Part of me wants to know how creator Jaime Hernandez came up with Penny Century’s arc. The series began with the return of Ray Dominguez, revealing he had a previously unrevealed history with Penny Century, going halfway through Love and Rockets: Volume One. Throughout the series, which mainly dealt with the death of H.R. Costigan, Jaime kept threatening to reunite Ray with Maggie.

Only then Ray disappeared, and Jaime revealed Maggie’s been married and is now getting a divorce. Over the next issue or two, Jaime turned that surprise reveal into a plot point, as one character or another was surprised Maggie had been married at all.

This issue has a single story—Maggie and now ex-husband Tony’s divorce party, which Hopey’s throwing at the bar where she works. Hopey’s hanging out with Maggie Christmas (the first cameo of many), who wants to know the story of Maggie and Tony’s marriage since no one knew she was married. And no one can figure out why Hopey’s so okay with it.

Maybe because it turns out Hopey’s had a girlfriend for Penny Century too. Rosie. Jaime introduced Rosie a couple issues ago; she and Hopey went over to Maggie’s to comfort her after finding out about the divorce. Rosie just seemed like a mutual friend in the supporting cast. Nope, she’s Hopey’s girl. At least enough of one, she gets jealous of Hopey.

There are some other big questions (and also not because it’s Maggie and Hopey), like them hooking up a few issues ago before the divorce and marriage reveals. And then there’s how any of it fits into Love and Rockets: Volume One. Maggie met husband-to-be, Tony, way back when, before Love and Rockets #1. The issue’s got a bunch of background music with citations, and based on the earliest flashback, they met in the late seventies (back before Maggie cut her hair—for Rockets #1). I promised myself I wasn’t going to do all the googling. Just the one song. No God by the Germs.

Anyway.

Hopey tells the story of Maggie having a punk rock meet-cute with Tony. Maggie and Hopey lived in Hoppers, Tony in L.A. They’d see each other at concerts and parties. Tony mad crushed on Maggie, Maggie at least liked him, but much of the flashback is his perspective. I just now realized it doesn’t work with Hopey playing narrator, but it also doesn’t matter. Tony’s very sympathetic from go.

Eventually, their romance peters out, and Maggie goes off to have her adventures as a mechanic and so on.

Oh, I forgot—Terry’s also in one of the flashbacks. Another cameo. Daffy’s the third, closer to the present, because Jaime finally reveals something about what happens immediately after Love and Rockets: Volume One ends. Maggie and Hopey are living in L.A., and Maggie’s been in a funk for three months. So Hopey drags her to a pool party, introducing her to Norma and Negra (who don’t exactly count as cameos). But there, Maggie sees Tony again, and they almost immediately get horizontal.

Maggie’s worried Hopey’s not going to be okay with it, but Hopey’s fine (and already shagging if not dating Rosie). Daffy’s cameo is telling Hopey about the wedding.

The story’s a rush of retcon reveals, but Jaime keeps it very tight, getting everything in place for this touching finish with Hopey and Tony. Penny shows up for an epilogue, setting Maggie up for the next chapter in her life, even though this last chapter happened almost entirely off-page.

There’s a color one-pager on the back cover; it’s a quick, surprisingly emotive “Space Queen,” which fits the main story.

Jaime uses thinner lines than usual with a lot of the art. It doesn’t feel as inky as it could. Though he’s also doing a bunch of panels. Most of the pages have eight panels; if they don’t, it’s six. And he’s covering days, weeks, and decades between panels sometimes. It’s a vast but meticulously constrained story. It’s exquisite and probably the most ambitious character development move Jaime’s ever made for both Maggie and Hopey.

There’s also the implication Maggie reading a Beto comic–Beto Mess—causes an emotional breakdown directly resulting in the marriage.

The story’s not the comic’s biggest surprise. Jaime’s had so many of them. But it definitely showcases his ability to work the surprise throughout, not just stunt reveal it. It’s also really fun to see him age the characters all in one story, how he maintains the energy (and humor) regardless of era.

I’m already missing this comic.

Once again, creator Jaime Hernandez surprises with Penny Century. This issue features the first appearance of Maggie’s husband, T.C. (short for Tony “Top Cat” Chase). However, that appearance comes with a big asterisk. The character doesn’t show up, just his face. Well, his head. See, the issue’s all a dream, and Maggie’s working out some stuff.

