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Love and Rockets
Penny Century
De Beatriz García sabemos que trabajó de camarera y vendiendo flores, que es impulsiva e impredecible y que siempre se soñó superheroína. Su atractivo salta a la vista, lo cual nos lleva a recordar su buen manejo para con los hombres, a los que siempre ha dado tormento.
De Beatriz García recordamos su intenso romance con Rand Race. Y aquel otro, guadianesco, con Ray Dominguez, quien a día de hoy está algo extraviado en sí mismo. También sabemos que era una de las varias esposs del multimillonario Herve R. Costigan, que acaba de morir.
Y ahora tiene una peluquería. Beatriz García, más conocida como Penny Century, encara su condición de viuda secundada por Maggie, Hopey y nuestras queridas LOCAS de siempre.
De Beatriz García recordamos su intenso romance con Rand Race. Y aquel otro, guadianesco, con Ray Dominguez, quien a día de hoy está algo extraviado en sí mismo. También sabemos que era una de las varias esposs del multimillonario Herve R. Costigan, que acaba de morir.
Y ahora tiene una peluquería. Beatriz García, más conocida como Penny Century, encara su condición de viuda secundada por Maggie, Hopey y nuestras queridas LOCAS de siempre.
255 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
15 people are currently reading
314 people want to read
About the author
Jaime Hernández
264 books454 followersJaime and his brother Gilbert Hernández mostly publish their separate storylines together in Love And Rockets and are often referred to as 'Los Bros Hernandez'.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
March 24, 2018
This fourth (256 page) omnibus volume runs a little more to the lighter side of Love and Rockets, with a focus on fan favorite babe Penny Century, wife of the world’s richest man H.R. Costigan, the one with demon horns.
Picking up right after Perla La Loca, the third volume of the definitive Maggie series repackaging, we begin with a lot of pro women wrestling stories, we have a definitive Ray story, “Everybody Loves Me, Baby.” “Home School” is a fun, Charles Schulz tribute, a look at Izzy and Maggie when they were kids, but most of this is just stories of his characters getting older, into their thirties, which is less fun and substantial than the stories of their twenties.
Picking up right after Perla La Loca, the third volume of the definitive Maggie series repackaging, we begin with a lot of pro women wrestling stories, we have a definitive Ray story, “Everybody Loves Me, Baby.” “Home School” is a fun, Charles Schulz tribute, a look at Izzy and Maggie when they were kids, but most of this is just stories of his characters getting older, into their thirties, which is less fun and substantial than the stories of their twenties.
March 15, 2021
Penny Century collects material from Whoa Nellie 1-3, Maggie and Hopey Color Fun, Penny Century #1-7, and Love and Rockets Volume 2 #5.
So here we are again, another volume in Jaime Hernandez's masterpiece. This feels like a bridging volume in some ways. Xo and Gina move forward in their wrestling careers, Ray Dominguez struggles with life in the city, and the origin of Penny Century is told. Maggie gets divorced. H.R. Costigan dies. Maggie and Hopey progress in their relationship.
A lot of the book is just about the characters getting older. Jaime's art and writing are in peak form but not a ton of substantial things actually happen.
Penny Century is a transitional volume in the life of the Locas and the people in their orbit. As far as transitional volumes go, it's damn good. Four out of five stars.
So here we are again, another volume in Jaime Hernandez's masterpiece. This feels like a bridging volume in some ways. Xo and Gina move forward in their wrestling careers, Ray Dominguez struggles with life in the city, and the origin of Penny Century is told. Maggie gets divorced. H.R. Costigan dies. Maggie and Hopey progress in their relationship.
A lot of the book is just about the characters getting older. Jaime's art and writing are in peak form but not a ton of substantial things actually happen.
Penny Century is a transitional volume in the life of the Locas and the people in their orbit. As far as transitional volumes go, it's damn good. Four out of five stars.
September 18, 2020
Otra obra maestra de Jaime Hernández.
Tal vez estén aquí sus mejores viñetas de wrestling, en ese maravilloso comienzo que cuenta la herencia de esta práctica por parte de Maggie.
