Home > CR Reviews

Girl Crazy
posted December 30, 2005
 

Creators: Gilbert Hernandez
Publishing Information: Dark Horse, $9.95
Ordering Numbers: 1569712646

The Hernandez brother with the reputation as the "serious" and "writerly" one produces as his first post-Love and Rockets project a light-hearted series whose main joy is its art. Go figure.

Girl Crazy follows the rather daft adventures of Gaby, Kitten, and Maribel, three about-to-be-16 year olds with different body types, living in different kitschy worlds -- allowing Hernandez the fun of drawing all sorts of characters. The story, which I believe isn't really the point of, or the best thing about, Girl Crazy deals with how the girls suppressed desires take wing in superheroine Una, a group-mind amalgamation of the girls' looks and talents.

I liked Girl Crazy much better as a volume than as a series. Collected, the stories' daffy pacing and wonderful character designs have a greater chance to sink in. Gilbert's ability to turn a phrase gets a work-out in Girl Crazy, too. It's a fair, neither formally or by intent near Hernandez' greatest achievements but a hell of a lot more fun to read than similar vanity projects by other major talents.

This review was written in the late 1990s as part of a then-ongoing freelance gig; I apologize if it reads oddly or seems incomplete.