Jaime Hernandez
Maggie the Mechanic
Author: Jaime Hernandez
Genre: Graphic Novel (Fantasy)
Plot Summary:
In MechanicsMaggie the Mechanic has left her hometown of Hopper, California for her new job as assistant to her idol, famous prosolar mechanic, Rand Race. Maggie writes a series of letters to her girlfriend, Hopey, still in Hopper. These letters act as narration for the adventure. Their mission is to fix a crashed spaceship. Several characters are introduced as the story becomes more intricate. Penny Century is a friend from home who arrives and almost immediately complicates Maggie's crush on Rand Race. Scientist Rena Titanon arrives to study the dinosaurs living in the strange land of Zhato. SPOILER: It becomes clear that the team is not, in fact, on a mission to repair the spaceship, but to recover the drug, known as "pito", that was being transported. Penny is there, not to see Maggie, but to find the pito first. Rena's complex relationships with the characters are revealed as well when the reader learns Maggie's Aunt Vicki was once Rena's rival in the world of professional women's wrestling.
Geographical Setting: Zhato jungles
Time Period: 1980s
Series:#2 in the Love and Rockets series, collected in Maggie the Mechanic, a Love and Rockets Book
Appeal Characteristics:
The most important appeal element to note is the characterizations in Mechanics. All the characters are well developed, quirky, and deeply human. There are many interesting secondary characters populating the world created by Hernandez. The relationships are genuine even when the situations are fantastic. The storyline in this volume is character-centered. The shifting, textured relationships between the characters are the focus. The pace of this story is measured. The panels are not overly detailed and one does not have to linger over the visual material, but the long narration slows down the reader a bit. The tone is this issue is casual and humorous in both the narration and in the dialogue. The author is trying to represent these characters as realistically as possible and this affects the tone. The frame in this comic book is different from many other Love and Rockets stories. It is set in some alternative 1980s world as i
n most Love and Rockets tales, but here instead of the l Southern California town, Hopper, the action takes place in a jungle rainforest in the fictional Zhato. The writing style is conversational and natural. Many consider Hernandez style part of the magical realism, describing fantastic events with authentic and natural precision. The style of the art is another appeal element. Jaime's drawings are black and white. They are simple and economical. The panels are not dense or overly detailed, but they are expressive. The facial expressions of the characters are especially nuanced.
Read-alikes: The comics of Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime's brother and sometimes collaborator, are a good read-alike suggestion for fans of Mechanics. Gilbert created characters that live in the same universe as Maggie and Hopey, but is not as focused on the fantastic elements of that universe. In Palomar the author tells stories of the closely knit community of Hopper and the people who inhabit it. The artwork in this volume is in the same style as Mechanics and Gilbert's stories are similarly character-driven. Alex Robinson's Box Office Poison would be an appropriate suggestion who those who enjoy Love and Rockets. It presents a large cast of characters living in New York while navigating relationships and expenses. The artwork here is similar; Robinson's work is simply drawn and in black and white. The storyline is character driven and the characters are realistic and well developed. Why I Hate Saturn by Kyle Baker is another good read-alike suggestion. Baker tells the story of a New York magazine writer and her friends. This is another comic focused on the everyday life of a quirky cast of characters. The tone is similar to Mechanics, humorous and matter-of-fact. Ghost World by Daniel Clowes is another selection that fans of Mechanics might enjoy. In this graphic novel, Enid and Rebecca have just graduated high school and have to make their own fun in their blue-collar town. The character-driven storylines, measured pace, simple, but nuanced artwork and well developed protagonists will appeal to readers of Mechanics. For those readers who don't mind stepping away from the graphic novel genre, a good read-alike suggestion is One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, a major influence of Los Bros Hernandez. This is the story of the Buendia family in the fictional town of Macondo. Garcia-Marquez's use of magical realism as well as his character-driven storylines and sleepy, measured pace will appeal to those who enjoy any Love and Rockets comic.
Red Flags: Language, violence, nudity, drug references, homosexuality
|top|
|