She’s conflicted about the divorce, her feelings for Hopey, and still recovering from her traumatic night of driving a few issues back. Even without a corporeal ghoul in her backseat, the experience was still harrowing enough to stick with her. Jaime’s got a few existing Penny threads running through the story—including ones it doesn’t make sense for Maggie to know to dream about—and this issue’s the first time Maggie’s had a story from her perspective since the lonely drive one.

It’s also the first time the reader gets to hear about Maggie’s marriage from her.

There aren’t many details on that front. Maggie thinks about how not many people knew about the marriage (Jaime doesn’t break the fourth wall with a wink, but it’s almost there) and remembers some scant details about her time with T.C., mostly in contrast with Hopey.

Maggie’s dream—and the issue—is about a race. She starts the race by dropping out and going for a walk instead. Her walk leads her to Izzy, dressed as a witch and plowing a yard, not in Hoppers; they have a brief reuniting moment (I don’t think they’ve had a scene together in Penny) before Izzy starts worrying about her next public speaking engagement and shrinks. When she’s worried, she shrinks (for Maggie). It’ll be relevant later since she previously grew for Penny and Hopey.

And not in their dreams. Penny’s wall between dreams and reality is tenuous.

The next stop is a cocktail party where the eclectic, obnoxious high-brow guests make fun of Maggie. Once she’s done with them, Jaime introduces the plot foil—someone’s following Maggie. In the distance, the person’s just a little stick figure, no details; up close, they will be wearing a black bodysuit, their face covered until the reveal.

Wait, there’s also a little imp who usually lives inside Maggie and causes all her mistakes, only in this dream it’s out in the world with her and can directly attack her. Can’t forget the little imp.

Who doesn’t not resemble Hopey.

Hopey and Penny eventually show up in the dream, along with Norma, a new character and mutual friend of the gang who Jaime introduced last issue at the very end.

That tenuous wall between dream and reality comes back into play with Penny talking to Maggie about her current adventures (on the moon, running away from settling her dead husband’s estate) and her previous ones, covered in the comic, but without Maggie around. So either someone told Maggie about them or Penny Century’s reality is both dream and not.

It’s a good, fun, thoughtful story, with Jaime and Maggie working out a bunch. The art’s fantastic; since she’s encountering new things every few panels, sometimes dream-like things, Jaime gets to do one excellent reaction shot after another. Jaime does eight panels a page for the entire story (minus the title splash), and Maggie’s got fantastic expressions in about six of them. There’s also a visual deep cut back to old Love and Rockets; one Beto also did more recently in New Love.

Then the color strip on the back cover has Maggie and Hopey—in L.A. but seemingly in their earlier, punkier days—seeing Mini Rivero on the street and Hopey explaining about her fifties local access show, which Jaime’s been using as a strip. It’s a neat little strip, also bringing in some proverbial Rockets.

So the story’s good—it’s a great dream story, but with the caveats as a dream, it can’t be as tangible—and the art’s fabulous. One more Penny Century to go. As usual, I can’t imagine where Jaime’s going with it, but I’m confident it’ll be good….

I’m going to miss this book.

This issue’s distinctly creator Jaime Hernandez’s work, but some of the moves he makes remind entirely of brother Beto’s.

The first strip, for example, is a first-person one-pager about Ray getting in a social faux pas at a party. Jaime shows half of Ray’s face in a reflection; otherwise, it could easily be an autobiographical sketch, something Beto’s done in the past.

But the bigger Beto-esque surprise comes in the Locas feature, which Jaime splits into two parts. Most of the comic (except the Ray opener) is set soon after H.R. Costigan’s funeral. He died at the end of last issue, and this issue catches us up with everything since. Sort of.

The feature starts with Hopey waking up and volunteering at her local polling center. There’s a quick introduction to the other poll workers, and Hopey, wearing her sunglasses inside all day, contrasts them nicely. It’s slice of life stuff, right up until Maggie shows up to visit Hopey. Maggie mentions Hopey’s roommate—who called to her off-page at the story’s start, but who we’ve never met. Jaime will be introducing a lot of people we haven’t met, but the characters all know in this story….

Hopey tells Maggie all about Costigan’s strange funeral, where she was the only person from the comic. Neither widow Penny nor ex-wife Norma nor daughter Negra is at the funeral with Hopey.

