Persian meaning “pearl”.
posted by D.C. at 12:38 PM on May 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
Long-time readers of Love and Rockets know that Maggie’s family nickname is Perla or Perlita. Turns out that “Margaret” names are derived via Greek from Old Persian meaning “pearl”.
posted by D.C. at 12:38 PM on May 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
I'm in. I was just re-reading The Love Bunglers the other day and wondering if there would be any more stories about that group of characters. I've been reading Love and Rockets since the mid-nineties and Maggie and Hopey are as real as Tuesday to me.
~~
I could imagine a storyline in which one of them dies; Love and Rockets is that kind of comic. But they're what, fifty? That may be Very Old Indeed for women who are allowed to be depicted in comics, but it's not, you know, actually old.
posted by Frowner at 1:01 PM on May 5, 2019 [10 favorites]
~~
I could imagine a storyline in which one of them dies; Love and Rockets is that kind of comic. But they're what, fifty? That may be Very Old Indeed for women who are allowed to be depicted in comics, but it's not, you know, actually old.
posted by Frowner at 1:01 PM on May 5, 2019 [10 favorites]
Well, it's not like death hasn't touched these characters before (e.g. "The Death of Speedy" storyline), tho at least it doesn't sound like he's up for killing off another character at the moment.
Also, Dizzy FTW!!!!
posted by gtrwolf at 2:22 PM on May 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
Also, Dizzy FTW!!!!
posted by gtrwolf at 2:22 PM on May 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
I really liked The Love Bunglers, even though there were some deeply unpleasant moments in it. I had followed Love & Rockets from about the second issue up through most of the eighties, but at some point lost the thread either because I was somewhere that didn't have a comic book store that carried the book or I couldn't afford comics for a while or the stories didn't grab me as much as they did when I was a kid and it was the first non-superhero comic that I followed regularly. (Not that Jaime didn't occasionally feature superheroes, or rockets (of the somewhat Buck Rogersish variety) from time to time, but the more genre-ish elements were more there for flavor than as some sort of serious world-building, and they gradually dropped away.) But I feel like the comics world has finally caught up to Los Bros in a way.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:26 PM on May 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:26 PM on May 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
I look forward to catching up with Las Locas. My chronology is a little out of date.
I love Jaime's work for many reasons, but one is that it does diversity right. There are so many characters that no one is defined by their race or gender or sexuality; everyone is an individual.
Great quote from the interview: "Gilbert and I were like, nobody’s doing this — let’s show the world that the world we come from is waaaay more interesting than a Marvel comic." And it really is! Marvel's shtick was to show some everyday life scenes amid the superheroics; Jaime inverted this, showing glimpses of sf or superheroics amid the scenes of everyday life.
posted by zompist at 2:59 PM on May 5, 2019 [7 favorites]
I love Jaime's work for many reasons, but one is that it does diversity right. There are so many characters that no one is defined by their race or gender or sexuality; everyone is an individual.
Great quote from the interview: "Gilbert and I were like, nobody’s doing this — let’s show the world that the world we come from is waaaay more interesting than a Marvel comic." And it really is! Marvel's shtick was to show some everyday life scenes amid the superheroics; Jaime inverted this, showing glimpses of sf or superheroics amid the scenes of everyday life.
posted by zompist at 2:59 PM on May 5, 2019 [7 favorites]
"He produces all of his drawings by hand."
Yes, LA Times, by hand. Look, you can see his primitive tools -- pencil, eraser, ink! He uses ink!
posted by CCBC at 3:39 PM on May 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
Yes, LA Times, by hand. Look, you can see his primitive tools -- pencil, eraser, ink! He uses ink!
posted by CCBC at 3:39 PM on May 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
I was at Comic-Con years ago and briefly made eye contact with Jaime, and I got hit with this realization that he had this entire world of characters in his head and it kind of freaked me out. Like, Maggie and Hopey and all these people who seemed so real to me, they were the product of this one guy's imagination. I've never had that response when I've met another artist, but then offhand I can't think of another artist who has single-handedly produced such a long-running, serial work full of such vivid, unforgettable characters.
