Is This How You See Me?

Is This How You See Me? by Jaime Hernández
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There's a punk reunion in Hoppers and Maggie and Hopey head back to their old stomping grounds...

I've been chewing through the Love and Rockets books like a ten foot party sub the last few months so I naturally picked this up when Fantagraphics was having their Fantabucks sale.

The story is told in two threads: one featuring teenage Maggie and Hopey around Del Chimney's house and the other featuring the Locas battling middle age and reuniting with their friends. Has the theme of Love and Rockets been getting older and growing as a person all along or has it just been that way in the most recent books? Anyway, it's good to finally know how things were at Del Chimney's house back in the day and how some of the early characters turned out. Rand Race should make an appearance before the series finally wraps.

I'm really running out of ways to heap praise on these books but they're great, both in story and art with some of the richest characters in comics. Jaime doesn't throw any softballs, either. It would have been easy for him to put Maggie and Hopey together volumes ago but the stories wouldn't have been as good as what we have now, with Maggie meandering through life and Hopey becoming responsible with a wife and kid.

What else can I say? Getting old sucks. I felt for Hopey and her swollen knee. Also for Maggie and her ripped pants, although not as strongly.

Is This How You See Me isn't my favorite Love and Rockets book but it's still damn good. Four out of five stars.

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