The visit is tense—Hopey’s mad Maggie didn’t go with her to the funeral, but Penny hadn’t actually told Maggie about the funeral (or going with Hopey)—and Hopey goes back inside to listen to platitudes from the normies. She’s clearly in a very bad mood.

Jaime finishes the strip with a somewhat bewildering “Concluded in this issue” tag. Where he’s going to go with it is a big surprise.

But, first, he catches up with Norma and Negra. They’re on a road trip through the desert, staying at crappy motels, eating junk food, and actually bonding. It’s the first time Jaime’s really shown Norma as a loving mom; usually, she’s more concerned with her newly acquired wealth and wealthy friends, but here she and Negra are away from all that noise.

Except, of course, Norma has taken them on this impromptu road trip to keep the estate lawyers away from Negra. She’s H.R. Costigan’s daughter, after all, and her whole life is about to change.

The strip also establishes Negra never even met Costigan, which explains why he never mentioned her in Love and Rockets proper. I think.

Also—I forgot—we get some backstory on Costigan; Hopey and Maggie overhear the poll workers talking Costigan trivia, going back to World War II. It’s interesting as Costigan’s been a Love and Rockets character since the first issue, and Jaime’s taken years to reveal the backstory; heck, it took him years to reveal the horns weren’t demonic.

After the Norma and Negra strip, it’s back to Locas, starting with Maggie (and readers) finally getting to meet Guy Goforth, the big oaf who’s trying to romance Hopey. They all go for donuts on Hopey’s break, which leads to Maggie teasing Hopey about her suitor. And then Hopey loses it, unloading on Maggie.

During the barrage, we find out something about what happened a few issues ago with Maggie’s nightmare drive and her imagined (or not, still unclear) stalker, but also how she’s been ghosting Hopey since and Penny’s been their information go-between.

Penny’s always present in Penny Century while rarely being on-page.

Hopey’s day of work ends with a ride home from the poll supervisor (so she doesn’t need Maggie’s offered ride and proverbial olive branch) and the introduction of her roommate. Visually, no names. The roommate turns out to be a character from the comic’s opening strip, the Ray one-pager, so while Ray, Hopey, and Maggie are all in the same physical location, they keep missing each other.

Penny calls and dishes to Hopey about everything going on with Maggie, which includes shocking information for everyone—reader and Hopey alike—leading to an old-school bonding scene between the two of them. Except Jaime’s just revealed their entire relationship since Love and Rockets ended is different than what he’d been implying. It’s a stunner of a reveal, so big one of the supporting cast even comments on it.

It’s a turbulent strip—the second part is eight pages, and Jaime got like four major dramatic moments—and a really good one. Great art, especially on Hopey, who has lots of visual reactions to the events unfolding, often with the sunglasses obscuring her expressions.

Then we finally get a Penny appearance, which is an almost Watchmen, Doctor Manhattan on the moon riff. Or it might just be a Doctor Manhattan on the moon riff featuring a couple surprise costars for Penny. Great good girl art from Jaime.

The back cover color strip is a Lil’ Ray outing; nuclear bomb drills. It’s a fun, quick, but haunting strip.

It’s a humdinger of an issue, with a humdinger of a reveal. Penny Century’s been unexpected as far as content to this point, but it’s never been so wildly unpredictable. If it were any other comic, it might be cause for apprehension, but with Jaime, it’s cause for (perhaps cautious) enthusiasm.

After the last issue’s full-length feature, creator Jaime Hernandez is back to the Penny Century anthology feel with this issue. The issue has two narrative arcs, split over five strips (plus a color strip and then another “To Be Announced”). The first and last strips are single-pagers, bookending and tying the arcs together neatly.

The comic opens with a very naked Penny Century hanging out at Isabel’s house in Hoppers. Since we last saw Isabel in the present, she’s shrunk back down to regular size; Penny comments on the return to normal but not how it happened. Penny’s invited herself to Isabel’s to be a houseguest while she deals with a personal crisis. Only it took her a week to mention the crisis to Isabel; otherwise, they’ve just been watching TV and drinking wine, with Penny walking around naked all the time.

Much to the neighborhood men’s delight (and embarrassment).

There are some ties to last issue’s flashback to Isabel’s childhood, like Isabel now living in the sort of haunted house and it turning out Penny grew up, for a while, in that house, something Isabel didn’t mention in her flashback sum up. While the series doesn’t seem connected, it’s always connected, whether through express detail or visual cues.

