Penny Century

The eighth volume of The Complete Love and Rockets Library is the fourth omnibus edition of writer-artist Jaime Hernandez’s Locas storyline. It starts off with a blast with “Whoa, Nellie!,” a graphic novelette in which Maggie, who has settled in with her pro-wrestler aunt for a while, experiences that wild and wooly world first-hand. Then it’s back to chills and spills with the old cast of Hopey, Ray Dominguez, and Izzy Ortiz — including Maggie’s romantic dream fantasia “The Race” and the definitive Ray story, “Everybody Loves Me, Baby.” Penny Century also features two major “flashback” stories: “Bay of Threes” finally reveals the full back story behind Beatriz “Penny Century” Garcia, Maggie’s long-time, bleached-blonde bombshell friend, while “Home School” is one of Hernandez’s popular looks at his characters’ lives from when they were little kids, drawn in an adorable simplified Dennis the Menace -style. These comics originally appeared from 1996 to 2002.