Customer Reviews

The Education of Hopey Glass (Love & Rockets)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I haven't read the entirety of LOVE AND ROCKETS, but from what I can tell, the Hernandez Bros. plateaued artistically somewhere in the mid-90s, and their draftsmanship and writing style hasn't progressed at all since. This makes it all the more impressive that their level of craft is so high, it still manages to astound me. (As opposed to, say, Steve Rude, whose stagnation is still pretty to look at, but not really inspiring.) I am particularly amazed by how well Jaime moves around on a page, the different angles he shows of one character from panel to panel as his or her mood or situation changes, the *psychology* of his framing.

It is also a testament to how interesting his characters are that they are still so compelling. I guess they've aged in real time. Ray makes mention of being in his 40s, and Maggie is looking like a woman in her late 30s. Yet, their day-to-day lives are still the fodder for great fiction. The opening strip of this book even follows Hopey over a week and a half or so, dividing each strip from one day to the next.

I actually wish I had read these stories in the original comics, because I would appreciate Jaime's construction all the more. He tells long stories that are broken into shorter strips, sometimes only one or two pages, and yet sometimes picking up mere seconds after the last one ended. Presumably these are spread over several issues, where they might appear somewhat disjointed, but put together in a book, they form a flawless narrative.

Ingenious.

Though I wonder what new comers would think about this new tome in the long standing Love & Rockets series, the veteran reader of the series that I am finds it quite good. Gone are the days of sci-fi, super heroines, punk rock, surreal events and the like -- but some of it finds its way in this book. We now find our dear Hopey and Maggie in adult life crisis. Though not exactly desperate housewives, the girls are a bit lost. But so are their pals. And dangerous too. Life in the barrio is not what it used to be but you cannot take the punk barrio out of these girls!

I never read Love & Rockets when it was first on the news stands and I don't know whether I should be horrified at my lack of taste as a kid (I was more into superhero comics even in high school) or happy that I found them now that I can appreciate them.

This is a great book with two separate stories. The Hopey Glass one is about becoming and adult and putting away childish things but in a way that doesn't destroy you. THere are too many people in the world afraid of growing up and doing all they can to continue living that college life when they could stay up all night and sleep with anyone without consequences. Hopey Glass is a wonderful representative of this dynamic but ironically her decision to leave the "adult" job as a bartender and work in a day care is her awakening as an adult. SHe is still awesome and fun but even mroe importantly she is taking steps to be someone that you can rely on. It's a real pleasure to read a story about growing up that isn't filled with longing and disappointment and instead goes to the heart of the matter which is that sometimes responsibility is much more fun than being an idiot.

THe second story is about Ray as he finds his way with Viv. Others have called this a Mickey Spillane story but it's more like Mickey Spillane as told from the perspective of the guy who doesn't want to have anything to do with the crime. He's involved because he knows that Viv's boyfriend is dead. HOwever, he also knows Viv's boyfriend and he doesn't mind that he's dead as he was abusive. Viv is a little crazy but fun which gets her into more trouble - particular with Sid's friend who is also a sick creep. It's a strange stroy since the tone shifts from noir to soap opera and back to noir again (and then to gallow's humor).

Excellent collection. Reading other Love & Rockets but I can't say if it is a fine companion to the rest of the stories, but it definitley stand on its own.

I read my man Jaime Hernandez's latest LOVE & ROCKETS collection a few months back and I have to say it was a lot like starting up with a soap opera you were once hooked on but left behind years ago, only to return and feel like you never stopped watching. I was hooked on the original run of L&R (1981-1996), and when it was over I didn't feel the least bit saddened since it felt like it was coming to an end after naturally having run its course, plus the uber-talented creators -- Jaime and Gilbert -- were so flat-out creative I was sure I'd see much, much more from them in the years to come. That said, when Los Bros. Hernandez brought L&R back in 2001 I had little urge to return to my old friends in Hoppers and Palomar, so other than occasionally thumbing through an issue or two in the comics shop I didn't buy any of the new material. It just seemed like more of the same.

