Whoa, Nellie! #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeWhoa, Nellie! #1 is the opening chapter of Jaime Hernandez's first solo project after the original Love and Rockets concluded with issue #50 in 1996, making it a historically pivotal pivot point in one of alternative comics' most celebrated careers. The series brought the wrestling subculture — long simmering in the background of Jaime's Locas stories through characters like Rena Titañon and Vicki Glori — fully to center stage, proving that Hernandez's gift for character-driven narrative translated seamlessly outside the Maggie-and-Hopey framework. In doing so, it forged an explicit creative link between Latinx lucha libre tradition and the genre codes of superhero comics, treating costumed women wrestlers as genuine gladiatorial archetypes rather than background color. The three-issue run was subsequently collected, reprinted, and folded into multiple Library editions, cementing its place as a formal chapter of the broader Love and Rockets canon rather than a mere spin-off curiosity.
Jaime Hernandez’s "Whoa, Nellie!" #1, a 1996 Fantagraphics gem, dives into the gritty, heartfelt world of Xochitl and Gina as they navigate the highs and lows of the women’s wrestling circuit. With all art and letters by Hernandez himself, the issue captures the tension and camaraderie of their lives both in and out of the ring, anchored by their dynamic friendship and the ever-watchful eye of coach Vicki.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
With Love and Rockets Volume 1 wrapping at issue #50 in 1996, Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez each embarked on separate solo projects, and Whoa, Nellie! was Jaime's first out of the gate. The 28-page, black-and-white first issue was published by Fantagraphics in July 1996, art-directed by Marc Arsenault, and ran for three consecutive monthly installments through September 1996. The series drew directly on wrestling characters Jaime had been sketching and developing since the earliest Love and Rockets stories, with Rena Titañon appearing in the debut issue in an illustrated 'Female Wrestling Greats From The Past' pin-up rather than in the narrative proper. A standalone trade paperback collecting all three issues — plus six new pages and a pin-up gallery — was published by Fantagraphics in June 2000, and the material was later absorbed into the Love and Rockets Library as part of the Penny Century omnibus volume.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Written and drawn entirely by Jaime Hernandez; art-directed by Marc Arsenault; published by Fantagraphics, July 1996.
- 28 pages, black-and-white interiors — the first issue of a three-issue monthly miniseries (issues #1–3, July–September 1996).
- Serves as Jaime Hernandez's first published work after the original Love and Rockets series ended with issue #50 in 1996.
- The narrative centers on tag-team wrestlers Xochitl Nava and Gina Bravo navigating the women's wrestling circuit in Texas under the coaching of Vicki Glori (also known as Vicki Chascarillo, Maggie's aunt).
- Gina Bravo is established in the story as having previously had a crush on Maggie Chascarillo in earlier Locas chapters; Xochitl Nava is Vicki Glori's niece and therefore Maggie's cousin.
- Rena Titañon — the Queen of the Ring and Vicki Glori's legendary rival, previously a supporting Locas character — appears in issue #1 in an in-story illustration titled 'Female Wrestling Greats From The Past' rather than as an active participant in the plot.
- The inside front and back covers feature pin-ups of real-life and fictional female wrestling figures, establishing a 'Pro Wrestling Legends Series' framing device throughout the run.
- All three issues were collected in a June 2000 Fantagraphics trade paperback (ISBN 978-1560973836) that added six new pages and a pin-up gallery; the material was later reprinted as part of The Complete Love and Rockets Vol. 16 and again within the Love and Rockets Library omnibus Penny Century (Vol. 8).
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Reprints
Reprinted in The Complete Love & Rockets #[16] (2000), Love and Rockets Library #[8] (2010)
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