Synopsis
A mosaic of stories depicting the lives of Maggie Chascarrillo and Hopey Glass, two free-spirited women who continually challenge the world around them and each other.
Notes on This Title
Although the world of this story contains superheroes and aspects of science focus is on the personal lives of the main characters, almost to the exclusion of these genre elements.
Locas was initially published alongside The Heartbreak Soup Stories, a series created by Jaime’s brother Gilbert Hernandez, under the title Love and Rockets. While there is crossover between these series, they can be read separately. Locas was later published independently, in two omnibuses, one in 2004 and the other in 2009. Several of the “Love and Rockets Library” collections also reprint Locas stories.
There are additional series which follow characters established in this series, including Love and Rockets: New Stories.
Awards
1986 Kirby Award – Best Artist, Best Black-and-White Comic (Love and Rockets)
1986 Inkpot Award
1989 Harvey Award – Best Continuing or Limited Series (Love and Rockets)
1990 Harvey Award – Best Continuing or Limited Series (Love and Rockets)
Reviews
Starred Review: “Hernandez’s main characters are Maggie and Hopey, two adorable lesbian rockers who start out in a somewhat vague relationship and are then are separated by adventures both grand and demeaning. Maggie is a magnificent comics character, a tempestuous naïf who wears her heart on her sleeve when she’s not throwing it at a succession of bad boys who ignore her, even though Hopey is secretly the love of Maggie’s life. Hopey, a mohawked imp, is more opaque, a symbol of the youthful rebellion of punk rock that all the characters are trying to return to in some way, even as real life sweeps them further away from their dreams. Maggie’s weight gain over the years sends her self-esteem on a downward spiral, while Hopey goes on an endless tour with a band. Along the way, Hernandez gradually peels away the strip’s early sci-fi trappings (dinosaurs and rocket ships) to create a devastatingly naturalistic world. Sharp b&w drawings capture the characters in minute detail with a wide range of emotions.” (Source: Publishers Weekly)
“Maggie Chascarillo, known also variously to friends and family – and confusingly to readers – as Margarita, the Magpie, Perla, Perlita and the Shrimp, starts out in the comic series as something called a “pro-solar mechanic”, which means she works on space-rockets. The first few stories, “Mechanics”, “Hey Hopey” and “Maggie Vs Maniakk”, feature quite a bit of rocket-science and super-hero shenanigans, which is OK, but was hardly ever going to set the comic world on fire, but fortunately the sub-Marvel and DC comic-style stuff soon disappeared, with Hernandez focusing increasingly on the complex relationships between Maggie and her friends, including Vicki Glori (an ageing women’s wrestling champ), Isabel Maria Ortiz Ruebens (a witchy looking chain-smoking goth), Penny Century (a platinum-blonde heiress) and Maggie’s occasional lover, Hope (full name Esperanza Letitia Glass, half-Colombian, half-Scottish, and a bass-guitarist in a punk band), as they try to make their way in the world in Hoppers, a barrio outside Los Angeles apparently based on the Hernandez brothers’ own home town of Oxnard, California.” (Source: The Guardian)
Interviews
Hazlitt: ““If it’s real life you don’t need to apologize for it”—An Interview with Jaime Hernandez“