Maggie the mechanic The first volume of 'locas' stories from love & rockets

Gr 10 Up-This collection of comics, composed of stories originally published in the early 1980s, is the first in a series presenting the oevre in chronological order. At the center are Maggie and Hopey, friends who are as at home among spaceships as they are partying at punk shows. Hernandez weaves together an elaborate cast of characters, including pro wrestlers, millionaires, and superheroes. Maggie's job as an assistant mechanic takes her to distant lands, where she encounters rebel uprisings and dinosaurs. Yet beneath the SF veneer, these comics depict day-to-day life and conversations among friends. The stories have aged well, and their playful sense of adventure and scrappy protagonists will appeal to today's readers, including teens who have had access to 20 years of alternative graphic-novel storytelling. With a combination of short comic strips and longer serializations, this is the type of book one can open to any page and start reading. Hernandez uses a classic, ink-heavy illustration style set against a narrative that features heroes who are anything but typical. His realistic yet stylized portraits have exaggerated elements that are a perfect match to the hyperreal and humorous narrative. "Las Locas," as Maggie and her Chicana friends are called, all have endearing flaws and are relentless in their pursuit of fun.-Heidi Dolamore, San Mateo County Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.