Gilbert Hernandez and the Modern Novel

Repost from November 30, 2007

There is not enough to be said of our late 20th Century and early 21st Century Chicano Dickens, the one and only Gilbert Hernandez. Serializing stories that span the Americas from Agoura, Califas to Central America, from Las Vegas to outer space, Hernandez's savvy pen and inks transformed graphic narrative in the United States. He is one of a generation of india ink American seers like Art Spiegelman, Dan Clowes, and Robert Crumb, with graphic visions that reveal vividand luridtales of America North, South, and Central with a line as sure as Dan DeCarlo's and a narrative savvy like Pynchon channeling García Márquez through Frida Kahlo's paintbrush (with Buñuel capturing it all on his instamatic).

All these plaudits, then, as a prelude to an excellent interview from last April with Gilbert Hernandez at The Daily Cross Hatch.

In Tex[t]-Mex, Hernandez cameos as my avatar of cultural osmosis, the epitome of Xicanosmosis--he is that and more. Check out his wares here.

You'll be glad you did!



update, November 30, 2009

One of Hernandez's all-time hottest short piece is his illustrated biography of Frida Kahlo; I have a chapter on this piece in Tex[t]-Mex that originally appeared as an essay in NYU Press's Latino Studies collection. A stunning nude of Kahlo by Julien Levy has recently been making the rounds online via Tumblr--Kahlo's expression in the image is striking.