Learning of Jamie Hernandez via another book that had characters nicknames inspired by his work was I thought a neat way to learn about someone. It was an important, but also a smaller piece of that bigger puzzle. Therefore, I wanted to see what the fuss was all about and why did Hernandez inspire this other author? Because of that, several interlibrary loan requests for books were placed for me. I received Life Drawing: A Love and Rockets Collection first.
This is a bizarre book. It was inspired by the Punk Scene and things that outrageously honor it. This was the world Hernandez and his creative partners seem to know. They also seem to know women. Or at least the version of women they wanted to portray. They are some of the most horrible, terrible, selfish, spoiled, hopeful bunch of freaks and weirdos. To be blunt, I didn’t find one character I liked. Even the best friend of the main protagonist was flawed and imperfect. They also seem to only know about really rotten, misogynistic men. The professor of that main gal needs to smack his brothers and pray that his partner wants to stay with him. Like get on his knees and beg her to stay. But then again, she ain’t no garden of tulips (I would say bed of roses, but roses have thorns and so does she!)
Then there are the illustrations. Sometimes I was not sure who was who, or what was what. They are not overly detailed, but there are some pieces that work and others I was confused over. Sometimes the text felt out of place, or why was it needed, but then it will usually come around again to connect. Nobody is unconnected in this book. Everyone has some connection to each other, no matter how small and the illustrations mostly capture that, but things sometimes fall a bit flat.
Love it or hate it, you will have an experience. Mature and adult themes include (but seriously not limited to) sexual situations, nudity, misogynistic conversations, alcohol use, variety of abuse, language, and more.