Maria M., Book One

By Gilbert Hernandez. Published by Fantagraphics. 

Hardcover, 112 pages, B&W, 2013

Gilbert Hernandez continues his metafictional realization of the film career of his troubled heroine Rosalba "Fritz" Martinez, who abandoned her psychotherapy practice to become queen of the Z-grade exploitation movies. Now she's starring in the role she was literally born to play, in a dramatization of her own mother's life! The "true" story of Maria M. was told in Hernandez's classic Poison River, collected from the pages of Love and Rockets; this original graphic novel embodies the first part of the film version. Maria's life consorting with the underworld makes for a sordid tale of sex, drugs, violence and power that fits right in with Fritz;s other film credits.