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IFOA: Jaime Hernandez
Jaime Hernandez’ face is instantly recognizable to the urban sidewalk-gazer. He is one of the most eagerly anticipated appearences of the IFOA and last week’s Eye Magazine coverboy. Hernandez, along with his brother Gilberto, has acheived the status of a master in the alternative comics community, recently releasing Ghost of Hoppers, the latest compilation edition of the noted series Love and Rockets.
Since Love and Rockets began 25 years ago, Hernandez has focused his plotline on Maggie Chascarillo and her on-again off-again girlfriend Hopey. Now in her late 30’s, the Maggie of Ghost of Hoppers is not the same chicano punk mechanic of decades past. She’s newly divorced, working as an apartment manager in Los Angeles, and romantically entangled with a curvaceous ex-stripper named Vivian who can’t stay out of trouble. A return visit to her old neighbourhood of Hoppers reunites Maggie with her past, and perhaps “el diablo”.
In terms of visuals, it doesn’t get any better than Hernandez’ heavily-lined pop art style. Superhero vixens are shunned in favour of flawed female forms, every extra pound and chin gorgeously rendered. For example, after her first sexual encounter with Vivian, Maggie lounges unglamourously infront of the television with her legs spead as Vivian snores into the pillow beside her. Not exactly the most naughty lesbian fantasy for a hetero male cartoonist to daydream, but it’s equally compelling.
For a first-time Love and Rockets reader, it helps to do background research by reading a brief guide to the series: the decades of interrelationships between the characters can get tangled in Hoppers‘ numerous flashback segments.
Bottom line? Hernandez has the stunning ability to write complex stories entirely populated by minorities – women, bisexuals, punks and hispanics – and make them universally appealing. This is comic book snob canon.
Jaime Hernandez will be interviewed by Jerry Ciccoritti on Saturday, October 21 at 5 pm. Call 416-973-4000 for tickets or go to the IFOA site for more info.