Penny Century continues in the grand tradition that has firmly established Jaime Hernandez's "Maggie and Hopey" stories as one of the great modern epics of both comics and general literature. Both Hernandez brothers continually demonstrate an amazingly deft touch for creating great comics, well-rooted in the traditions that they admired as kids. But beyond that, Jaime particularly has managed to create characters and a milieu that are compelling, convincing, and imaginatively designed with such skill that the author can easily move between contemporary reality and high fantasy without having to rely on any cheap narrative tricks. And there are few modern comic artists who can approach Jaime's skill at lush black-and-white pen work. Penny Century is really outstanding in every way - literature and reading just don't get much better than this. ( )