La maravillosa y personal forma de caracterizar a los personajes, su humor en perfecto equilibrio entre el sarcasmo y el cinismo, y su amplia visión del género, del amor, del racismo y el clasismo, alejada de todo tipo de clichés, lo sitúan a años luz de las sociedades actuales y lo convierten en un visionario mucho más moderno que tantos otros que se las dan de.
Tal vez estén aquí sus mejores viñetas de wrestling, en ese maravilloso comienzo que cuenta la herencia de esta práctica por parte de Maggie.
La maravillosa y personal forma de caracterizar a los personajes, su humor en perfecto equilibrio entre el sarcasmo y el cinismo, y su amplia visión del género, del amor, del racismo y el clasismo, alejada de todo tipo de clichés, lo sitúan a años luz de las sociedades actuales y lo convierten en un visionario mucho más moderno que tantos otros que se las dan de.
June 24, 2020
Back to Jamie Hernandez's Locas, continuing from his last volume Perla La Loca with some Penny Century in the pro-wrestling world before catching up with Hopey, Maggie and co. interspersed with Penny Century short stories. Jaime's work, just gets better! One of our key characters gets married, another is divorced. We get more on Costigan (him with the unexplained horns in his head!). We find out what Ray's doing. And Maggie & Hopey, can it be eternal love? Superb series. Superb art. Superb Love and Rockets! 9 out of 12.
June 6, 2012
Lighter and larkier fare here: The world of female wrestling, punk flashbacks, Maggie and Izzy as kids, some moody pieces narrated by Ray D, and lots about Penny Century whose story is mostly told in brief episodes. Since this was published during the years Love & Rockets was on hiatus, I'm tempted to label it transitional - but really it's all part of the grand story Jaime is telling.
August 5, 2020
This book is called Penny Century, but it's only mildly Penny-centric. There's a lot of wrestling and a somewhat random collection of other stories. At this point, Jaime has just sort of a hit a stride -- not spinning his wheels, but not doing the crazy-ass explosive work of the earlier collections. It's very good. It's easy like Sunday morning, if Sunday morning is a little sad and drawn like a sexy SoCal Archie comic about middle-aged punkers.
August 12, 2021
More incredible comics from Jaime Hernandez! This volume has more wrestling at the beginning, but honestly, most of it, even the wrestling, is all very human. So many woman centered stories. You get to see all the characters, especially Maggie, really grow up. I'm looking forward to the last two.
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November 16, 2023As Jaime Hernandez's Locas storyline continues into the late 90s, Maggie and Hopey are in their early 30s, now living in Los Angeles. As Penny Century puts it, they are madly in love but spend all their time running away from each other. Well into the story, we discover that Maggie is in fact married - just at the moment when she decides to get a divorce. Through a series of flashbacks, we get the backstory. Her fortunate/unfortunate hubby is a guy named Tony Chase she used to hook up with back in her punk days in Hoppers, and with whom she'd reconnected once she and Hopey moved to L.A. At one level, this seems like a massive retcon: we witness many of her shenanigans with Hopey in L.A. before it's even revealed that she's married. But then again, most of their friends don't know she's married any more than we readers do. After all, no one in Maggie's and Hopey's lives could be more important for them than each other, so in the grand scheme of things, a husband isn't all that important. And though Maggie has the infuriating habit of making major life decisions without telling Hopey, leaving the latter to find out about them through the grapevine; there's a kind of bittersweetness in seeing these two constantly orbit one another's lives without ever becoming the couple they really ought to be. Maggie is too attached to the straight identity she projects to most people to settle down with Hopey, and Hopey is too willing accommodate Maggie's b.s. - seemingly the only b.s. she takes from anyone ever - for them to quite manage ever being together, or ever being apart.
The stories here are more streamlined than in the sprawling early 90s stories of The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S.. Maggie and Hopey really take center stage. Still, though, we get lengthy and fascinating asides about other characters.
