Music for Mechanics

A LONG-WINDED BUT IMPORTANT INTRODUCTION
We all know how important Love and Rockets has been to the medium. As a relatively young comic reader, it's the body of work that has been the most consistently revered during my lifetime. Ranging from literary to masturbatory, each of us have our own personal reasons for loving the creations of Los Bros Hernandez. As a Mexican-American female, my bias is obvious: strong female characters, smashing Chicano stereotypes, stunning artwork, and impressive writing. In short, these were my comics. I was proud and touched and empowered and inspired from the first reading. I immediately went and procured the gigantic, muscle-building collections Palomar and Locas. But I felt like I was missing something. So I'm going back and reading the individual collected books. If I had a resource that would've broken down each volume into bite-sized morsels, I may have read these first, rather than jump feet first into the giant collected versions. So my project is a chronicling of what I feel is important in each book, some pivotal panels, and a quick rundown of what may have been omitted in the collected version.

MUSIC FOR MECHANICS
Mechanics: aka Mechan-x, Mechanicos. What is most important in this story is the maturation of Maggie from a star-struck mechanic assistant of Rand Race's to a traveled, tough woman who survives a near-death illness, family drama, political upheaval, homesickness, and romantic frustration. Maggie becomes one of the fiercest females in the Hernandez Bros universe: she's hot-headed, she's insecure, she's lustful, she's vulnerable, she is impulsive, and she doesn't take shit from anyone.

Locas: Here we see more of the ever-dynamic and complicated relationship between Hopey and Maggie, as well as how pivotal Izzy is to their friendship. Paramour undertones aside, Hopey and Maggie have the most realistic, adult relationships in comics: they fight, they love, they protect, they doubt, and they change.
How to Kill a: In my opinion, this is one of the most beautiful stories Jaime has drawn. The story, credited to Isabel Ruebens, is a glimpse into the strange and dark world that she inhabits. It's insular, it's weird, and it's destructive. We learn later why.

BEM: A sci-fi story Gilbert abandons after this collection. An important character we are introduced to is the larger-than-life Luba. She is that character that you cannot keep your eyes off of: she possesses a natural ability to lead and direct, she's brave to the point of danger, and she sacrifices many things to be held in high regard. She will later become a central character in Palomar.

Barrio Huerta: A single paged introduction to Hoppers (aka Huerta), where Locas takes place.
Penny Century, You're Fired: The quintessential fantasy woman comes to life and reveals more about herself than her perfect figure: insecurities, stubbornness, insatiable desire for adventure.
Radio Zero, Music for Monsters, and
Somewhere in California: A few collaborative sci-fi stories between Mario and Gilbert (though Somewhere... is mostly a Mario piece). I don't think any of these stories are particularly notable, except for Mario's involvement. Maybe that makes me a jerk.
A Little Story: The first glimpse of Palomar and the introduction of Pipo. As a child, Pipo is unaware of how strange it is for the traditional town of Palomar to see a little girl to play rough, not care what others think, and throw caution to the wind. In her innocence Pipo is not aware of how her defiance of gender constraints as a child will change the landscape of Palomar forever.

Monster Parade

I ran across this book at the Fantagraphics table back at Stumptown in October. I'd never seen it or heard about it before, but creator Ben Catmull happened to be there signing at the time. The little image here doesn't really do justice to the cover, which is a subtly textured combination of various paints and ink linework. It's intricate and moody, and sets the stage perfectly for the contents.

Monster Parade is an odd, non-linear collection of stories that flow into and out of one another, their only connection being that they feature strange creatues of some sort. The first section, "Winter Storm," brings a series of giants and gargantuan beasts that personify the titular weather as the artwork gradually darkens, becoming more rich and ominous. The black and white brushwork and washes abruptly segue into warm burgundy tones for the tale "Monster Express," a shift in color that mimics the sudden shift in narrative style. In this story, we find one Professor Williams sequestered to a train compartment with a fellow traveler, whose conversational topics and personal habits grow increasingly disagreeable during the journey. He'd leave is unpleasant companion if he could, of course, were it not for the monster loose on the train...

This lighthearted episode is followed by a return engagement of "Winter Storm," featuring a new batch of storm creatures, brought forth by the rain and dark clouds, clouds which match the smoke rising above the setting of the final story. "Civilization Studies Illustrated: An Overview of the Industrial Civilization of [unpronounceable]" reads like the Lonely Planet guide to a city dreamt up by Dr. Seuss and Edward Gorey. A handy list of sea creatures, both edible and inedible, tourist attractions including "haunted cellars where no living person should tread," and an extended detour into the history of a war between Louse Land and Mite Ville, on the underside of a local dock.

There's a whimsical yet morbid feel to this collection, an imaginative surrealist spirit. Apart from "Monster Express," there's really no narrative to speak of, just a series of images and ideas that are as inventive and charming as they are sombre and eerie. Catmull's illustrative style is clear, despite purposefully murky tones. Even with his relatively simple figures and cartoonish faces, he manages to convey a dark sensibility.

Project: Romantic

The way I think about comic anthologies is the way that Freaks and Geeks character Daniel Desario explained being pigeon-holded into the 'dumb' category as a kid: you've got the A group (the smart kids), the B group (the normal kids), and the C group (the dumb kids). As I read anthologies, I subconsciously put each story I read into one of those categories: awesome, okay, and bleh.

The only anthologies I haven't done this with are Project: Superior and Project: Telstar. Either Chris Pitzer is the super-god when it comes to editing and directing an anthology or Adhouse has some special goggles that it uses to filter out the mediocre, boring cartoonists.

That being said, I wasn't sold on the idea of an anthology dedicated to "love and love stuff." Call me a cynic, but the sacchrine sweet nature of pulp romance stories has turned me off of the romance genre in general and, to be honest, it makes my blood run cold. But I figured that some of my favorite cartoonists, including Hope Larson, Kaz Strzepek, Aaron Renier, Liz Prince, and Randall Christopher, wouldn't butcher the subject as I fearfully imagined.

Thankfully I was right.

Kaz's story about randy, love-struck boys wanting some action from sewer girls was well drawn and fun to read. Hope Larson's "When I was a Slut" was beautifully drawn and colored and the story dialogue device of an instant message conversation was a nice departure from the norm. Liz Prince's story of a love lost was touching and genuine - two of her strong suits.

The most exciting story for me to read was Maris Wicks' twist on a "choose your own adventure" story, using simple art and reader interaction to develop the outcome. The clean lines and lack of background action really focused the attention of the reader to the story they can construct. It was a unique twist on something familiar, which should be applauded.


My favorite panel in the book came from Evan Larson. The story is of Cupid going on a vacation and leaving his gear in the hands of an assistant. Pained by the all the hate and sadness in the world, she began to shoot everyone who was in distress. The story was good, but the art was better. His art is exciting to look at and it helps move the action along. And really, who can resist Batman having relations with a roll of toilet paper?


All in all, Project: Romantic is fantastic anthology to close out Adhouse's trilogy, which will most likely be lauded in the future as the best anthology works around.



*apologies to all artists for defacing your beautiful work with the shitty scans