The first strip—the one-pager—has Penny inexplicably setting out a bottle of wine. It seems like Jaime’s making an art observation about certain parts of her anatomy having lines similar to a wine glass. Or martini glass. The wine bottle gets explained later, and it’s a great detail, but it’s a very peculiar opening.

The second story is one of the features. It’s ostensibly a Hopey story, only it opens with Negra suffering through mom Norma’s latest party. Jaime does reveal—thankfully—Norma’s shithead boyfriend is less a danger than a dunce. Hopey’s bartending, and she’s getting the guests too drunk, Negra’s sick of her mom sucking up to rich people, and Norma’s having a personal crisis of her own. Sort of. I mean, she’s having a personal crisis, but it’s not exactly her own.

In fact, it’ll turn out to be very similar to Penny’s crisis.

After the party, Hopey’s got to figure out a ride home, and Maggie’s not around. Has anyone seen Maggie since the possible ghoul in her back seat two issues ago? Unclear. It’s a six-page story and excellent.

Then it’s another naked Penny and Isabel story. Isabel is apparently down for the nudism, except when they have to go to the grocery store for more wine. Penny reluctantly gets dressed but only barely. This story is where she talks to Izzy about her crisis, their history with the house, and so on. It’s an excellent Izzy and Penny story; it just happens to technically be six pages of nude good girl art by Jaime.

The “To Be Announced” strip is next; it’s a page about Lil’ Ray fighting tree elves who maybe stole his ice cream. It’s weird, slight, and short enough. The weird makes up for the slight.

The next strip is the adult Ray story, which is the longest feature at seven pages. It takes place the night of the issue’s day, with a bummed out Ray falling for a stripper who doesn’t know he exists, then helping out Negra and a friend; they’re stranded thanks to no gas. The story also has Ray discovering Hopey’s in L.A. and potentially Maggie, which probably made the story read longer than the seven pages because—confession time—my greatest fear for Penny Century is Jaime getting Ray and Maggie back together. Because Ray, as this story—where he narrates–confirms, is a dick.

He could be a lot worse, obviously, and he behaves well with the teenage girls, but his rumination’s on how he’s been wronged by the women in his life… nope. It’s particularly strange because there’s so much less self-awareness than in his first story of the series when we found out about his almost life-long obsession with Penny. Not to mention their occasional booty calls.

It’s a good story, some great art, incredible storytelling from Jaime. But damn, I hope Ray keeps his toxic ass away from the Locas.

There’s an interesting nod to another of the series’s strips, “Space Girl.” Jaime introduced Space Girl and her nemesis, Cheetah Torpeda, in the Color Special and then brought the characters along here; Ray’s strip club of choice is called Cheetah Torpeda, and Space Girl is one of his other childhood crushes, it turns out. Jaime’s also got a few references to brother Beto’s works in this issue. Such a lovely tapestry.

The last black-and-white strip is the one-page conclusion to the main arc, with Penny and Izzy having another talk about her crisis. It’s simultaneously genial and haunting, even before Jaime announces a milestone in the Love and Rockets lore.

The color strip brings back party girl Mini Rivero, who Jaime also introduced in Color Special. It’s a crossover strip with Space Girl. It’s a quick bit of fun.

My personal fears for the soap opera story aside… it’s an excellent comic. Jaime’s firing on all cylinders.

Again, creator Jaime Hernandez completely surprises with Penny Century. The content, anyway; the quality is always a safe bet.

This issue is set in summer 1966, in Hoppers, where Isabel is a little kid whose best friend is going to Mexico for the summer, and she’s got nothing to do. Thanks to older sister Chabela’s boyfriend not liking babies, Isabel finds herself taking over Chabela’s babysitting duties. The baby in question? One Margarita Luisa Chascarillo, whose still young enough to be carried, but toddler enough to walk around on her own with some agency.

Real quick–seeing as how Jaime’s set the characters in time, it’ll be interesting to see how he addresses them aging as adults. This story, Home School, is done in a style similar to the “Lil’ Ray” strips Jaime started in Love and Rockets (and has continued in Century). It’s got a lot of Peanuts energy, and it works beautifully here, the first time a girl’s gotten the spotlight.

