Nancy Hernandez and the Black Widows

Written by Scott "el Diablo" Marcano & Jaime Zevallos
Illustrated by Juan Romera
Self Published

Nancy Hernandez is a good girl, a student at Felipe H Middle School, where she is a straight A student, hall monitor, and general teacher's pet. She earnestly tries hard, wanting to find a better future for herself. The Black Widows, a Latina gang consisting of her fellow students, are not good girls. Led by the hard and delinquent Shorty, Ratita, Pollita, Tattletale, Roach, Face, and new recruit Dulce care less about the future and more about mindlessly showing the world how little they care for anything at all. With such a volatile mix of personalities, it is safe to presume that wackiness does not ensue.
This original graphic novel may be more than a little too energetic to qualify as a slice of life piece, although much of the language is certainly adult. A fastly-moving plot and realistically sharp dialogue together present a tale with more horror than typically found in coming of age narratives. I am very familiar with Marcano's previous endeavors as a comics scribe. Actually, Nancy's story here seems to contain aspects from Marcano's debut book The Unwanted, wherein troubled youths and their colorfully-personified elders are all caught up in a supernatural struggle. But Nancy's story here is presented in a voice more reminiscent of Marcano's later book HUM, which was an evolutionary (and horribly overlooked) leap in his storytelling ability wherein spirituality and revolution go hand in bloody hand. Here teamed with actor Jaime Zevallos he offers a solid story of arrogantly ignorant youth self-destructing amidst an appropriate Halloween backdrop.
Juan Romera's art is so much more concise this time at bat, compared with his prior contributions in The Unwanted. What caught my eye immediately was his experimental explorations of shape and form, to levels that would impress even the great Mark Badger. He is not just a visual storyteller, he is quite stylish and thoughtful in how he pulls the reader along. The black and white interiors are so different, yet as equally evolved, as his painted cover- I love love love artists who put such consideration into what they do, and I am eager to see what the man has next on his creative agenda.

Nancy Hernandez and the Black Widows, without revealing too much here, is a new work (available in this month's Previews catalogue from Diamond!) that is something much more daring than one might expect from a plot full of inner city youthful angst. There is real violence and death, yes, but there is also the pleasantly surreal aspects of The Things That Go Bump In The Night Immortal. Marcano is called Diablo for a reason. And this work, aided and abetted by such a fine roster of talent, is one of his more mature efforts in comix to date. If you like a fun read without capes and with something meaningful to say, then do NOT let this book go unnoticed.
Or I will throw rats at you.