For example, we catch up with Ray Dominguez, who's stewing in workaday drudgery - a man whose youthful bad boy chic has completely faded as he drifts through his late 30s, and who spends his days pining after the women in his past: Maggie, Penny, and Danita most of all.
Further, after the death of her billionaire husband, the devil-horned H.R. Costigan, we learn the history behind Penny Century's relationship with him. As might have been guessed, he was an already bald, middle aged man when he'd met her as a child, and in a particularly despicable move, sponsored an entire high school education program just so he could track down the little girl who'd once caught his fancy. Once he found her working as a waitress as a high school kid, all bets were off. Their strange romance began - a romance into which Penny threw herself entirely in the hopes that Costigan's billions would allow her to achieve her dream of becoming a superhero. Once he's dead, her life has been wasted on him: she's left with no inheritance, having squandered her youth on a self-involved, power-hungry old pervert.
Most of all, there's "Whoa Nellie!", the story that kicks off this volume, in which Jaime dives deep into the world of women's wrestling. There's Xochitl, Maggie's cousin, who balances her life as a wife and mother of two children with a career as a middling wrestler with incredible grace. There's Gina, the baby-faced debutante wrestler who's deeply but secretly in love with Xochitl, sacrificing her potential to become a champion time and time again so that she can be close to Xochitl. And, there's the aging Vicki Glori, Maggie's aunt, who transitions from long-time wrestling champion into world-class wrestling coach. Jaime's drawings of the wrestling matches in this story are positively virtuosic: gripping, dynamic visions of non-heteronormative feminine beauty and strength equaled in power only by the humanity of the stories he tells of the women who compete in them.
Sprinkled among these stories are some light, whimsical magical realist asides. Isabel magically grows or shrinks whenever she's faced with the prospect of having to speak in public about her recently published book. And, Maggie has a series of surreal encounters while running a race - a sequence that turns out to have been nothing but a dream. Putting these brief tangents aside, though, Jaime's Locas stories continue to remain firmly grounded in a harsh reality: people in their 30s who are beginning to face the definitive end of their youth. In his portrayal of this reality, Jaime's art is as poignant as ever.
The stories here are more streamlined than in the sprawling early 90s stories of The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S.. Maggie and Hopey really take center stage. Still, though, we get lengthy and fascinating asides about other characters.
For example, we catch up with Ray Dominguez, who's stewing in workaday drudgery - a man whose youthful bad boy chic has completely faded as he drifts through his late 30s, and who spends his days pining after the women in his past: Maggie, Penny, and Danita most of all.
Further, after the death of her billionaire husband, the devil-horned H.R. Costigan, we learn the history behind Penny Century's relationship with him. As might have been guessed, he was an already bald, middle aged man when he'd met her as a child, and in a particularly despicable move, sponsored an entire high school education program just so he could track down the little girl who'd once caught his fancy. Once he found her working as a waitress as a high school kid, all bets were off. Their strange romance began - a romance into which Penny threw herself entirely in the hopes that Costigan's billions would allow her to achieve her dream of becoming a superhero. Once he's dead, her life has been wasted on him: she's left with no inheritance, having squandered her youth on a self-involved, power-hungry old pervert.
Most of all, there's "Whoa Nellie!", the story that kicks off this volume, in which Jaime dives deep into the world of women's wrestling. There's Xochitl, Maggie's cousin, who balances her life as a wife and mother of two children with a career as a middling wrestler with incredible grace. There's Gina, the baby-faced debutante wrestler who's deeply but secretly in love with Xochitl, sacrificing her potential to become a champion time and time again so that she can be close to Xochitl. And, there's the aging Vicki Glori, Maggie's aunt, who transitions from long-time wrestling champion into world-class wrestling coach. Jaime's drawings of the wrestling matches in this story are positively virtuosic: gripping, dynamic visions of non-heteronormative feminine beauty and strength equaled in power only by the humanity of the stories he tells of the women who compete in them.