Isabel initially finds Maggie (she’s still Perlita at this age) incredibly annoying and bullies her, similar to how Chabela bullies Isabel. Jaime never makes the comparison too direct, instead letting the behaviors echo across the relationships. Of course, things change for both pairs of girls as Isabel discovers being cruel isn’t worth the reward, and Chabela realizes life doesn’t revolve around her shitty boyfriend.

At least, not when there’s a child in trouble.

While the overarching story is about Isabel growing up over this particular summer and taking responsibility for someone else (forever, as regular readers know), there are also some great subplots running throughout. First is Isabel’s smoking. With no one to hang out with, she hides out in the dugout at the park and smokes squares.

Second is the neighborhood white owl, which Chabela convinces her was sent by witches to curse one of the neighbor ladies. Isabel spends her nights petrified as the owl hoots.

It’s a fantastic story. Jaime tells it so breezily I was shocked when it was the only story in the issue. It seemed like a feature, sure, but not the whole issue. There are some great sequences as Isabel and Perlita go from contentious to comrade, and lots of great action.

Other than the general style touches to compare to Peanuts (including a scared under-the-bed panel I’m not sure was ever close to being in a Peanuts but is very much the vibe), Jaime doesn’t do anything to tell the story like a three or four-panel newspaper strip. Instead, it’s far looser, with the passage of time sometimes just being told in Isabel’s changed outfits.

Again, it’s a particularly great comic in an already particularly great series. Jaime outdoes himself.

There’s a single page Ray comic in the color, back page “To Be Announced” strip. He’s having nightmares about someone in his apartment—suggesting the robbery last issue affected him more than narration suggested—and then the punchline actually ties into Maggie’s ghoul from last issue too.

Visually, at least. It’s a good, scary enough little horror strip, but the issue-length feature could cover it even if it weren’t any good. It’s such a good feature.

Penny Century didn’t appear in Penny Century #1 (at least, not in the present action), but this issue starts with her. It’s a direct follow-up to last issue, with Penny—who seems to have a beauty salon somewhere between L.A. and Hoppers—getting Hopey gussied up. It’s a one-page strip, followed by the further adventures of Ray in Hollywood.

The Ray story flashes back to his tween-age years in Hoppers when he hung out with older kids one summer and helped them break into houses. In the present, someone’s broken into Ray’s apartment and made off with his TV and laundry money, so his reminiscence has some immediate context.

It’s a quick story—four pages, opening with Ray’s staccato narration about his day—and foreshadows how creator Jaime Hernandez will be doing a lot with blacks this issue. There are some nighttime panels (in the flashback), and Jaime does a glorious job with shadows.

He also doesn’t try to make Ray particularly likable. He ends up being more likable than the least likable characters this issue, but Jaime’s not sugar-coating the character.

The next strip is another one-pager, with Li’l Ray playing with the television dial and discovering the UHF setting. It’s a cute strip in how it ties into the TV from grown Ray’s story, but also showing him in his more innocent days, not breaking and entering. Like the last issue, the strip’s called “To Be Announced,” Jaime’s establishing some regulars in the anthology format.

The feature story is next, and it’s very irregular, however. It reminds a lot of that first issue of Love and Rockets, which has a haunted house story (later revealed to be an Izzy story).

It starts as a regular Locas strip, with Maggie joining Penny and Hopey in the beauty shop to see how fixed up Penny’s got Hopey. Maggie’s got to drive home alone, and Penny tells her to take a “haunted highway,” leading to some teasing and good humor before the actual car trip.

Jaime writes it with that second-person narration he used for Maggie’s story last issue, with the narration directly engaging her in conversation and questioning her decisions. Only it’s not cute and comedic; it’s Maggie having a lengthy panic attack as she freaks out about being in possible danger. Jaime draws it like a Hitchcock movie (shades of Marion Crane), and it’s phenomenally effective stuff.

Especially since the ending’s a cliffhanger.

The story’s also almost entirely at night, so Jaime does a lot with inky blacks. It’s a beautifully illustrated story; Jaime’s visual pacing is perfect.

Then there’s another one-pager. A snowman wants to borrow an umbrella from his friend, a groundhog. It’s a funny, seven-panel strip, done entirely for laughs (or smiles). Though Jaime does love his shadows in it.

The next strip stars Negra and her mom, Norma; it’s the first time we’ve gotten to see how Norma treats Negra when there aren’t witnesses, and it’s not great. Negra’s in a fairly bad, borderline but quickly approaching that line abusive. It’s three pages, and literally half of it is disturbing.

