Locas - The Maggie and Hopey Stories

Lately I’ve been reading Jaime Hernandez’ Locas – The Maggie and Hopey Stories. It's a gigantic collection (700+ pages!) consisting of Jaime's "Locas" stories featured in the initial 50-issue run of "Love and Rockets" during the 1980s, a joint effort with his brothers Gilbert and Mario. The "Locas" stories are superb, exhibiting the most accomplished example of character development I've encountered in the medium. It centres on the community of Latin Californian neighbourhood 'Hoppers', specifically 'Maggie' Chascarrillo and 'Hopey' Glass. The former is a skilled mechanic who shifts between various love interests and weight classes (without over-stepping into hysterics). The latter is a tomboyish, punk rocker lesbian. They are best friends. They also encounter female professional wrestlers, latino gangsters and the odd robot and dinosaur. Great fun!

This image here, taken (by camera ... sorry) from the short comic "Boxer, Bikini or Brief", exemplifies the skill in constructing body language and 'real' depth behind the characters that Jaime Hernandez is capable of:


Maggie, still weight conscious, is having her portrait painted by new boyfriend Ray (who’s not the most successful of artists). Immediately beforehand we witness another example of Maggie being down on her figure – “Couldn’t you wait until I lost a few more pounds? Like maybe twenty years?” What follows, I feel, captures everything that makes the "Locas" stories and Jaime Hernandez' artwork so compelling.

The top three panels exhibit Maggie running through various amusing poses for Ray to paint, highlighting her fun nature. She isn’t a sob story. Meanwhile the expressions themselves are wonderfully realised on paper; they are funny without looking too cartoony. They don't seem out of place. Each pose requires large change in movement between panels, each contrasting with the last. An interesting point is the background. Hernandez omits extraneous detail to focus on the human aspect at work.

The lower sequence of panels depicts Maggie asking about the other girlfriends Ray has painted. When told she is the first, Maggie exhibits a shift in body language that wonderfully communicates this genuine moment. Action and dialogue progressively lessen in this sequence, setting up a stark contrast to what happens above. There is a more seamless flow in movement between frames, specifically the final two. Maggie’s facial expression and posture settles as she realises (and is a little taken aback) by this understanding. The final panel, without any exaggerated positioning or dialogue, subsequently becomes the most meaningful. It’s subtle storytelling that builds over several panels, without requiring explicit mention nor being telegraphed as the short comic’s main point. The meaning itself (wonder at what this means, but it's also suggested through Maggie's previous concerns over her appearance that this exposes Ray's true feelings towards her) is sweet, pointing at Jaime’s incredible talent for crafting a real humanity for his comic-book characters. The fact that it develops through mostly a shift in body language also highlights his amazing skill as an artist.

It's a small moment, but a touching one. So I'm a sap. Deal with it.