Sprinkled among these stories are some light, whimsical magical realist asides. Isabel magically grows or shrinks whenever she's faced with the prospect of having to speak in public about her recently published book. And, Maggie has a series of surreal encounters while running a race - a sequence that turns out to have been nothing but a dream. Putting these brief tangents aside, though, Jaime's Locas stories continue to remain firmly grounded in a harsh reality: people in their 30s who are beginning to face the definitive end of their youth. In his portrayal of this reality, Jaime's art is as poignant as ever.
July 14, 2021
With Girl From Hoppers it clicked, with Perla La Loca I fell in love and with Penny Century I now worship Love and Rockets.
When you look at Love and Rockets from the beginning, it being all over the place kind of makes sense. Jaime was a very young cartoonist still finding his voice, he was 18 when Love and Rockets #1 was published. But still, that first collection of stories really shows promise. With Girl From Hoppers I think Jaime got into his groove with stories like Death of Speedy. I think Perla La Loca is Jaime hitting his stride and Penny Century takes that ball that Perla La Loca got rolling and makes it go faster than anyone thought was possible.
Absolutely perfect stories in here from both a pure writing and comics craft standpoint. I don’t know how he does it, but these characters just keep getting better and better. They get funnier, more charming and deeper with every story. I will never get tired of seeing Maggie and Hopey talk. And this volume being so revolved around their relationship I think is what makes this volume so special. We get an extremely Maggie centered volume in Perla La Loca after a Hopey centered volume in girl from Hoppers. This gave us a ton of Maggie/Hopey while also giving us great stories featuring side characters.
Not to mention Jaime as a cartoonist who seems to be aging like wine. The simplicity in his story telling is baffling considering how it uses the medium. The lettering in particular stands out in this issue but highlighting the choice to do this set of stories primarily in 6 or 8 panel grids was awesome. We see Jaime play with time which I think is his most interesting tool as a cartoonist. Since these characters age in real time, Jaime will cut to a flashback mid page and it works since the reader is familiar with how these characters looked 5 or even 10 years ago. Not only is this simple, it’s genius. I know books like Watchmen have done this, but where do you think Moore got the idea from?
When you look at Love and Rockets from the beginning, it being all over the place kind of makes sense. Jaime was a very young cartoonist still finding his voice, he was 18 when Love and Rockets #1 was published. But still, that first collection of stories really shows promise. With Girl From Hoppers I think Jaime got into his groove with stories like Death of Speedy. I think Perla La Loca is Jaime hitting his stride and Penny Century takes that ball that Perla La Loca got rolling and makes it go faster than anyone thought was possible.
Absolutely perfect stories in here from both a pure writing and comics craft standpoint. I don’t know how he does it, but these characters just keep getting better and better. They get funnier, more charming and deeper with every story. I will never get tired of seeing Maggie and Hopey talk. And this volume being so revolved around their relationship I think is what makes this volume so special. We get an extremely Maggie centered volume in Perla La Loca after a Hopey centered volume in girl from Hoppers. This gave us a ton of Maggie/Hopey while also giving us great stories featuring side characters.
Not to mention Jaime as a cartoonist who seems to be aging like wine. The simplicity in his story telling is baffling considering how it uses the medium. The lettering in particular stands out in this issue but highlighting the choice to do this set of stories primarily in 6 or 8 panel grids was awesome. We see Jaime play with time which I think is his most interesting tool as a cartoonist. Since these characters age in real time, Jaime will cut to a flashback mid page and it works since the reader is familiar with how these characters looked 5 or even 10 years ago. Not only is this simple, it’s genius. I know books like Watchmen have done this, but where do you think Moore got the idea from?
May 19, 2012
In some ways I did not like it as well as LOVE & ROCKETS, VOL. 1, (there were no Ti-Girls!), but in other ways I enjoyed it every bit as much. I was a little confused about some of the characters, and their relationships; I couldn't always immediately tell who some of the people were. But several of the stories were really good (I liked the WWFW story) and I laughed out loud several times. Any piece of art, book, movie, comic, whatever, that makes me do that gets votes from me.
After I was done, I learned that this was probably Vol. 4. So it goes.
After I was done, I learned that this was probably Vol. 4. So it goes.
