Carla Berrocal (Madrid, 1983) is one of the most relevant names in current Spanish comics: his debut in the graphic novel, The Wizard (2011, De Ponent), he opted ahead of time for a neo-mestizaje that was not yet fashionable, with some vignettes rooted in Chilean folklore. He followed Epigraphs (2016, Author-Editor), sensual exercise of style around the intimacy of the English poet Natalie Clifford Barney where she already established that sparse and exuberant graphics at the same time that has earned her a leading position as an illustrator in the press and posters. In 2021 I surprised by signing with Reservoir Books and launching Doa Concha: The rose and the thornvital set design of the tonadillera Concha Piquer and postmodern tribute to the song that definitively put its author on the reinterpretive path of a popular culture that obsesses her.
The result of this is also The barren land, where Berrocal repeats for the Jaume Bonfill label, a huge work available in bookstores since May 9. Between his busy obligations (illustrations for magazines such as Eme21magcollaborations for programs such as Let’s live it’s two days of Being and various feminist activisms), Berrocal has had time to tell us his initial reflections on this graphic novel that consolidates his thematic and aesthetic direction.
MANGA ‘BALLO’
I was exhausted with the process of documenting Doa Concha and how exhaustive and rigorous it was to capture something of a biographical, almost essayistic nature. So I ventured into fantasy and lesbian love, a dyke relationship in the middle of the field. As define Berrocal The barren land, which cannot be understood without the influence of manga: My graphic synthesis is a perhaps more indie or Europeanized rereading. And for this comic shojo is fundamental: the sexual ambiguity with which it played Ranma1/2, For example. And my protagonist, Leonor, cannot be understood without Lady Oscar or without Utena. That’s what I wanted to do: a sweet manga. This reference is reinforced by the yellow base of the pageswhich refers to the cheap paper of popular manga magazines and also to the countryside in summer, the drought, the barren.
The overwhelming story of Leonor, a charra in a world of ranchers, is her intense romance with the beautiful heiress of a large estate, Isabel Isla Perdida. Together they will be threatened in that wild place by The Them, perhaps a transcript of The Others in Game of Thrones much more linked to masculine identity. There is a lot of Leonor in me: her tenderness, her clumsiness, sometimes how beast it is. I wanted him to live one of those very toxic romantic stories, but that I love in fiction.
IBRICO FLAVOR
In her pages, the cartoonist perfectly captures the pulse and composition of the classic Western (I was thrilled to see them, like the wonderful Johnny Guitar), but wrapped in a resolutely Iberian aesthetic: I also saw a lot of Spanish cinema: Duel in the fall y Prideof Mur Oti. I was excited by your concept of western set in Spain. Stealths I am passionate about and understand the genre very well in a Spanish, Castilian, even framework. EITHER Mexican cinema of strong and powerful womenas Barbara’s Prayer. But I’m also soaked in classic adventure comics: Breccia, Caniff, Tezuka.
In the 20th century it was often said that A comic book artist wasn’t really one until he knew how to draw horses.: I agree with that phrase. It requires a lot of patience and technical knowledge. It became a hobby to do them well because it takes a lot out of me. western that a horse is poorly drawn. I put emphasis on them to capture the identity western and the special relationship between Leonor and her mare Tara.
The most interesting thing, however, is its re-updating of the Spanish escapist fiction of yesteryear: I am attracted to Spanish as a concept and cultural construction to reappropriate it and give it other readings, transferred to the adventure genre, peak, light, something that our comics had in the 40s and 50s, and that was lost. Now, our narratives are Yankee ones set in Spain, formulas that have never worked for me. We constantly look at those ways that come from imperialism and are accepted without questioning them. Setting superhero comics in Spain is wrong. We have to build stories from our own folklore, a very untapped source of culture that can inspire countless incredible stories. In that sense, Almodvar makes it a fable: from the criminal, the adventure, the bullfighting, which also fascinates me a lot.
FEMINIST PICA
If the packaging is a supernatural Western, the content is the ultimate sophic fantasy, a necessary alternative to heteromasculine myths like Conan the Barbarian: Conan is the perfect example of patriarchal fantasy: violent men, phallic swords and hypersexualized women. How is a feminist epic built? In La tierra yerma I ask myself that question and try to answer it, taking our artistic background to a more pop terrain.
This time there is no fatal Womanbut a whole lineage of fatal men?: The They represent the most toxic masculinity: ultraviolence, contempt for life, the pleasure of seeing people suffer…which for me also summarizes what capitalism and liberalism embody, contrary to the principles of a feminist society, which is sisterly, transversal, fair, supportive.
And yet, his heroine is very masculine: Masculinity is not a man’s heritage. I consider myself quite masculine in some ways.. I have always had a complicated relationship with that aspect, which generated rejection because it did not conform to what was expected of a woman: being delicate and all that. The barren land It is a plea to other masculinities.
Carla Berrocal proposes in her pages a feminine and feminist paradise ruled by a very particular goddess, the Sacred Boar. And in what Sacred Boar does the author believe? I believe in freedom. To that Verraca I pay my tribute: to the freedom of being who I am, being able to do what I want, feeling like a dyke, a woman, capable and free.