Locas II : Maggie, Hopey & Ray by Jaime Hernandez
Blog reader recommendation for the win! Thanks Craig for recommending Jaime Hernandez – upon which I ran right out to the library and got this title (I’m so suggestible). I didn’t like this quite as much as Strangers in Paradise but to be fair that is more a matter of some personal taste around narrative and not a negative comment on this title.
Locas II is wild, a bit crazy, awesomely illustrated, sad and fun. I can’t comment a lot on the storyline because this is the first Jaime Hernandez I’ve read so these characters are all new to me. The story swings from female character centred to male character centred and, really, that just makes it so enjoyable to read, compared to the “action” graphic novel genre. Is that a genre? If not I just made it up – but do you know what I mean? Manly action hero stuff – a lot of which is good but a lot of which is crap.
Tamburlaine Must Die by Louise Welsh
I thoroughly enjoyed my first read of Louise Welsh earlier this year, so I was keen to get this out of the library when I spotted it purely by chance! And I’m glad I did as it is definitely a worthwhile read, a short novel speculating on the last days of Christopher Marlowe (a contemporary of Shakespeare) who was stabbed and died under circumstances that were mysterious at the time and have become increasingly mysterious over the centuries.
Welsh explores this mystery and gives us an entertaining story at the same time – which seems to be Welsh’s modus operandi and the reader is all the better for it!
A great short read – perfect for a little weekend quiet time.
Three Shadows by Cyril Pedrosa
Duuhuuhuuhuude… *sobs uncontrollably*
So there’s this lovely little family with this cute little kid and then these shadows appear and then the mother freaks out and then the father freaks out and then he takes the cute little kid and flees and… and… and… *breaks down again*
*deep breath*
It’s a great looking graphic novel and the story is sweet and poignant and devastating and really, if you have kids or are just really, really attached to them then make sure you read this with a box of tissues handy.
*sniffle*
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I didn’t like this quite as much as Strangers in Paradise but to be fair that is more a matter of some personal taste around narrative and not a negative comment on this title.
Fair enough too, and if my memory serves LOCAS II collects stories from volume two of L&R. (The Hernandez Brothers put the title on hiatus in 1996, after a fifteen year fifty issue run, and relaunched it in 2001.) By the time you get to the stories in Volume 2, Maggie, Hopey and Ray (and the sometimes bewildering array of supporting characters) have a lot of history, and some very complicated relationships, that Hernandez doesn’t spend any time recapping. I’m glad that’s not been a deal-breaker for you, because I know people who have found it off putting.
Yep, you nailed it. I realised it’s very much like a dive into the deep end with the characters – with this one book you’re only finding out bits of their backstory and you have to just piece it together. And as you say – no recaps.
The thing about it was though even with that hindering it for me I still really liked it – so that says a whole lot.