June 18, 2015
Really good. I enjoyed getting to meet the real Penny Century though, as always, I did have a bit of trouble following the plot. Still great.
August 14, 2025
Stream of consciousness thoughts about these Locas stories I haven’t read before. Don’t show these to my doctor, I don’t want to go on meds.
Whoa Nellie!
Page 4: Right off the bat we’re hanging out with Gina, what a great book!
5: Just learned Gina’s from Oklahoma; subconsciously I must’ve known.
9: She’s not really from Oklahoma. Dammit.
12: You gotta let her go, Gina.
15-19: This sport looks like it really hurts.
20: Gina, this is embarrassing. Xo, get a clue.
24: Gina got taken down with the steel chair!! What a great book.
28: Are you allowed to have 2 people piledrive someone at the same time?
33: It must be hard to look your family in the eye across the dinner table after they saw you get choked out with a hand towel on TV.
36: I dare you to make Perla a wrestler for real.
39: Get over it, Vicki.
42: Is the second allowed to pull their opponents hair from outside the ring?? These are some poorly officiated matches or the rules are super lax. I’m here for it either way.
43: The hair pulling on this page seems above board.
45: Once again Gina holds Katy in place by her hair so Xo can stomp her face from orbit but this time she gets a stern warning from the ref.
53: Xochitl lost??? Biggest letdown since they cancelled the space shuttle.
57: What happens to Vicki happens to all of us eventually.
68: They teamed up and took ‘em all down! What a great book.
Maggie and Hopey Color Fun
71: I thought Janet’s mismatched eyes were a misprint in the last book but now I know.
75: I don’t judge but right now I’m judging. Gross, Hopey.
79: Jamie removed all the sci fi elements but kept the devil horns on the capitalists so basically it’s 100% realistic now.
81: My take here is that Norma is just pretending she’s viewing other planets to hide the fact that the telescope is actually for looking at people’s butts.
86: This weird thing happens to aging punks where their fashion sense gets even worse.
Penny Century
91: Geez Ray, you’re bumming me out.
93: That image will probably never leave my head.
94: I mean, you can’t really blame Ray for letting Penny ruin his life. Dropping in every few weeks in a super hero outfit every time he has a date is more than the average man can stand.
96: Holy crap Ray’s wearing a bad guy mask, his life is over.
La Pantera Negra
103: These children could beat me up.
105: Negra is heir to the Costigan fortune? Didn’t Penny have his baby too? Oh wait that was with her security guard. Or was it with that guy Hopey was traveling with?
Chiller
116: Maggie taking to herself to keep from being scared is such a good bit. Penny told her this would happen.
Loser Leave Oxnard
152: Arrest Bolani and put him on a registry right now.
153: Peed in the pool?? Double jail!!
Inquiritis
161: All things being equal, Penny should be jailed for her nudity as well.
162: Penny spent years as an unemployed housewife and she still can’t make cookies. Some people have all the luck.
Everybody Loves Me Baby
220: Jamie draws incredible brokenhearted faces.
222: It’s been like 10 pages of this dude getting mad at everyone because he won’t talk to a girl.
223: Leaving your drunk friend at some random guy’s place is not a super cool move, Hopey.
224: Smooth.
226: “the concentration camp looking guy.” See you at my funeral, I’m deceased.
233: Is this what life is?
235: Excuse me while I die inside. What a great book.
If you read all this nonsense you’re either in love with me or bored as hell and since I doubt either of those is the case and no one is reading I’ll just finish up by saying Epstein didn’t kill himself.
June 13, 2022
This book is called Penny Century, and yeah it is focused on her mostly in the beginning, but make no mistake, this is a Locas book. By the last 3 issues, we are squarely in Maggie and Hopey's world again, catching up to where they are in life a few years after vol 3.
So Penny is kind of doing her escapist thing now that her husband is dying, and so the book follows her for a bit as she visits old friends and we get other characters kind of reminiscing about her and their time with her. But like I said, the book then shifts over to Maggie and Hopey and it just becomes about them and their status in life and with each other especially.