I feel like the sheer sprawl of it all may have harmed his livelihood in some ways, because even I (as a longtime fan) lost track of the book at some point when my local comic book store stopped carrying it and now it seems kind of daunting to find my way back into the narrative. I can only imagine what potential new readers would think looking at a book about two middle-aged characters with 38 years of back issues. It's still gorgeously drawn and a Jaime story is a fun read even when you don't know what's going on, but it's just not going to be an instant draw for misfit kids the way it was 1987.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 4:52 PM on May 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
I feel like the sheer sprawl of it all may have harmed his livelihood in some ways, because even I (as a longtime fan) lost track of the book at some point when my local comic book store stopped carrying it and now it seems kind of daunting to find my way back into the narrative. I can only imagine what potential new readers would think looking at a book about two middle-aged characters with 38 years of back issues. It's still gorgeously drawn and a Jaime story is a fun read even when you don't know what's going on, but it's just not going to be an instant draw for misfit kids the way it was 1987.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 4:52 PM on May 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
I'm gonna have to raid the library; I have read very little but loved it a lot. (I only knew of L&R from the band, and had no idea for the longest time there was a comix series.)
posted by not_on_display at 10:13 PM on May 5, 2019
posted by not_on_display at 10:13 PM on May 5, 2019
A MeFi member has a babby Maggie (born last year) who is a Maggie because of this Maggie. (Not my babby, though.)
I am not that Mefite, but my babby (No longer a babby) is also a Maggie because of that Maggie.
I'm gonna have to raid the library
Those books are fantastic value; highly recommended to anyone, though the spines still piss me off.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 12:27 AM on May 6, 2019
I am not that Mefite, but my babby (No longer a babby) is also a Maggie because of that Maggie.
I'm gonna have to raid the library
Those books are fantastic value; highly recommended to anyone, though the spines still piss me off.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 12:27 AM on May 6, 2019
I remember seeing Los Bros on their 10th anniversary tour and gushing to them all mindboggled that they had ten whole years under their belt.
That was 1992, people.
posted by whuppy at 5:43 AM on May 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
That was 1992, people.
posted by whuppy at 5:43 AM on May 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
it seems kind of daunting to find my way back into the narrative
This might help.
posted by Paul Slade at 9:19 AM on May 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
This might help.
posted by Paul Slade at 9:19 AM on May 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
I really love their art and the positive influence they've had in comics. I follow a tumblr blog called The Bristol Board and they often post really great art by the Love and Rockets folks. One of these days I want to actually sit down and read through them, but that seems like a Task given how much of it there is at this point.
posted by GoblinHoney at 12:37 PM on May 6, 2019
posted by GoblinHoney at 12:37 PM on May 6, 2019
Kind of annoyingly, Fantagraphics repackages these stories every few years with new titles, which is confusing and makes it hard to catch up.
But if you're daunted, it's pretty simple to get a good start with Jaime: read volume 1 (Maggie the Mechanic), 3 (The Girl from HOPPERS), and 5 (Perla la Loca).
Once you've read a lot, your complaint will not be so much "Jaime's done so much!" but "Jaime writes too damn slow!"
posted by zompist at 1:46 PM on May 6, 2019
But if you're daunted, it's pretty simple to get a good start with Jaime: read volume 1 (Maggie the Mechanic), 3 (The Girl from HOPPERS), and 5 (Perla la Loca).
Once you've read a lot, your complaint will not be so much "Jaime's done so much!" but "Jaime writes too damn slow!"
posted by zompist at 1:46 PM on May 6, 2019
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Shut your mouth, LA Times.
posted by The Hamms Bear at 11:51 AM on May 5, 2019 [14 favorites]