LOCAS: THE MAGGIE AND HOPEY STORIES by Jaime Hernandez
Study guide written by Art Baxter
Introduction
Comic books were in the midst of change by the early 1980s.
The Marvel, DC and Archie lines were going through the same tired motions being
produced by second and third generation artists and writers who grew up reading
the same books they were now creating. Comic book specialty shops were growing
in number and a new "non-returnable" distribution system had been
created to supply them. This opened the door for publishers who had small print
runs, with color covers and black and white interiors, to emerge with an
alternative to corporate mainstream comics.
These new comics were often a cross between the familiar
genres of the mainstream and the personal artistic freedom of underground
comics, but sometimes something altogether different would appear. In 1976,
Harvey Pekar began self-publishing his annual autobiographical comics
collection,
American Splendor, with
art by R. Crumb and others, from his home in Cleveland, Ohio. Other cartoonists
self-published their mainstream-rejected comics, like
Cerebus (Dave Sim, 1977) and
Elfquest
(Wendy & Richard Pini, 1978) to financial and critical success. With
proto-graphic novel publisher, Eclipse, mainstream rebels produced explicit
versions of their earlier work, such as
Sabre
(Don McGreggor & Paul Gulacy, 1978) and
Stewart the Rat (Steve Gerber & Gene Colan, 1980). Underground
comics evolved away from sex and drugs toward maturity in two anthologies,
RAW (Art Spiegleman & Francoise
Mouly, eds., 1980) and
Weirdo (R.
Crumb, ed., 1981). Under the
Fantagraphics Books imprint, Gary Groth and Kim Thompson began to publish
comics which aspired to an artistic quality that lived up to the high standard
set forth in the pages of their critical magazine,
The Comics Journal. That standard was met in 1982
with the publication of a comic book by three Mexican-American brothers from
southern California, called
Love &
Rockets.
Jaime (HIGH-may) Hernandez was born in 1959, one of the
youngest of four brothers and sisters. He grew up in the ethnically mixed,
southern California town of Oxnard. His father was an immigrant from Mexico and
his mother, a Chicana, had been born and raised in Texas. He had a sporadic
Catholic upbringing that he claims helped his imagination and also instilled a
fear of the devil. Drawing was encouraged in the Hernandez household as both
his parents had dabbled in the arts. Their father would rip open a shopping bag
and to let his children "cut loose" with crayons and markers.
Jaime was born into a house with comic books. His mother had
read and loved
Archie and Golden Age
comics like
Blackhawk. Oldest
brother, Mario, brought most of the comics into the house. At first, he brought
home funny animal, DC superhero comics and
Mad
magazine, with the Marvel comics and monster magazines soon to follow. By the
late sixties he was bringing (if not
smuggling) into the house counter-cultural/hippie publications like
Rolling Stone and underground comics,
complete with obscene language, sex and nudity. His younger brothers, Gilbert
and Jaime sucked up this material like a sponge. As a kid, Jaime read and
enjoyed book collections of newspaper strips like Charles Schulz's
Peanuts and Hank Ketcham's
Dennis the Menace. Among the comics, he
was drawn to and later influenced his work:
Archie
by Harry Lucey,
Little Archie by Bob
Bolling,
Betty & Veronica by Dan
DeCarlo,
Tarzan by Jesse Marsh,
Superman edited by Mort Weisinger, and
the exploding dynamics and high melodrama of Jack Kirby & Stan Lee's
Fantastic Four. The artist, Alex Toth,
who drew
Zorro for Dell and
Hot Wheels for DC as well as many other
myriad short stories, was also a favorite.
As a teen, Jaime preferred listening to music than reading
comics. He became a part of the Los Angeles punk scene attending rock shows,
wearing studded leather and sporting a mohawk haircut. Bands like The Sex
Pistols, The Clash, X, Black Flag, and the Replacements were favorites. He
began to take art classes in high school. He went to a Junior College after
graduation where he learned classical drawing skills from a tough, old-school
teacher. He also took graphic design and art history courses. He now would
apply his newly acquired knowledge to the comics of his childhood discovering
how they were put together and how they worked.
In 1980, Mario had the idea publishing a comic book of his
own work and his two younger brothers: Gilberto and Jaime. According to Jaime,
"When Mario asked me (to contribute), I had no idea of what I was going to
do. I just did it as I went along." It took almost a year for the brothers
to draw the book. The comic was called
Love
& Rockets. It had a black & white cover and interior, was 32 pages
and sold for $1.00 a copy. The brothers sold them at a local comic book
convention and sent a review copy to Gary Groth at
The Comics Journal. Groth and partner Kim Thompson offered to
publish
Love & Rockets under the
new Fantagraphics Books imprint. Groth asked that some additional material be
drawn to expand the comic from 32 to 64 pages and was printed in an 8 1/2"
x 11" size magazine format. The additional pages took another year to
draw. The first issue of the new edition of
Love & Rockets appeared in 1982.
Love
& Rockets had a fifty issue run until 1996. In that time, there was a
small explosion of new artists, new titles and new publishers. Many took Los
Bros Hernandez's lead and followed their own idiosyncratic muse. There was a
great deal of cross-pollination as most artists read each other's books and
learned from them. All enjoyed a small but expanding audience for these new
comics. Fantagraphics expanded their line with new comics like Peter Bagge's
Neat Stuff (1985) and its spin-off
HATE (1990), Daniel Clowes'
Lloyd Llewellyn (1986) and its follow up
Eightball (1989), Jim Woodring's
Jim (1987) and
Frank (1993) and
Acme Novelty
Library (1992) by Chris Ware.
