Ghost of Hoppers

Jaime Hernandez takes his heroine Maggie on a journey through her past so that she can reconcile the changes that have occurred around her. The girl's old neighborhood of Hoppers is the living metaphor for how far she has come in life, and the demons she wrestles with have both a touch of the metaphorical and the literal (in the supernatural sense). Though heavy and perhaps one of Hernandez's deepest scripts since DEATH OF SPEEDY, it also has the trademark Xaime fun, with Maggie sharing many a kiss with a crazy outsider whose link to the history Maggie has abandoned will only come clear with time. Naturally, the cartooning is awesome. Jaime Herandez makes it all look so effortless. His ink line is gorgeous, and he's a master of reduction. The final chapter is a wonderful interplay of past and present, with various timelines rising up from nowhere, and the artist keeps them all clear and even, leading his reader through the drawing as much as the writing. If you haven't read LOVE & ROCKETS in a while (like me), this is a good place to come back to the series.

This the 22nd volume of the collected love and rockets comic series (now under the name a new love). This volume focuse on one the most beloved characters of the series Maggie. Maggie is a insecure aging punk who is always aware she is getting older, bigger, and trying to still live up to her punk ethics. Maggie and on again off again love intrest Hopey made up the punk side of love and rockets in the past. In "a new love" they are now grown and trying to deal with punk, each other, and life. They grew up in an area called hoppers (thus the title). Hoppers was once a punk haven barrio were Maggie and Hopey were endlessly partying and getting in trouble. It is the punk equal to Gilbert's palomar. It's the home Maggie and Hopey can never go back to, and the mythic punk past they both share. In these issues hoppers is now a kind of sad suburb in decline. Maggie is now living in a L.A. motel as the handyman (er... handyperson). A far cry from the top mechanic she used to be early in the series. But jobs were never Maggie's strong point. And, while sometimes down maggie is never out. There is a new love intrest for Maggie (kind of!?). Perhaps the new love interest is just more trouble... Things really take a turn for the macabre when Izzy (Isabella, speedy's sister ect.) comes to stay with Maggie to make an appearance on a local cable access show. Suddenly Maggie is plunged into a surreal, chaotic supernatural chrisis. One where crucifixes brake and bleed. One where flies fill an empty pool for no reason. The truly horrific moment you only catch if you pay attention to when Maggie's phone doesn't work but rings anyway (Izzy "he tells you what you want to hear..."). In the very first issues of love and rockets we saw large black dogs chasing Izzy's car. We also know Izzy was running from someone or something the first time we see her in issue one. In flies on the ceiling we were let in on the horrible secret Izzy hid from everyone about what happened in mexico. The dogs return for the first time in 20 years in this collection. And one of them speaks to Maggie! What is the horrible secret? It is either answered or hinted at (let the reader decide if the car trip with Maggie and Izzy answers all or not!) Only we see in the flashbacks the horrible truth, or do we? The last 3rd of this collection is the creepiest, most horrific art and story Jamie has ever done. It is mythic in it's black and white (like the first living dead). The car drive with Maggie aand Izzy is like a David Lynch film they seem to be talking at each other without either understand what the other is talking about. The sences of Maggie in the fire at Izzy's house can't be described. They have to be seen (for the most part there is no dialogue) to be understood. Izzy's rant in the middle is the decision we have been waiting for her to make since issue one... But what is the decision? There is so much crammed in this single volume that once it all pla