And ya know what? That's exactly what it was, as proven by this volume, but when "more of the same" means being reminded of exactly why I rate Jaime Hernandez as highly as I do in regard to across-the-board storytellers, I couldn't be happier.

THE EDUCATION OF HOPEY GLASS trots out many of the characters familiar to longtime readers of Jaime's "Locas" stories, with aging punk-rocker/dyke Esperanza "Hopey" Glass taking the spotlight in the book's first half, now finding gainful (if unlikely) employment as a kindergarten teacher. "Day By Day With Hopey" chronicles a week in our feisty heroine's life that sees her transition from tending bar to shepherding wee ones while her low-rent personal life teems with lovers who come and go, with her lifelong friend -- and former true focus of Jaime's Hoppers epics -- Maggie remaining the only constant.

NOTE TO MAGGIE FANS: Maggie figures only peripherally in this volume, so don't come in expecting her usual circus of dysfunction and plus-size angst.

Not much really happens over the course of "Day By Day With Hopey" in terms of action or intrigue, but Jaime continues to spin narrative gold from the mundane straw of his protagonist's existence, and Hopey's awkward romantic and social tribulations remain as involving as they were when I last read about her in depth, some thirteen years ago.

Serving as the bridge to the next story is "Angel of Tarzana," featuring five mostly wordless pages of a fetching Latina jockette -- who, if I didn't know better, I'd swear was the daughter of "Locas" semi-regulars Penny Century and H.R. Costigan grown up -- whom Jaime quite clearly has a ball drawing, showing her off to athletic advantage as she plays softball, competes in gymnastics and lifeguards. The character is infectiously charming, and just as you're asking why this section, which comes off as little more than glorified sketchbook excerpts, was included, we're immediately dropped into the deep end of a fifty-seven page narrative starring Maggie's long-ago lover, Ray Dominguez, by far the most compelling of Jaime's relatively few male leads. Now in his early forties and still carrying a torch for Maggie, Ray Dominguez finds himself caught up in a maelstrom of murder, two-bit gangsters, topless bars, comic book conventions, and his lust for the drop-dead-gorgeous but borderline-psychotic and annoying Vivian, a zaftig aspiring actress known to many as "Frogmouth," who herself has a bit of history with Maggie. And all of this is perfectly offset by the innocent intro featuring Angel, who ends up bonding a bit with Vivian as the story organically evolves.

Fraught with all manner of grimy intrigue that brings to mind a Chicano Mickey Spillane yarn, the second half of the book comes as an unexpected and pleasant surprise, fully reviving my interest in the now (mostly) middle-aged Hoppers cast and spurring me to order the previous volume. I very much want to have more of a handle on what makes the volatile Vivian tick, and I'd like to witness Hopey's bartending stint -- guaranteed to be full of divey squalor and wistful music recollections that us aging punks/new wavers can relate to -- so it's official: consider me a born-again Jaime booster. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

As life proceeds so does the genius of Jaime Hernandez. Only R. Crumb, and Frank Frazetta challenges his appreciation of the female form IN ACTION. Book after book, after book, Hernandez demonstrates his absolute mastery of ever possible line, slope and curve of the female body. In this book the story revolving around Vivian the stripper is particularly evocative, and brilliant. Hernandez has done it again!

I got this because I am always on the lookout for lesbian characters in comics and elsewhere. I have read various Love and Rockets before, as my kids are all avid comic fans.

I found the art very compelling and the story lines interesting and well constructed. I can't say that I related to the story lines. I found myself trying to figure out how, if at all, the characters fit into some sort of recognizable universe. I say this fully willing to admit that I may be completely off base here.

For example, Hopey is getting older, but her face in the comic looks very young and has a kind of "standard" prettiness. However, her body is looking like an older woman's body. And the story line reflects that business as usual isn't necessarily working for her, although she remains one tough cookie.

I can't say in the long run that the characters made sense to me, but that didn't make a difference in terms of my interest in the materials. I appreciate the inclusion of lesbians in the observed world of this comic and I would read more.