Love and Rockets, Vol. 20: Dicks and Deedees

Love And Rockets’ Most Popular Characters In A New Hardcover Collection. Armed with a passion for pop culture and punk rock, Jaime Hernandez (along with his brothers, Gilbert and Mario) was one of the first comic book artists to give a voice to minorities and women in the medium’s 70-year history. His character-driven stories primarily explore the life of a three-dimensional Mexican-American woman from a fictional barrio of Los Angeles, Maggie Chascarillo, one of the most complex and recognizable characters in the history of Mexican-American fiction. Hernandez is the co-creator of Love & Rockets, which along with Raw magazine defined the modern literary comics movement of the post-underground generation and celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. This first new Jaime Hernandez book since the splashy return of Love and Rockets in 2001 spotlights a wide-ranging and funky group of stories from L&R and Hernandez’s comic Penny Century. The continuing trials and tribulations of Maggie and Hopey are featured in “Election Day, ” “Everybody Loves Me, Baby” (featuring extensive flashbacks to their early punk days, a reader’s favorite) and the surreal dream story “The Race.” We also check up with Maggie’s ex-boyfriend Ray D., who is the recipient of a series of increasingly rude surprises when his old buddy Doyle shows up, somewhat the worse for wear, in “The Frog Mouth.” Plus “Bay of Threes, ” which chronicles the romance of Penny Century and H.R. Costigan from (virtually) cradle to grave.