Penny Century #2
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freePenny Century #2 is a strong exemplar of Jaime Hernandez's approach during his mid-career solo run — a period when, free from the anthology format of the original Love and Rockets, he could concentrate each issue on tightly interlocking short-form Locas vignettes rather than longer serialized arcs. The issue's five distinct stories demonstrate his mastery of tonal range, moving in a single issue from domestic comedy ('Penny gives Hopey a haircut') through suburban dread ('Chiller!') to understated menace ('C'mon Mom,' with its implied threat from Bolani toward the teenage Negra) and supernatural body-horror magic realism (Izzy unable to leave her house due to her inexplicable physical growth). The Izzy story also carries a significant continuity revelation: she publicly outs Hopey as the person responsible for the Ray's Liquor Store fire, a disclosure that ripples through the Locas cast's relationships. Taken together, the issue illustrates why the Locas saga — centered on Latinx women in a fictional Southern California — earned the critical standing it holds in literary comics history.
In "Penny Century," Jaime Hernandez crafts a quietly tense moment in the lives of Negra and Norma as a visit from Norma’s boyfriend Bolani unsettles the calm of their poolside afternoon. With Hernandez’s signature detail and emotional precision, the issue lingers on glances and silences, hinting at simmering tensions beneath the surface. The cover by Jaime Hernandez captures the mood with the same restrained intensity.
Maggie takes the Horror Highway 696, following Penny’s advice, only to spiral into a wave of anxiety as the empty road stretches on. What starts as a simple drive turns into a tense, isolated struggle as doubt and fear take hold in the dead of night.
In a quiet, sun-drenched moment by the pool, Negra and Norma share a rare calm—until Bolani arrives, slipping into their space with unsettling ease. As the afternoon unfolds, Negra retreats to her room, only to witness something that leaves her uneasy, watching Norma and Bolani in a private, charged moment. The air grows thick with unspoken tension, and the lines between intimacy and intrusion begin to blur.
In "null," Isabel, suddenly grown twenty feet tall, finds herself unable to leave her house for a book reading—so she brings the event to her living room instead. As she reads aloud, her towering presence becomes a quiet stage for revelations, including an unexpected confession about Hopey and the fire at Ray's Liquor Store.
ComicBooks.com Value
Find on ebay
Read it digitally
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
After the initial seminal run of Love and Rockets concluded, Jaime Hernandez continued his Locas storyline through this solo seven-issue series published by Fantagraphics between late 1997 and 2000, with issue #2 arriving in March 1998. The series was later collected in its entirety as part of Fantagraphics' Complete Love and Rockets Library Vol. 8 (also marketed as the Locas Library Vol. 4), a 2010 trade paperback that gathered all seven issues alongside related material from that era. Gary Groth, Fantagraphics' long-time editor and publisher, is credited on the issue, consistent with his role overseeing the Love and Rockets line throughout this period.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published March 1998 by Fantagraphics; written, drawn, and cover-illustrated entirely by Jaime Hernandez — sole credited creator on the issue.
- Second issue of the seven-issue solo Penny Century series (1997–2000), Hernandez's primary publishing vehicle for Locas material following the conclusion of the original Love and Rockets anthology run.
- Contains five stories: an untitled Penny/Hopey haircut vignette; 'Look Out' (Ray Dominguez burglarized, reflects on a teenage crime); 'Chiller!' (Maggie's solo night drive on 'Horror Highway 696' ends in a breakdown); 'C'mon Mom' (Negra and Norma Costigan at poolside, with the menacing Bolani); and an untitled Locas story featuring Izzy's supernatural body growth.
- The closing Izzy story carries a major continuity disclosure: Isabel Ortiz (Izzy), unable to leave her supernaturally enlarged body, outs Hopey Glass as the person who started the Ray's Liquor Store fire — a revelation with lasting consequences for the Locas cast.
- 'C'mon Mom' introduces Norma Costigan (Negra's mother) as a named, recurring figure in the Locas supporting cast, with Negra's vulnerability to Bolani's implied predatory behavior foregrounded for the first time in this setting.
- The Grand Comics Database tags the issue's stories across the genres of drama, detective-mystery, fantasy-supernatural, and children's literature — an unusually wide tonal range for a single floppy issue.
- All stories from this issue were later collected in the Fantagraphics trade Penny Century: A Love and Rockets Book (ISBN 978-1-60699-342-2), the eighth volume of the Complete Love and Rockets Library, published 2010.
- The Locas saga as a whole — of which this issue is a part — has been described by its publisher as centering on 'Latinx friends and sometime lovers Maggie and Hopey' whose characters 'aged in real time,' a then-rare technique in American comics that the Penny Century series continued.
Cast · 9 characters
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in The Complete Love & Rockets #[18] (2000), McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #13 (2004), Locas #II (2009), Love and Rockets Library #[8] (2010)
Key issues in Penny Century
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.