Author: Jaime Hernandez
Context: The Love Bunglers is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Jaime Hernandez, published. The story revolves around a protagonist of Hernandez’s stories, a character named Maggie, her involvement with two men, Reno Banks and Ray Dominguez, in the past. The graphic novel is one of the best and finest works of Jaime ever created in the medium.
Synopsis: Jaime’s latest collection is The Love Bunglers which has culminated a 30 years period of storytelling, centering around the same group of characters, namely, a group of looze-knit punks called ‘Locas’ and their family and friends who have aged in real-time. The middle-aged woman, Maggie Chascarillo, the main character (the longtime heroine of Jaime) unites with Ray Dominguez, her long-ago love after he is attacked by a man.
She loses her friends, profession, brother and culture over the 3 decades but is able to navigate and find life, which makes her a compelling character indeed. Her journey and emotional history from sudden losses, memories of loss, her failures like inability to fulfill her dream of purchasing a garage, etc till the time she finds contentment and love are encapsulated in the graphic novel.
Long term effects of fluctuating bonds of family, friendship and effects of abuse, the way in which life revolves for ages around one another, have been chronicled in the novel. Jaime’s gorgeous artwork has been classically brought home in his work, combining sense of manipulability of time and space and graphic intensity of rock-gig posters, an achievement which French New Wave filmmakers could only dream of.
Other works by the author:
- Occasional work for The New Yorker and DC Comics
- Album covers for Michelle Shocked and Nardcore punk bands like III Repute and Dr.Know.
- Artwork for the critically acclaimed The Town and the City – a Los Lobos album
- Jaime’s collaborated with Mario and Gilbert in 1984-85 on a sci-fi comic book series called Mister X.
- Jaime’s ranked second for his work Ghost of Hoppers, in the Publishers Weekly in the year 2006.