LOCAS HC 02 MAGGIE HOPEY & RAY (C: 0-0-1) by Xaime Hernandez This second, doorstop-sized omnibus volume of 'Locas' tales by Jaime Hernandez - collecting over a dozen years' worth of stories from the award-winning Love & Rockets comics - picks up shortly after Maggie and Hopey's long-awaited reunion at the end of the Locas hardcover. Even though her love life remains as chaotic as ever, Hopey takes her first few steps toward responsible adulthood with a real job (as a teacher), while a depressed, divorced Maggie ends up as the manager of a fleabag apartment building, where she continues to wrestle with the demons of her past - most prominently in the stunning centerpiece of the volume, the graphic novel-length 'Ghost of Hoppers,' with its hallucinatory dream finale. On the 'guy' side Ray, still carrying a major torch for Maggie, falls in with the 'Frogmouth,' the volatile bombshell (arguably the sexiest woman Jaime has ever drawn, which is saying something) whose ties to local thugs cause some hairy moments indeed. Of course, Maggie, Hopey, and Ray's paths continue to intersect in Jaime's increasingly complex, always richly imagined world, along with those of characters both old (Izzy Ortiz, Penny Century) and new (the jockette Angel, the mysterious superheroine Alarma). APR090826 9781606991565