Por Amor “I
grew up in a house of comics,” states the celebrated comics creator Jaime Hernandez, “I was the fourth brother in line, so [my brothers] were already reading comics, collecting comics by the time I came up. They were just there, so of course I loved them. We grew up different from a lot of people in that I thought comics were normal.” In the Hernandez’ Oxnard, California home, comics were as common as air in an era when most American parents frowned upon them. The close-knit family’s admiration for the art form was a common bond that the six siblings—five brothers and one sister—enjoyed together.
GILBERT, JAIME, & MARIO
LOS HERMANOS
HERNANDEZ
but I do remember it. We read Marvel comics, DC comics, and Archie comics, anything that was comics, pretty much—except for romance comics. [laughs]” “In those days it wasn’t just superhero stuff,” affirms Jaime. “We had Marvel, DC, Archie comics, Dennis the Menace comics, things like that. Harvey Comics, Richie Rich, Hot Stuff, Little Dot, Herbie comics—there were all kinds. And I usually gravitated toward the ones that were drawn the best.” Mario remembers, “What was really cool was my mom liked it because she was a comic collector as a kid, so she
From left to right, Mario, Gilbert, and Jaime Hernandez. Photos by Jackie Estrada.
Of the children, the first to reach a fever pitch with comics was Mario, the eldest. The Number One Son recalls, “I remember going by my grocery store and seeing comics in the spinner rack, and my mother, to keep me quiet, bought me The Secret World of Private Strong. It was a Jack Kirby comic, and I’ve been hooked since then. I was about five years old, and as soon as I got old enough to read and knew what I was doing, I just started collecting comics, anything with Superman in it. Mario didn’t keep his fanatical enthusiasm to himself. The second oldest son Gilbert “Beto” Hernandez explains, “Well, I grew up in the ’60s, so I was lucky enough to enjoy what was coming up then. I remember the first Fantastic Four comic when it came out. Barely—I was a little kid—
saw these new heroes along with Superman and all that stuff she already knew about. She was already a comics geek in her own way, and we just kept buying books. I’ve got an addictive personality, so I became a completist, where I had to have every issue of everything. It ran the gamut of whatever interested us. Classics Illustrated—whatever looked cool to us. If the art looked good, I just went that way with it.” By the time the Marvel Age of comics rolled around in the ’60s, the Hernandezes had gone from admiring comics to rendering comics of their own. “First it was drawing,” tells Mario, “and then tracing comics, and then we’d pretty much make our own little [stories]. It was kind of a training ground, and the boys did hundreds [of them]. Gilbert always did Captain America, Superman, and stuff like that, 145