Underestimated as a writer, Hernandez makes use of a number of fascinating and unconventional narrative techniques in Wigwam Bam. The story begins with an ending: Maggie leaves Hopey, and does not physically appear again in the story. This development echoes Hopey's abandonment of Maggie during the stories collected in The Death of Speedy - the beginning of a larger story cycle for which Wigwam Bam is the climax - and allows Hernandez to investigate the often inscrutable Hopey without her most humanising relationship.
As was the case with Hopey in those earlier stories, Maggie's presence in Wigwam Bam is actually larger for her absence. In fact, the most emotionally satisfying conclusion is Maggie's, as Hernandez allows a discovered diary to speak to the turmoil the character experienced as the story began, giving her decision to leave a believable, emotionally laden context.
The supple, gorgeous art on display in Wigwam Bam has never been more important to the ultimate success off one of the cartoonist's stories. The world into which Hopey finds herself drifting is presented in terms attractive enough that even as odder aspects seem appealing, making the violent turn of events near story's end that much more disturbing. Hernandez's skill with character design is crucial - new characters (and there are many) make their impressions immediately, while older characters are distinct while retaining elements of the previous incarnations. Hernandez's skill in delineating characters allows him to tell stories in an extremely graceful shorthand - we derive from how the characters relate to one another, or simply by how they look and carry themselves, hundreds of text pages worth of meaning.
The messages implicit in Wigwam Bam are neither reassuring nor trendily nihilistic. Instead, each character's story delivers a note of poignancy mixed with guarded, subtle optimism. While Maggie's diary shows how her memories of a childhood friend's death have led her to fear abandonment, reading that diary helps the character Izzy come to terms with her own feelings about the Maggie and Hopey relationship. The scenes where Hopey realises how quickly any support she's enjoyed has fallen away, leaving her exposed and alone, are rightfully devastating. But they also serve as a sign that the worst has passed, and that the events may become a lesson for a character who resists every kind of growth. All of the characters in Wigwam Bam grapple, successfully or not, with similar epiphanies of wisdom and pain. Wigwam Bam is one of the best stories in any medium about memory, adulthood and loss.
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