Jaime Hernandez

Jaime (sometimes spelled Xaime) Hernandez (born 1959) is the co-creator of the black & white independent comic Love and Rockets (along with his brothers Gilbert and Mario). It is published by Fantagraphics Books.

Related Topics:
Comic - Love and Rockets - Gilbert - Fantagraphics Books

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jaime grew up, together with four brothers and one sister, in Oxnard, California. It was a family where comics were not considered a lesser, mediocre art form. Their mother read comics and old issues were kept in large quantities in the house, to be read and re-read by all over the years. The brothers read all types of comics and enjoyed those that gave a fairly realistic depiction of family life, such as Dennis the Menace, as well as the standard super hero adventures.

Related Topics:
Oxnard - California - Dennis the Menace

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jaime's main contribution to Love and Rockets is the ongoing serial narrative Locas which follows the tangled lives of a group of primarily chicano characters, from their teenage years in the early days of the Los Angeles punk scene to the present day. Two memorable members of Jaime's cast are Margarita "Maggie" Luisa Chascarrillo and Esperanza "Hopey" Leticia Glass, whose on-again, off-again romance is a focus for many Locas storylines. The entire Locas storyline was collected into one 700 page graphic novel in 2004.

Related Topics:
Chicano - Los Angeles - Punk - Graphic novel

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

One of the more interesting aspects of the Locas opus is the way Hernandez portrays the passage of time in a relatively realistic manner despite the obvious constraints of the medium. Maggie's character debuted as a slight yet curvy young adult mechanic living in a world both distinctly chicano and punk with a sci-fi twist. As Jaime developed her character into more detail she started to gain weight slowly over each comic issue because of depression and other factors; i.e., each issue made her less of a character made from lines on paper to a human being with complex layers. The present Maggie is now the manager of an apartment complex with bleached blonde hair and a penchant for wearing sexy bathing suits despite her rubenesque figure.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jaime's Love and Rockets stories are loved by critics and fans alike. As Alan Moore has put it,

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

: "Jaime?s art balances big white and black spaces to create a world of nuance in between, just as his writing balances our big human feelings and our small human trivias to generate its incredible emotional power. Quite simply, this is one of the twentieth centuries most significant comic creators at the peak of his form, with every line a wedding of classicism and cool."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~