Maggie the Mechanic is a perfect entry point into Jaime's half of Love & Rockets _if_ you're a Jaime fan. But how many new readers can say that? For instance, do you recognize that girl with the short dark hair on the cover? Hint: That's not Maggie, it's her friend Hopey. You'll learn this (and more), but you'll have to read the stories; it's not all there on the surface like it is for some comics. Put another way, this book is probably not what you think it is. But you may like it anyway.So what's in this thing? Well, basically, it collects most of Jaime's stories from L&R #1-15 plus a few extras from various collections and reprints. Let's start with a few landmarks. First, there's Jaime's breakthrough Mechanics epic (from L&R #2), the one set in the jungles of Zymbodia, in a village outside Zhato. It's structured around a series of ‘letters home’ from Maggie to Hopey, with only minimal dialog to start. This can be intimidating at first, but Jaime's a surprisingly good writer. If the slightly cluttered artwork doesn't throw you, it just may become a favorite, something you'll reread many times. Next is a Locas epic, 100 Rooms (from L&R #4), in some ways more down to earth yet also quite goofy. Maggie and her friends are invited to a party at the mansion of billionaire H.R. Costigan, where Maggie encounters Casey, a self-proclaimed heir to the throne of Drussia (or possibly just a bum), and quickly falls in love. This was one of publisher Gary Groth's early faves, used to kick off the excellent collection ‘Love and Rockets: Short Stories’. If the first chunk of the book isn't working for you, try skipping ahead to this story and then doubling back; it makes a very good starting point. Finally, there's the last big Mechanics epic, The Lost Women (Las Mujeres Perdidas, from L&R #6-11), where Maggie visits yet another exotic locale, Rio Frio, to do another job with prosolar mechanic (and heartthrob) Rand Race, only to have things go up in smoke… again. Wrestling champion Rena Tetañon returns to save Maggie's bacon and emerges a slightly more complex character in the process.Of course, I'm simplifying things. The glue that holds this book together are the Locas stories, which pop up here and there, in and around the bigger multi-part stories. Towards the end, they start building their own momentum, leading into the next volume, The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S. These stories revolve around Maggie and Hopey and their friends Penny, Izzy, Daffy, and Terry in the barrio of Hoppers within the town of Huerta, California, as they do everyday stuff like go to the beach, dye their hair, find McJobs, or look for a new place to live. You could certainly skip over this collection for the next, but you'd be missing out on a lot of the day-to-day of Maggie and Hopey's relationship and what makes it tick.Like I said, this is a great book if you're a Jaime fan, but if a few pages throw you off, give it a little time or jump ahead to something better. Nothing's required reading. It's all just comics.