It's interesting how Jaime Hernandez hasn't outwardly stated that they are in love with each other, but its been kind of obvious this whole time. In this volume, its more said outright, to the point that the book closes on that notion. Its a really nice and touching tribute to their friendship and more. I think Hernandez has made a beautifully crafted world full of drama and good times, and it feels very really and is very entertaining.
Hernandez also takes the time to show us flashbacks of some character origins and origins of friendships that began in childhood. We get updates on side characters, and new characters. Like I said, there is no mistaking that this is a Locas book through and through.
I'm a bit sad that I'm now over the halfway point, but there's two more volumes still to go. Highly recommended for fans of the series.
So Penny is kind of doing her escapist thing now that her husband is dying, and so the book follows her for a bit as she visits old friends and we get other characters kind of reminiscing about her and their time with her. But like I said, the book then shifts over to Maggie and Hopey and it just becomes about them and their status in life and with each other especially.
It's interesting how Jaime Hernandez hasn't outwardly stated that they are in love with each other, but its been kind of obvious this whole time. In this volume, its more said outright, to the point that the book closes on that notion. Its a really nice and touching tribute to their friendship and more. I think Hernandez has made a beautifully crafted world full of drama and good times, and it feels very really and is very entertaining.
Hernandez also takes the time to show us flashbacks of some character origins and origins of friendships that began in childhood. We get updates on side characters, and new characters. Like I said, there is no mistaking that this is a Locas book through and through.
I'm a bit sad that I'm now over the halfway point, but there's two more volumes still to go. Highly recommended for fans of the series.
January 20, 2024
The fourth omnibus trade collection of Jaime's "Locas" stories from the miniseries Penny Century, Whoa, Nellie! and the return to Love and Rockets with its second volume. This collection opens with the women's wrestling epic, Whoa, Nellie! which stars Maggie's aunt Vicki Glori attempting to defend her title. Tribulations are in store for Vicki in her fight towards becoming champion once more and it's delivered in a truly thrilling sequences throughout the three-issue series. Other stories include Hopey and Maggie continuing to live in their unorthodox living conditions as Maggie deals with old faces making their way back in her life while Hopey tries out odd jobs to become a more rounded adult. But the bulk of the stories here feature Beatriz Garcia, AKA Penny Century, particularly as an origin tale for her and her odd little nickname. But the standout tale by far is "Home School", a cute Charles Schulz tribute where the roster of the Locas stories are redrawn in Schulz' distinctive "Peanuts" style but with a touch of the bittersweet quality of storytelling that Jaime has patented at this point.
Though a lot of this volume does seem like filler and transitionary stories, Jaime's craft has matured into something consistently mesmerizing and potently witty. A ton of gold to be found in this volume, and fans of characters like Ray Dominguez and Penny Century will really appreciate the work put in to flesh those characters out here.
Though a lot of this volume does seem like filler and transitionary stories, Jaime's craft has matured into something consistently mesmerizing and potently witty. A ton of gold to be found in this volume, and fans of characters like Ray Dominguez and Penny Century will really appreciate the work put in to flesh those characters out here.
April 29, 2021
This fourth collection of Locas stories is just as great as the earlier books, and I’m surprised all over again how easy it is to slip right back into this uniquely affecting social setting, and how much I care about everyone once more. Maggie and Hopey and all the rest remain just as richly detailed and grounded in reality as they get closer to middle age, even with a slight increase in magical realism (Maggie’s dream is a particular trip, and a psychological highlight in a book full of them).
These stories continue the general march forward in time, but it’s the flashbacks that continue to make this series so special to me. They rarely appear specifically related to the current moment; rather, they feel like a friend’s suddenly stumbled on memory they smirked to themselves about and then filled me in on, revealing a richness behind some relationship dynamic of shared acquaintances that I’d never thought much about. Each one feels like a revelation, no matter how small or silly the story is. It’s an amazing magic trick every time.
Hernandez’s distinctive black and white art is still just as important as his writing. His panels are all filled with lively action and poignant emotion and silly humor, oftentimes communicating in a single expression what other books can’t get across in a huge paragraph dump of lettering.