The Hernandez brothers followed
Love & Rocket with many short series. First, Jamie produced the
three issue women's wrestling mini-series
Whoa
Nellie (1996). Next was the
Maggie
and Hopey Color Fun (1997) one-shot special that acted as a link from
Love & Rockets to the next series,
Penny Century (1997-2000) which featured
more of Maggie and Hopey than its titular heroine. The brothers joined together
again, in spring 2001, with the publication of
Love & Rockets Volume 2. The adventures of Maggie, Hopey and
the Locas universe still continue.
Study
Questions
1) The relationship between Maggie and Hopey is the central
relationships in Jaime's universe. How would you describe their relationship?
How does it evolve throughout the course of the book?
2) Jaime mixes different styles of drawing in his comics.
What are some of the different styles of drawing Jaime uses and to what effect?
What role does graphic design play in Jaime's drawings?
3) Jamie is a master at setting mood in his story. What
formal elements does he employ to set mood?
4) In what stories does Jaime use silent panels effectively?
5) Jaime's stories range from slapstick to more somber and
introspective. Does he employ different visual styles depending on the type of
story he is telling? If so please elaborate.
6) Hopey is generally an active character and Maggie is
generally passive. Can you find examples where the reverse is true? Discuss.
7) LOCAS has one of the most well developed supporting casts
of any comic book series. Discuss the lives, histories and characters of Izzy
(Isabel Ortiz Ruebens), Penny Century (Beatriz Garcia), Danita Lincoln and her
son Elias, Doyle Blackburn, Ray Domingues, Esther Chascarrillo, Joey Glass,
Vicki Glory and Rena Titanon.
8) Maggie has three mature female figures in her life: her
friend Izzy, her Aunt Vicki and Rena Titanon. Discuss each character and tell
how their wisdom and guidance affect Maggie's life for good or ill. How does
each character look after her? Conversely, what is Hopey's relationship to
another mature female character, Nan Tucker?
9) Maggie has had a number of male love interests over the
course of the book. Discuss Rand Race, Casey, Speedy Ortiz, Ray
Domingues, and
El Diablo Blanco. Who are these men? Are they interested in Maggie? Discuss the
effect these characters have on her personality and behavior. Contrast with
Hopey's influence.
10) There was a gradual shift in the LOCAS stories when
Maggie gained weight and Jaime abandoned the science fiction/adventure
trappings. Discuss these changes and Maggie's own reaction to that era (p.
388-389).
11) Maggie disappears for a long period of time, after she
explodes in anger at Hopey, in chapter one of "Wigwam Bam" (p.443).
She turns up again in the first chapter of "Chester Square" (p. 550).
Although she is absent for most of the story her presence is still strongly
felt. Discuss ways Jaime achieves this. Discuss what might have happened to
Maggie in the lost period of time that may have driven her to prostitution at
Chester Square.
12) Often at times of great sadness, Jaime will flashback to
happier, more simple and innocent times such as after Speedy's death (p.
323-325) and the multiple slapping sequence (p. 699-704). Discuss this contrast
of the present and the past. Why does Jaime use a motif such as this?
13) Jaime often jumps back and forth in time with no warning
yet we know we are in a flashback. What visual cues does he use to let us know
there was a shift without interrupting the flow of the narrative?
14) Jaime is, at times, very frank in his depiction of sex
in LOCAS. He can also be subtle and matter-of-fact. Discuss the many ways
sexual mores and situations are handled.
15) One of the most controversial things Jaime drew was a
menage-a-trois with Hopey, Penny and Tex (page 349-panel 7). What do you think
about Hopey's behavior? Is it in character? Penny's behavior? This incident has
further ramifications (page 410-411). How does Jaime take one blackout panel
and weave it into a major subplot?
16) Why do many of the characters from Maggie's past take a
turn slapping her at the end of the book (p. 699-700)?
17) Jaime uses oblique motifs such as:
-the horns H. R. Costigan.
-the mystery of 100 Rooms.
-Hopey on the milk carton
(p. 424, 430-431, 443, 461, 468, 478, 481, 493-494,
511, 517, 521, 527, 543, 546).
-the meaning of "Wigwam Bam" (p. 535-537).
-the mask of the wrestler El Diablo Blanko and the
mystery of his true face.
-the stray dog (p. 655, 657, 666,670, 677, 687, 690,
693, 697).
Discuss each motif. How are each used and what may they mean
in the context of the story?
Studio
Exercises
1) Jaime's story "Easter Hunt" (p. 584-589), is a
redrawn story from his childhood. It has the manic energy of a child with the
polish of an adult. Take one of your childhood comics and redraw a few pages.
How does this alter your way of thinking about comics?
2) Maggie changes a quarter of the way through the book when
she gains weight. Draw a new character or take an existing character of your
own creation and change something substantial about their body: add/subtract
weight, change race, change age, change height, change sex, etc. What new
narrative possibilities present themselves as a result of these changes?
3) Jaime's stories are very tightly edited. Often scenes are
only three panels or fewer. Sometimes scenes are only one panel. Take an
existing scene of a comic, or create a new scene of six to eight panels. Now
condense the scene to no more than three panels. Get rid of information you
don't need. Combine several elements into one panel. Condense the number
of characters and background in a panel. Does the scene play better condensed
or in its original state? Did you find elements that were unnecessary to the
advancement of the story? What do you want to keep and what do you want
to discard?
4) Jamie is excellent at silhouetting his characters and
environments. A well-designed character should be identifiable by silhouette.
Silhouetting a panel is a good way to set mood, elongate time and give the
reader a beat: a place to rest. Make a copy of a few of your comics pages. With
a marker or a brush and ink, create several silhouette panels. Are your
characters still identifiable? How does the mood change? What moods and
emotions are evoked?
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