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I had the good fortune of meeting Jaime Hernandez at my first comic convention, HeroesCon, in June 2006. He and his brothers, Gilbert and Mario, were at the same table and I was awestruck. I'm pretty sure I came across as a big goof, stammering something about, "You're awesome..." and loving their work as they signed my books.
Cut forward to almost five years later and I have the good fortune of speaking with Jaime again, albeit in a more composed manner. Barely.
The guys and I chatted with him from his home in Southern California about all things Love and Rockets and beyond. We touched upon his childhood love of comics, early influences from cartoonists such as his older brothers, Alex Toth and Bob Bolling of the classic Lil Archie series, his love of dialogue, the spirit of 'Do-It-Yourself' in comics, the recent art book 'The Art of Jaime Hernandez: The Secrets of Life and Death' by Todd Hignite and much more.
I am wont to say that Jaime is probably one of comics' greatest open secrets. Universally acknowledged as a godfather of alternative comics (in my eyes), it is surprising that many people have never given Love & Rockets a try.
With the entirety of Jaime's work in print by Fantagraphics Press and the aforementioned art book, there has never been a better time to discover his work. You'll come for the superb draftsmanship and nuance of his art, but you'll be come back for the mature storytelling with Maggie, Hopey, Ray, Vivian the Frogmouth and the rest of the gang of Hoppers.
- ADRiAN
Hi! I'm still listening to the show but had to pause and mention that Little Ego is the sexy parody of Little Nemo.
Uh, I was told that, of course, mom would never allow me to read sexy comics. ;)
Posted by: Wagner CG | February 08, 2011 at 11:39
I'm way behind on my podcast listening but I did want to get to this episode since Xaime is a favorite of mine.
Great stuff to listen to since the one time I talked to him at A.P.E. in SF a few years ago, he seemed like a quiet guy and I was too much in awe to string enough sentences together for a proper conversation.
I've heard you guys do this before but many times it seems like you start the interview with the conversation already in progress. I'm sure that is on purpose as you probably begin things with getting the artist to relax some before you hit the record but it sounds like we missed a conversation about New Wave music and I would have loved to hear Xaime talk about that.
All the best to you guys!
a99
Posted by: R.R. Werner aka Atomic99 | March 09, 2011 at 17:01