Enrique García's study of the long-running comic book worlds created by Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez is an eminently digestible introduction to a body of work that continues to be hugely influential within both Latino cultural production and the world of comics. García states that his book is targeted at both non-readers of comics and staunch fans, and there is more than enough material to satisfy both audiences (and those who fall in-between).
In the introductory chapter, García locates the work of the Hernandez brothers within a longer comics history in the United States and Mexico. Particularly engaging are his references to the Mexican comic industry and to the “Latin American dialectics” (7) that sit at the margins of Gilbert's work. The book clearly sets out the discussion of the mid-century accusations in the United States that comics fueled juvenile delinquency, a critique that the industry attempted to address by introducing self-censorship in the shape of the Comics Code (1954). It also covers the underground comix movement that laid the foundations for work by creators such as the Hernandez brothers. García makes some salient points about how both the changing nature of the comics industry, from direct-market comic stores to tablets, and the different formats used by the Hernandez brothers have affected the consumption of a fictional universe that now spans some four decades.
In Chapter 1, García uses concepts of intertextuality, parody, and pastiche, particularly as understood by Mikhail Bakhtin, Julia Kristeva, and Linda Hutcheon, to analyze his corpus. He highlights how different works by the Hernandez brothers parody superhero and science fiction genres, often by filtering the treatment of established tropes and narratives through a Latino gaze. Chapter 2 focuses on how the Hernandez brothers take up and refashion existing traditions within Mexican culture (particularly the soap opera and work by the comics artist Rius) and comics from the United States. as a means of empowering the figure of the Latino. García suggests that the brothers’ handling of different ethnicities in the works allows them to explore Latino ethnicity with greater complexity. Chapter 3 comprises an edited transcript of García's extensive interview with the brothers. The interview covers the key issues addressed in the book, including the US comics industry, intertextuality, gender, and Mexican and Latino cultural traditions. To bridge the three chapters, García includes three ‘Spotlights,’ but these two-page analyses are too brief to provide any real insight into the works that he discusses.
One element of García's book that needs further clarification is his references to an “ideal reader” (27). Though he admits that no ideal reader exists (38), García frames discussion around the bodies of knowledge that an ideal reader would have to be familiar with in order to understand the complexities of the works that he analyses. The diversity and longevity of this particular comic universe, however, means that different reading publics with all kinds of knowledge (or lack of it) will take many different things from reading these works. Moreover, there are passages in the book in which the views of the Hernandez brothers are a little too prominent. García makes no secret of the fact that he is a fan of the works he scrutinizes; his enthusiasm is infectious. Occasionally, there is a slight lack of critical distance, such as when he relies too much on the authors’ opinions about their own work.
García skillfully addresses some of the problematic aspects of the fictional universe of the Hernandez brothers, not least the treatment of gender and sexuality. And he deftly handles the ways—sometimes very different ways—that each brother creates comics that both fit within and also interrogate Latino history and culture. The book is a welcome addition to both comics studies and Latino studies.
