Maria M.

by Gilbert Hernandez

Overview

This brutal, original crime thriller graphic novel, from the co-creator of Love and Rockets, tells the story of femme fatale Maria M.

Maria M.'s is a sordid tale of sex, drugs, violence, and power. When she comes to America for a better life, she marries a drug kingpin, whose son learns Maria’s darkest secret, leading to the most violent gangland bloodbath in organized crime history. Maria M. collects 2013’s Book One (now out of print), and the never-before-published Book Two, presenting the complete graphic novel for the first time. Longtime readers of Hernandez’s books will recognize a metatwist worthy of Maria M.’s pulpy pages: Maria M. doubles as a “biopic” of the mother of Hernandez’s most beloved character: Luba from Love and Rockets!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683960164
Publisher:	Fantagraphics Books
Publication date:	10/08/2019
Series:	Love and Rockets
Edition description:	1
Pages:	232
Sales rank:	753,632
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Gilbert Hernandez was born in 1957 in Oxnard, California, and is considered one of the greatest living comics writer-artists in the world. In 1982, Hernandez co-created, along with his brothers Mario and Jaime, the ongoing, iconic, internationally acclaimed comic book series Love and Rockets, one of the greatest bodies of work the medium has ever seen. In addition to his work on Love and Rockets, its spinoffs, and side series, Hernandez has released a prodigious amount of original graphic novels and miniseries, such as Sloth, Bumperhead, and Marble Season. He also collaborated with Darwyn Cooke on The Twilight Children for DC. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2017 and is the recipient of a Fellow Award from United States Artists and a PEN Center USA’s Graphic Literature Award for Outstanding Body of Work. Hernandez lives in Ventura, CA, with his wife and daughter.

Editorial Reviews

10/07/2019

Hernandez (the Love and Rockets series) again channels his obsessions into feverish soap opera with unplumbable depths, here following decades in the life of Maria, a beguiling woman with a taste for bad men and dangerous situations. Maria immigrates from Latin America to the U.S. in the 1950s, works odd jobs, takes increasingly seedy modeling and acting gigs, and falls in with mobsters. As the mistress and eventual wife of Luis, the head of a crime family fronted by a fashion company, she evades death while attracting the lustful attention of her two stepsons. If this sounds like the stuff of an old-fashioned potboiler, it is: the graphic novel is packed with sex, shoot-outs, gangster drama, naked ladies with guns, and dialogue such as “Let’s finish the movie! We’ll shoot around all the blood and splatter.” Like most of Hernandez’s female leads, Maria is outlandishly top-heavy (“She’s more suited for a sideshow than modeling,” one character muses), and much is made of her sexual charisma and “milky silky smooth flawless skin.” But the pulp plot is executed with style, strong and sensitive character development, practiced casual linework, and the kind of gonzo weirdness—such as Maria’s talent for cracking walnuts with her abs—that defines the Hernandez ethos. This tale feels like the half-remembered dream of a midnight movie, making for a whimsy worth reading. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"Hernandez is one of the great craftsmen of modern comics."

New York Times Book Review

"Every writer should be so lucky to have the imaginative chops that Hernandez shows in Maria M."

Southwest Review

"Hernandez has become the medium's David Lynch or Guy Maddin, rolling his personal obsessions and freewheeling abstractions into stories that present as pulp, then take some very weird turns."

The A.V. Club

"Who was Maria M.? Fans of author Gilbert Hernandez will remember her well, but readers of all stripes will be intrigued by this tale of her twisty, turny life."

San Francisco Book Review

"Hernandez's pulpy movies-on-paper [feature] deftly spun narratives; vivid character designs; and, most of all, powerfully bold graphics that feature economically arresting drawings and forceful composition."

Booklist

10/01/2019

Hernandez (Love and Rockets Library. Vol. 14: Three Sisters) brings consummate craftsmanship and unparalleled storytelling skills to this sordid noir tale about a beautiful femme fatale. After Maria's acting career stalls, she resorts to appearing in fetish films to survive until meeting and marrying a wealthy older man whose ladies lingerie company serves as a front for a criminal enterprise existing at the intersection of the drug trade and Latin American politics. Life as a trophy bride suits Maria just fine, even as she finds herself entangled with her husband's two grown sons—cold, calculating Herman, and stoic, thoroughly deadly Gorgo, who loves her with all his heart and devotes himself to ensuring that she remains safe when the family is drawn into war with their enemies. This new edition contains the first part of the story, originally published in 2013, as well as, for the first time, the second, concluding chapter in a single volume. VERDICT Some fans might miss the emotional intricacies present in much of Hernandez's best work, but the combination of classic cartooning and cinematic storytelling, as well as graphic sex and violence, pushed to near surrealistic extremes, should satisfy most devotees and inspire the creation of even more.

Library Journal