These stories continue the general march forward in time, but it’s the flashbacks that continue to make this series so special to me. They rarely appear specifically related to the current moment; rather, they feel like a friend’s suddenly stumbled on memory they smirked to themselves about and then filled me in on, revealing a richness behind some relationship dynamic of shared acquaintances that I’d never thought much about. Each one feels like a revelation, no matter how small or silly the story is. It’s an amazing magic trick every time.
Hernandez’s distinctive black and white art is still just as important as his writing. His panels are all filled with lively action and poignant emotion and silly humor, oftentimes communicating in a single expression what other books can’t get across in a huge paragraph dump of lettering.
October 28, 2016
At the risk of sounding like a hipster, "I like the earlier stuff better." The Love and Rockets comics written from the nineties onward doesn't have the same magic and dynamic artwork as they did in the eighties.
The Maggie the Mechanic collection (Locas Book One) went in a direction I enjoyed, combining the greatness of Space Race science fiction along with the exotic and bizarre, for how do you really meld female pro-wrestling with girl mechanics, rocket ships, and lesbian culture, without pandering to it? The characters were denser in characterization and aesthetically penciled, shaded with cross-hatched detail, which is something I miss in the later comics. Urban, jungle, or desert vistas in the background that brought the reader into that new world just aren't there anymore, being replaced by blank space or artless backgrounds, giving me the impression that Jaime Hernandez got lazy with age. I find myself no longer caring about Maggie, Hopey, Penny Century, and the rest of the Love and Rockets crew. Or, dare I say, falling out of love with them.
Just call me a disappointed artsy-fartsy comic geek, but I had expected this series to have gotten better with age, but I suppose that's a tall order when "Maggie the Mechanic" is the gold standard here.
The Maggie the Mechanic collection (Locas Book One) went in a direction I enjoyed, combining the greatness of Space Race science fiction along with the exotic and bizarre, for how do you really meld female pro-wrestling with girl mechanics, rocket ships, and lesbian culture, without pandering to it? The characters were denser in characterization and aesthetically penciled, shaded with cross-hatched detail, which is something I miss in the later comics. Urban, jungle, or desert vistas in the background that brought the reader into that new world just aren't there anymore, being replaced by blank space or artless backgrounds, giving me the impression that Jaime Hernandez got lazy with age. I find myself no longer caring about Maggie, Hopey, Penny Century, and the rest of the Love and Rockets crew. Or, dare I say, falling out of love with them.
Just call me a disappointed artsy-fartsy comic geek, but I had expected this series to have gotten better with age, but I suppose that's a tall order when "Maggie the Mechanic" is the gold standard here.
February 12, 2018
I was hovering between 3 and 4 stars for this Locas collection, because a lot of the Maggie/Hopey/Ray stories feel slightly disconnected. It's hard to stand up to earlier masterpiece L&R storylines. (You can't get 'Death of Speedy' or 'Valley of the Polar Bears' every collection.) But I settled on 4 because:
1) Obsessed with fat Maggie. Seeing a fat protagonist depicted as an object of desire is so rare that these panels still give me pause. Maggie looks so fucking hot? The way Jaime draws women's thighs is insane?
2) Penny's storyline--and the wrap-up story--fuck! This is Jaime at his best--reaching towards fantasy while grounded in heartbreaking reality. Head-in-the-sky Penny giving her whole life away (for the duration of her whole life) and never getting what she most wants. AhhhhHHHHH!
Anyway, Love and Rockets is and continues to be a real favorite.
1) Obsessed with fat Maggie. Seeing a fat protagonist depicted as an object of desire is so rare that these panels still give me pause. Maggie looks so fucking hot? The way Jaime draws women's thighs is insane?
2) Penny's storyline--and the wrap-up story--fuck! This is Jaime at his best--reaching towards fantasy while grounded in heartbreaking reality. Head-in-the-sky Penny giving her whole life away (for the duration of her whole life) and never getting what she most wants. AhhhhHHHHH!
