Jaime (sometimes spelled Xaime) Hernandez (born 1959) is the co-creator of the
alternative comic book
A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...
''
Love and Rockets'' with his brothers
Gilbert and
Mario
Mario (; ) is a Character (arts), character created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the star of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise, a recurring character in the ''Donkey Kong'' franchise, and the mascot of the Ja ...
.
Early life
Jaime Hernandez grew up in
Oxnard, California
Oxnard () is a city in Ventura County in the U.S. state of California, United States. On California's Central Coast (California), Central Coast, it is the most populous city in Ventura County and the List of largest California cities by populati ...
.
[Aldama, p. 119.] He is the youngest of his family, with four older brothers and one sister.
His family embraced comics: their mother read them frequently and old issues were kept in large quantities in the house, to be read and re-read by all over the years.
[ "We grew up with comics," Hernandez said. "I wanted to draw comics my whole life."
They read all types of comics and enjoyed those that gave a fairly realistic depiction of family life as well as the standard ]superhero
A superhero or superheroine is a fictional character who typically possesses ''superpowers'' or abilities beyond those of ordinary people, is frequently costumed concealing their identity, and fits the role of the hero, typically using their ...
adventures. Hernandez was particularly influenced by Hank Ketcham's ''Dennis the Menace'' and Dan DeCarlo
Daniel S. DeCarlo (December 12, 1919 – December 18, 2001) was an American cartoonist best known for having developed the look of Archie Comics in the late 1950s and early 1960s, modernizing the characters to their contemporary appearance and es ...
's ''Archie''' comics. The children in his otherwise rather realistic stories are often drawn to resemble Ketcham's, and Jaime's characters often strike very "DeCarlo-esque" poses. The work of Alex Toth, Charles Schulz, Jesse Marsh and Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby (; born Jacob Kurtzberg; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was an American comics artist, comic book artist, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. He grew ...
were also hugely influential.[
Hernandez has a lifelong fascination with pro wrestling, especially women's wrestling, and it has been a regular part of his work. Hernandez has also been a lifelong ]punk rock
Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...
fan. In addition to playing in bands himself it has been a constant element of his work. His heroine Maggie and her friends are almost all punk fans; he also has done a series of stories about the career of another main character (Hopey) as a bass player for a luckless punk band.
Career
Jaime's main contribution to ''Love and Rockets'' is the ongoing serial narrative ''Locas'' which follows the tangled lives of a group of primarily Latina characters, from their teenage years in the early days of the California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
punk scene to the present day. The two central characters of Jaime's cast are Margarita Luisa "Maggie" Chascarrillo and Esperanza Leticia "Hopey" Glass, whose on-again, off-again, open romance is a focus for many ''Locas'' storylines. Early on, the stories switched back and forth between Maggie's sci-fi adventures journeying around the world and working as a "prosolar" mechanic repairing rocketships, and much more realistic stories of Maggie and her friends in a grungy, mostly Latin California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
neighborhood known as "Hoppers". Eventually Hernandez dropped almost all of the sci-fi elements, although he does still occasionally include references to the earlier stories and he still does very occasional short stories about superheroines, robots and other sci-fi genre elements.
The Hernandez brothers announced they were ending ''Love and Rockets'' with issue 50, and that they would be doing solo books from then on. For the next few years, the brothers released many solo books, with Jaime doing several books featuring his Locas characters (including ''Whoa Nellie'', ''Penny Century'', and ''Maggie and Hopey Color Fun'') and Maggie generally occupying a supporting role. Eventually they resumed doing ''Love and Rockets'' and Maggie again took center stage, but instead of the large, magazine-style format of the original issues, the book was now released in a more traditional comic book format.
The entire ''Locas'' storyline to date was collected into one 700 page graphic novel
A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...
in 2004.
Hernandez has been praised for the physical beauty of his female characters as well as their complex personalities, and for years he struggled to create comparably nuanced male characters. Hernandez has often said that Maggie and Ray Dominguez both represent different aspects of his own personality.
In an interview with The Comics Journal, Hernandez admitted he'd had difficulty aging his characters, because while he'd known girls like Maggie and Hopey when he was young, he'd never known them long enough to find out what they did in adulthood.
Other work
In addition to his ''Locas'' stories, Hernandez has also done occasional work for DC Comics
DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...
and ''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'', and he has done many album covers for such artists as Michelle Shocked. Earlier in his career Hernandez also did album covers for some "Nardcore
Since the mid-1970s, California has had thriving regional punk rock movements. It primarily consists of bands from the Los Angeles, Orange County, California, Orange County, Ventura County, California, Ventura County, San Diego, San Fernando Vall ...
" punk bands, such as Ill Repute and Dr. Know, the latter of whom featured his younger brother Ismael on bass
Bass or Basses may refer to:
Fish
* Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species
Wood
* Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree
Music
* Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...
. Hernandez contributed his artwork for the Indigo Girls' 2004 album '' All That We Let In''. In September 2006, Hernandez also created the artwork for the critically acclaimed Los Lobos album '' The Town and the City''. In 1984-85 Gilbert, Mario and Jaime collaborated on '' Mister X'', a sci-fi comic book series from Vortex Press, with Jaime handling the art and Gilbert and Mario plotting. The book's noirish look has been cited as an influence by the creators of '' Batman: The Animated Series'' among other retro-futuristic works. The Hernandez brothers themselves hold little affection for it, however, with Gilbert once describing it being "like a bad zit... it just sort of happened." The Hernandez brothers left the book when Vortex failed to pay them in full. Responding to the non-payment accusations, publisher Bill Marks said "I don't dispute that one bit. And they'll be paid every nickel of it, or every quarter of it." The Hernandez brothers were indeed ultimately paid for their work on ''Mister X'' in 1988.
In 2006, ''Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
'' ranked Hernandez' work ''Ghost of Hoppers'' second on its critics' poll of the best comic books of 2006.
Awards
* 1986 Kirby Award – Best Artist, Best Black-and-White Comic (''Love and Rockets'')Harvey Award
The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be a successor to the Kirby Awards, which were ...
– Best Continuing or Limited Series (''Love and Rockets'')
References
Sources
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Further reading
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External links
Jaime Hernandez at FantagraphicsReview of Love & Rockets Jaime Hernandez interview with Suicide GirlLong list of Love and Rockets links
- About 187 characters appear at least once in Jaime's work; 65 of these appear more than once.
Jaime Hernandez interview Scholarly article that sets Jaime Hernandez's work in historical/theoretical context
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hernandez, Jaime
1959 births
Alternative cartoonists
American comics artists
American comics writers
American graphic novelists
American writers of Mexican descent
Harvey Award winners for Best Artist or Penciller
Harvey Award winners for Best Cartoonist
Ignatz Award winners for Outstanding Artist
Living people
People from Oxnard, California
Inkpot Award winners