Eye of the Majestic Creature is a collection of semi-autobiographical and fantasy-based comics that combine dry humor, psychedelia, and emotion to showthe viewpoint of one person’s world internally and externally. The story followsa young girl, Larrybear, and her talking acoustic guitar Marshmallow on theiradventures through the countryside, Chicago, San Francisco and New York.While Larrybear struggles to connect with strangers, her friends, and her familyto various degrees of success, her growing population of anthropomorphic friendshave adventures of their own. Larrybear is in a constant struggle between the desire to connect with thosearound her and to be left to her own devices. You get a glimpse of her past lifewhen she visits her home town of Chicago, trying to relate to old friends who havenot matured since high school, as well as her family (which includes her Hippopotamus father and his harem of ex-wives,two brothers, and Salsa-dancing mom). In the present, she moves to New York to find work for a time, resultingin many hilarious and drunken adventures with her new coworkers at a cell phone decorating shop, and her old friendBoris, who shares with her his P. G. Wodehouse books, as well as his “Incredible Hulk” weed. Drawn in shades of grayusing the near-deceased practice of stippling, Stein’s imagery draws you into Stein’s world for a complete and engrossingexperience.

Picking up right after Perla La Loca, the third volume of the definitive “Maggie” series repackaging, this compilation of stories from Jaime Hernandez’s solo comic Penny Century and his subsequent return to Love and Rockets (Volume II) charts the further lives of his beloved “Locas.”But first... wrestling! Penny Century starts off with a blast with “Whoa, Nellie!,” a unique graphic novelette in which Maggie, who has settled in with her pro-wrestler aunt for a while, experiences that wild and woolly world first-hand.Then it’s back to chills and spills with the old cast of Hopey, Ray Dominguez, and Izzy Ortiz—including Maggie’s romantic dream fantasia “The Race” and the definitive Ray story, “Everybody Loves Me, Baby.”Penny Century also features two major “flashback” stories: “Bay of Threes” finally reveals the full back story behind Beatriz “Penny Century” Garcia, Maggie’s long-time, bleached-blonde bombshell friend (who gives this volume its name and can currently be seen as a super-villainess in Love and Rockets: New Stories), while “Home School” is one of Hernandez’s popular looks at his characters’ lives from when they were little kids, drawn in an adorable simplified Dennis the Menace type style.