Anyway, Love and Rockets is and continues to be a real favorite.
June 2, 2023
(another find on the new books shelf at the SFPL Western Addition branch) A compilation by brilliant indie comics artist Jaime Hernandez of his long running locas characters from Love and Rockets. I stumbled across his work as a kid and have loved it since. This collection is from the late 90s. I had read maybe half of these, and it was great to spend a few lost hours with his characters again, and the ongoing black and white cinematography of his drawing style. Life in LA, dream sequences, broken hearts, sex, and the occasional superhero, all rendered in gorgeous black and white.
For rave reviews by brilliant people, and a big book of the whole storyline from the 80s and 90s, see
http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.ph...
For rave reviews by brilliant people, and a big book of the whole storyline from the 80s and 90s, see
http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.ph...
April 4, 2018
First, in his women wrestling opus Whoa, Nellie!, Jamie proves that he's among the best action artists ever. Superb artwork with a very good story. Then it's back into the Maggie/Hopey/Penny/Ray cast for some of his smartest, most mature writing and continued artistic brilliance. Hernandez does an amazing job getting into his characters as they face middle age and reflect on their personal demons. Superb and highly, highly recommended.
October 16, 2020
I love Love and Comics so much, that if they were the only things to be read in this world, that's fine. I time travel into the 80s and 90s with them, as the depiction of the LA punk and Goth scenes are SPOT. ON. And the main characters are Latinas 😍😍😍😍And then there's all the magic realism and strange fantasy aspect with superheroes, aliens and horned (Not horny) rich people. It's all magic. I wish I lived in these comics. That's what heaven would be like.
July 21, 2024
Ah, it's good to have Penny and Maggie and Hopey back in the story. This is an intriguing volume because it's taken all of our characters into adult life, with real-world issues such as marriage, divorce, and death. How do our once-young Hoppers react? It's great to see, and even if there are no standouts in this volume (except maybe the story of Izzy and Young Maggie and maybe the story of Maggie's marriage), it's nonethless a fun, easy read.
August 7, 2020
Another great entry in the world of Las Locas, this volume does a great job of both looking back- to the punk past of Maggie and Hopey, and even further back to their childhoods- and moving their stories forwards. Jaime’s work sometimes doesn’t have the same gravitas as the Palomar stories of Gilbert, but his light-hearted, irreverent takes on life balance Love and Rockets perfectly.
October 1, 2017
I'm relatively new to the Love and Rockets world, and with each book I become more engrossed in the characters and the stories. And the art, of course. You can almost hear the crowd roar in Whoa Nellie. And you get goosebumps reading Chiller. Good stuff.
July 26, 2018
A nifty collection recommended to a newcomer or an old fan such as myself. The dialog and spinning of these characters is always enlightening and engaging. Thoroughly enjoyed the parts with the children, so realistic and yet quite funny.
August 16, 2024
I'm reading the issues instead of the TPBs, so the last story in this collection came way after everything else. Anyway, Jaime Hernández is really, really in the groove now. Gorgeous art and wonderful, wonderful stories.
November 14, 2024
this volume takes a turn for the zany, in a good way. more crazy/dream scenarios, more time/place jumps which can get confusing, but also a renewed focus on the main characters which is quite welcome.
August 18, 2025
Love and Rockets!
not as strong as the previous Locas volume, but still really great! I almost enjoyed the first half with the wrestling storyline than I did the second half of the book which has the Maggie and Hopey stuff in it. long live Love and Rockets!!
not as strong as the previous Locas volume, but still really great! I almost enjoyed the first half with the wrestling storyline than I did the second half of the book which has the Maggie and Hopey stuff in it. long live Love and Rockets!!
February 1, 2018
Not as interesting as the previous volumes. Way too many pages focused on the wrestling, and Penny is my least favorite of the main characters.
January 1, 2020
Now I'm reading these for the first time, volume 1 I bought as it came out so new Locas stories are fantastic
October 25, 2020
Compared to the other Locas stories this one might be slightly more uneven? But who cares it's still fantastic.
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