Starred Review. This omnibus edition starring Hernandez's cast of young L.A. denizens from the pages of
Love & Rockets and spinoffs was previously collected in the volumes
Dicks and Deedees,
Locas in Love,
Ghost of Hoppers and
The Education of Hopey Glass, but collectors and new readers will like the deluxe hardcover treatment. These stories show the cast past their punk years, away from their youthful dreams but toward what may or may not be maturity. It's hard to be sure whether Hopey will settle into her teacher's assistant job, whether Maggie can be content managing a fleabag motel or whether insecure, obsessive Ray will reconnect with Maggie. The Locas stories jump back and forth in time and place, and inside and outside the characters' minds. Avoiding a tight plot, events become known and felt through characters' responses, glimpses, suggestions, fragments of revelations, adding up to an astonishingly rich and convincing picture of uncertain, developing human relationships. Besides the masterful storytelling, the book is notable for superb black and white artwork. Panel by panel and page by page, it's a delight to watch darkness crowding into open space, while supple linework dances freely in its allotted territory. This is a landmark in comics literature.
(Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Starred Review. The underlying theme of aging and acceptance is somehow ironic, considering that Hernandez’s artwork is even more stylishly elegant, his storytelling more powerfully confident, than when he was a young turk, and
Love and Rockets was the coolest comic around. His cast of complex, appealing characters continues to delight and surprise after nearly three decades. (Gordon Flagg -
Booklist )
This beautifully put together hardcover collects the second volume of Xamie’s ‘Locas’ tales from
Love & Rockets. These tales of the lives of Maggie, Hopey, and Ray, are some of the most enthralling, and sometimes bizarre, stories ever told in the comic medium. (Edward Kaye -
Hypergeek )
Somehow, some way, Jamie Hernandez is getting better and better. ... In
Locas II: Maggie, Hopey and Ray, he’s crafted perhaps his most universal work to date, a saga of three people who’ve left behind the postures of their youth to stumble, unsure and hesitant, across the landscape of their adult lives. It’s strange and scary, funny and sweet, confused and enlightening.
Locas II is a master as the top of his game, and a true comic book classic. (Michael C. Lorah -
Newsarama )
Jaime's comics are all about subtleties of emotional states and and how characters understand each other and themselves over time; you'll get your bearings pretty quickly, and he'll make sure you're being entertained while you're figuring it out. (Douglas Wolk -
TIME/Techland )
Locas ll collects a huge amount of comics featuring a more mature Maggie, finding and losing romance with people like Ray (one part Chandler victim, another part mod hobo), 'Frogmouth' (painfully sexy but achingly annoying), and reunions with Hopey and others in a strange relational ballet set in SW America. It’s a weird, flat plain of bizarre sex and twisted circumstance that would be the first collection of comics I would recommend for any adult wanting to get a handle on the aesthetics of the art form since it became culturally relevant to do so. (Chris Estey -
KEXP-FM, Seattle )
Oh man, it's another huge collection of Jaime Hernandez's amazing stories from
Love and Rockets... Greatness. (Matthew J. Brady )
Starred Review: [A]n astonishingly rich and convincing picture of uncertain, developing human relationships. Besides the masterful storytelling, [
Locas II] is notable for superb black and white artwork. Panel by panel and page by page, it's a delight to watch darkness crowding into open space, while supple linework dances freely in its allotted territory. This is a landmark in comics literature. (
Publishers Weekly )
It’s all classic Hernandez material, but this volume’s key element that really makes the book sing louder than ever is the amount of focus placed upon Ray Dominguez.... Some of the richest material Jaime has ever produced focuses on Ray’s pursuit of Vivian, a former stripper and wannabe actress that leaves nothing but pain and suffering in her wake.... There’s so much good stuff in
Locas II, though, that I could talk about it until my fingers bleed....
Locas stands alone. I highly recommend you read it and see why. (Marc Mason -
Comics Waiting Room )
Locas II, by Jaime Hernandez, combines lush artwork with vivid, heart-in-mouth storytelling. ...[I]f you haven’t encountered its two heroines before, you might find yourself a little lost in the ongoing magic realist soap opera that is Hernandez’s stock-in-trade. It would be a bit like dropping in on
Coronation Street for the first time — albeit a Corrie soundtracked by The Germs and Big Black. ... [But] even if you find yourself lost somewhere in the middle of
Locas II, the lostness makes a kind of sense. The lives Hernandez chronicles are a little lost. ... Best of all, there's the creamy out-and-out gorgeousness of Hernandez's cartooning, with its echoes of
Peanuts, the old Archie comics and 'good girl' art (never, outwith [Russ] Meyer's movies, have so many worn so little so often). Can you fancy a drawing? Look at the portrait of Frogmouth on page 405 and tell me it's not possible. (Teddy Jamieson -
The Herald [Scotland] )
[W]hat's ultimately compelling about the L&R saga is the way the characters change over the years.... So it's not just a [madeleine] cookie from our past, but something still fairly warm from the oven. (Mark London Williams -
The SF Site: Nexus Graphica )
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