Influential: Locas
Welcome to Influential, a recurring column where I look at some of the books, comics, games, movies and other media that have influenced aspects of my work.
When people read my stories, from Lightweight to KITH and beyond, I suspect some of my influences are worn on the sleeve. But sometimes I take a bit of nuance from sources unexpected. Stories that allow me to take a look more closely on the social and emotional toil of life.
In that regard, one of my strongest influences is Jaime Hernandez’s Locas.
The series started way back in 1982 as one half of the anthology series Love & Rockets. Started by two brothers (with the help of a third) in Southern California, it’s lasted for decades. Over the course of forty years now, the project has grown to be one of the most critically acclaimed comic book narratives in the history of the medium. And rightfully so. Gilbert’s Palomar is multigenerational fiction at its finest while Jaime’s stories are more personal tales focused around the adventures and misadventures of five young women and their growing cast of friends and family. Each have been collected into a series of wonderful books. Locas opens with the collection Maggie the Mechanic before continuing in a series of four more trades. (Two subsequent trades continue the story but are not officially listed as part of the Locas arc.)
The original Maggie the Mechanic. All illustrations and characters are by Jaime Hernandez.
Maggie and Hopey are the perennial leads of the stories, but are far from the only focal point characters. Still it is their relationship that forms the most compelling fiction. Maggie is in love with Hopey but in constant denial of just how much. Hopey is a soul astray, never able to remain faithful to anyone for too long. Often their tales seem to be the stories of one bad decision after another, always mixed with a bit of strangeness around it.
Maggie and Hopey.
Other characters come in and out of their lives, most notably Ray, Maggie's other love, but none really are able to find any lasting happiness. In the world of Locas, much like the real world often does, lasting happiness feels like an illusion or a dream. Maggie and Hopey are drawn together by a true love, but one they cannot seem to ever quite make work over the long term.
Ghosts and demons exist in the world of Locas, though they rarely appear. Superheroes also abound and even star in their own comics within the comics, though they only recently made a major appearance in the follow up God & Science, the first post-Locas collection for Maggie. This creates a world that very much harkens to what I aim for in my fiction, stories of real people in a world with super powers.
Locas is a reminder that life is complicated even without superheroes or insane adventures. Whether it’s the relationship between the brothers of KITH or Kevin’s complicated bonds with Millie and Andy throughout the saga of Lightweight, I want my characters to have real emotional stakes between the lines of the pages.
It also shows that even forty years ago, we were striving to make sure Hispanic, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ voices were all represented in comics media. It’s a level of representation that has vastly approved over the years since, but still isn’t nearly as far along as it should be. That need continues, especially as those voices are often victims of silencing by the censors of the modern world.
Locas and Love and Rockets lives on, but even if it didn’t, it’s inspiration remains with me always.
