Anyone who's followed the tribulations and triumphs of on-'n'-off lovers Margarita Luisa Chascarrillo (Maggie) and Esperanza Leticia Glass (Hopey) over the past few decades knows that through a lowly medium—the comic strip—cartoonist Jaime Hernandez has been unfurling the Great American . . . what? For sure not merely a novel, since much of the sprawling narrative is communicated in astonishingly evocative black-and-white drawings. With clean outlines, Hernandez deftly portrays physical monologues and conversation: Hopey's pillow-rumpled hair and drawn-up knees as she silently contemplates a deteriorating love affair; a pot-bellied father and his jock daughter tossing a softball, deep tenderness conveyed through... More >>>