It is, of course, always a pleasure to return to Love & Rockets, even if things have changed a deal since the last time we were allowed to visit. Jaime Hernandez’s half of the first issue in the book’s rebirth as an annual—which sandwiches Gilbert’s more fractured, but largely familiar contributions—reintroduces a few familiar characters like Maggie, who is, of course, a bit older and more than a few pounds heavier than the first time we met her, more than 25 years ago.

Penny Century is back, too, unmissable as she towers over a cityscape on the book’s front cover. Century’s height, however, is hardly the only thing striking about the image that graces the cover. Decked out in a cape and miniskirt, she appears—save a beanie in her right hand and, of course, Jaime’s instantly recognizable linestyle—to fit right in along side any number of superhero books currently lining the shelves.

Jaime’s portion of the latest L&R number one simultaneously marks an exploration of new territory and a return to the artist’s roots, delving into the fantasy work that colored much of his early contributions of the series by embracing a passion for superheroics that defined much of his youth.

Most importantly, however, is the fact that, even as Jaime lets his characters roam free in his recently expanded universe, they thankfully largely maintain all of those characteristics that made them so have long peppered his contributions to the Love & Rockets canon.
[Part One]
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There’s part of me that felt a bit strange discussing the merits of superhero books with Jaime Hernandez. Sure the subject has come up with plenty of indie creators, and certainly artists like Jack Kirby are obligatorily rattled off when discussing Hernandez’s artwork, but the artist, who, along with his brother and longtime co-conspirator, Gilbert (and to a lesser extent, the eldest Hernandez sibling, Mario), is credited perhaps more so than any of his contemporaries as being one of the primary catalysts in indie comics’ divergence from the medium’s dominant caped paradigm.

The first issue of Love & Rockets’ most recent run (now an annual), however, bears the image of a caped Penny Century on its cover, a subject reflected in Jaime’s contributions to the book, which whole-heartedly embrace the superhero genre. Thankfully, however, they do so in a manner that fits comfortably into the world that Jaime has worked so hard to construct, thanks in large part to appearances by characters like Century and perennial loca, Maggie.

In this first part of our interview, we discuss caped crusaders, the fate of those early sci-fi stories, and the weird and wonderful world of Pogs.

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