Book Review: The Art of Jaime Hernandez: The Secrets of Life and Death

The Art of Jaime Hernandez

This is a wonderful retrospect of Jaime Hernandez and his career in comics, a tale so interesting it could be material for another comic book. Every page with text on it is overflowing with insight as Jaime shares his views on comics and his characters.

Author Todd Hignite has done some intensive research to put everything together. It's filled with comic art, personal sketches, discarded work, story ideas scribbled on notes and other stuff. Lots of covers and panels are laid out and discussed in terms of what you're seeing and you're not seeing (behind the scenes). And all of them are printed huge to show off the marvelous line art.

There are also some really cool photographs, such as from his childhood, his Mohawk hair days and some with him and his brothers behind a table at some comic con.

This book is an absorbing read. Highly recommended to fans of Jaime Hernandez and his comics.

Jaime's art balances big white and black spaces to create a world of nuance in between, just as his writing balances our big human feelings and our small human trivias to generate its incredible emotional power. Quite simply, this is one of the 20th century's most significant comic creators at the peak of his form, with every line a wedding of classicism and cool - Alan Moore

[Jaime's] stories never fail to entertain, but their claim on literature is due to Hernandez's bracing realism. His virtuoso drawings present characters of intelligence, wit and human frailty who confront each other - and the reader - with such honesty and genuine tenderness that one may find it hard to believe she/he is reading a comic book. - Publishers Weekly

One of the most talented artists our polygot culture has produced. - John Hodgman, The New York Times Book Review

The Art of Jaime Hernandez: The Secrets of Life and Death is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | JP | CN)

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Comments

Thank you for your review and the peek inside the book; it's what sold me on getting a copy. I've never read an issue of Love and Rockets nor anything else he's done, but his drawing style is so intriguing, I had to get the book after seeing what was inside.

my local library just got a copy of this, I am so stoked! I am an avid lover of anything los bros Hernandes

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