The penultimate story’s a four-pager about what Hopey and Penny were getting together to go and do. Izzy’s got a book signing in Hoppers, and they’re going to be supportive. Plus, Izzy wrote a whole chapter about when she and Hopey did peyote, and Hopey burned down a liquor store.

Izzy showed up in Maggie’s story in flashback (kid Izzy scares kid Maggie with stories). It nicely ties in with the opening strip; Jaime does a great job fracturing the narrative but never gets too far away from it the proverbial plot.

Turns out Izzy’s so nervous about the reading—and real success as a writer—she’s having a physiological reaction. Hopey doesn’t think it’s funny, but Penny finds the whole thing hilarious, leading to some great banter and a nice couple of punchlines.

The strip’s strange (including a cherub-like child with an adult’s intellect), with Jaime doing some creative panel composition to include the cast. It’s a good finish.

Except there’s also another color strip on the back cover. Space Girl—who we met in the Maggie and Hopey Color Special—bitching to her bartender about not being compensated for her super-heroics. Sci-fi good girl art with a twist. It doesn’t relate to anything in the comic itself, but it’s a good style preview.

I had to go back and check old Love and Rockets to see if I’d somehow forgotten Ray (Maggie’s most serious boyfriend) had a subplot about mad-crushing on Penny Century. Nope, doesn’t look like it. First, I wasn’t expecting Penny Century to open with a story about someone knowing Penny Century, not Penny herself. Second, I wasn’t expecting creator Jaime Hernandez to do a retcon.

I’m pretty sure it’s a retcon.

Pretty sure.

Also, wasn’t expecting Penny Century to be an anthology. It’s basically a Locas comic, checking in not just on Maggie and Hopey but also featuring a Daffy cameo and an Izzy mention. Ray, of course, at his peak, was in a Locos strip.

The first story has Ray living a lonely life in Los Angeles (or, at least, Hollywood). The first three pages are single-panel sketches of his life there, things he’s overheard, things he’s doing, things he’s not doing. Then, on page four, he mentions Penny, and his story’s now all about her.

It turns out Ray went to junior high with Penny. She never noticed him, but years later (in Love and Rockets #30), Maggie and Ray went to stay at Penny’s mansion, and Ray told Maggie about it. Penny started teasing him—I checked the back issue; she’s mainly parading around naked trying to seduce him but to get Maggie and Hopey back together, not because of a backstory. Like, the retcon’s fine (it makes Ray into an oblivious dickhead in a lot of ways, but I think it’s in character); I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing context.

So then it’s a recounting of their relationship, which has Penny booty-calling Ray occasionally and having earth-shattering sex. The only way for him to guarantee a visit is to meet a new girl; Penny magically arrives whenever he starts getting over her. He moved to L.A. (or, again, at least, Hollywood) for her, but after she’d dumped him, seemingly for good.

It’s a good story. Quick and effective, with Jaime starting slow with Ray’s observations, then speeding up once he begins recounting the relationship.

The following story is a two-page strip about a couple cowboys and the devil. It’s cute. Jaime’s not trying very hard, and it provides a nice break between the opener and the rest of the comic, which is Locos.

Maggie and Hopey are still in L.A., still not living together (as seen in the Color Special). Maggie’s started working for Norma Costigan, which includes helping out with her teenage daughter, Negra.

There are three stories: Maggie’s, Negra’s, then a postscript with Hopey talking to Maggie on the phone. It’s three different perspectives on the same afternoon’s events, and they’re good ones. The Negra story introduces her friends back home (mom Norma just got the mansion and payday from her divorce from Negra’s dad, H.R. Costigan, who was also at one point married to Penny). Negra first appeared in Color Special too.

She’s a teen with complex issues, while Maggie and Hopey are twenty-somethings with complex issues. Maggie’s feeling inert as Norma’s assistant; Hopey’s just suffering through her latest job, a toy store. Jaime focuses on Maggie’s inertia more than Hopey. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out going forward.

I didn’t know what to expect from Penny Century….

Well, more like, Penny Century is nothing like what I expected. I mean, I expected it to be great, and it’s great, but everything else is a surprise.

Including Jaime using the back cover for another strip (in color). Li’l Ray makes an amazing discovery. It’s a charming finish for the book. Or start, depending on whether you notice the back before you start reading.