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I've got the first Locas book that I got cheap a while ago and then realized I had no idea how it fit into Love and Rockets. I couldn't find a reading order at the time so it just sat on the shelf. I'll join in, assuming I can make sure I'm reading the right stories.
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May 11, 2020 20:43
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For what it's worth the Locas hardcover volume does not have all the same stories as Maggie the Mechanic. It's missing about fifty or sixty pages worth of stories that were are in Maggie the Mechanic (primarily stuff from Love and Rockets #1 along with some other bridge material), and the stories aren't in the same order. I know it's silly to get annoyed at a book published over fifteen years ago, but I really hate how hard comics often makes it just read something in a collected edition in the same structure as it was originally published. It shouldn't be a research project to just figure out how stories are collected. I read the first story in the book, Mechanics, and as an 80's indie comic it was fine. I know everybody says that these first few stories are disposable and the tone changes dramatically as the Hernandez brothers figure out what they want their comic to be, so I'm not expecting it to remain the same. I think that's a weirdly common thing with the indie boom. A lot of new creators put out a book on the cheap, then figured out what they were doing and drifted into something more significant; it's a contrast to more recent indies who get launched on the strength of their strong concept and then drift off since they don't seem to have much more than that initial pitch. That doesn't make those earliest portions not important since they give context to the entire work. Basically, I'm willing to accept the "you just have to get past the first season, then it becomes good" line here. And it's not like I hated the book. I can't give a proper view on it out of context since Love and Rockets has a reputation as one of the towering works of genius in the comics field and my reaction is always going to have that lurking around it. I think my reaction is I read this as it was being published would be, "This is interesting, but not great. I hope to see more work by this creator in the future. Also, I hope they learn to not write like that." The illustrated epistolary format did not work and the comic was notably stronger when it was abandoned. Stylistically, it's very freshmen creative writing. The format doesn't serve its characters since we're always removed from them by the viewpoint. The illustrations that accompany the text aren't very illustrative: a great example of that is that I have no idea how large the rocket is supposed to be. About the size of the dinosaur, or about 100m? Then why is it such a struggle to look around inside it? A skyscraper? Then why don't we see it constantly in the establishing shots. For a story set in such a dramatic local which is fundamentally part of the story, there's no sense of space. What did work was the character work, especially when the format broke. There's that page in the middle where it cuts back to home and everyone in the car is reading the letters and worrying if there's a cop behind them and dealing with the fact that maybe they shouldn't be that drunk. In those few panels we get more character definition and expressiveness in the art than appears in an entire chapter of the letters. Since these are short stories, I might read about twenty pages or so a night until I hit the end of what I have that's covered in Maggie the Mechanic.
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May 13, 2020 02:48
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Read a few more stories. I'm pacing myself slowly here so I stopped at 100 Rooms which was a longer piece. I'm getting the feeling from "Hey Hopey" and "Locas Tambien" that these are characters who are kind of screwed up and aren't very good at knowing what they want. For storytelling that's a positive thing and I can see the outline of relationships forming here that I think is what people like in Love and Rockets. Maggie and Hopey don't come across as right for each other; I can see a stormy, on again off again relationship developing. Also my first proper impression of Hopey is that she's a real rear end in a top hat, the kind of people who thinks they're cool by being "gently caress you I do what I want!" and other people can barely tolerate because of that. I'm sure she'll get a chance to flesh out over the next few decades. That superhero story, "Maggie vs. Maniakk", was weird. "Superheroes are all hosed up perverts," wasn't really a hot take even in the early 80's and it's been done so much better so many times. The story did have its good points in the climax where the action doesn't matter at all. It's still not the most original idea, but it's a good example of story, character, and art coming together as Maggie doesn't care about the fight scene so recounts it one sentence which translates to a single panel with just some sound effects.
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May 15, 2020 02:15
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Finally picked this back up after having a busy week. 100 Rooms was a big step up. Thinking back through the story, not a whole lot actually happened but it built out the characters in an interesting way. I'm still thinking Hopey's a shithead; Maggie is feeling more like she's sticking with Hopey because of convenience and safety than a stable relationship. I'm feeling like I need to see some reason why Maggie would want to be with Hopey since I don't know why anyone would tolerate her; I'm sure that's something that'll be coming back.
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May 22, 2020 13:25
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