“Season of Witches”, which originally appeared serialized in the North American publisher Oni Press, is more than a story of magic and fantasy. It is a tale of discovery and growth. A story in search of origins. A therapeutic way to reconcile those two worlds between which Aaron Durán, an American of Mexican origin, has always felt strange. He himself mentions, at the end of the comic, the term “cultural dissociation” to refer to his condition as a person of mixed origins who does not feel accepted in either of the two cultures. Hence the need to create Athalia, the protagonist of this comic, a young witch who has inherited powers from her ancestors and who, after the death of her grandmother Isadora, a character who anchored her to those origins, must find her own path. without giving up the roots that empower it.
In this odyssey, Athalia will not be alone. She has her friends Dana and Chuey, characters inspired by the nahual zoomorphic spirits, and the alebrijes Gordo and Loquita, who protect her and guide her in her fight against powerful enemies, embodied, in this story, by various characters, from the priest “witch hunter” who sacrifices his soul to follow the “evangelizing” mission of Hernán Cortés, going through the Aztec goddess Mictecacíhuatl, “Lady of the Dead”, to Lucifer himself, the Fallen Angel. Durán makes use of a particular and original religious syncretism, turning mythological characters from various traditions into sophisticated nemeses of the protagonist. What is missing, however, is a more complex vision of these myths and a deeper development of some characters who, without a doubt, could have given much more play within the story, especially those of the bishop and the priest, who represent the fanatical side of colonization.
This adventure story about cultural roots has found a perfect ally in Sara Soler, who has put all the artillery of her talent at the service of Durán’s script. Soler, responsible for the illustration and coloring of the comic, shows why she is one of our authors with the most projection inside and outside our borders. Her drawing, detailed and dynamic of her, takes aesthetic elements typical of the pre-Columbian tradition, but she adapts them to her personal and carefree line, taking advantage of the chromatic richness that characterizes Mexican culture.
The result is an entertaining comic, visually fresh, in which the chemistry that has existed between Durán and Soler is perceived. As a fantastic story, it also manages to mix Mexican mysticism and tradition with ease with those stories about monsters and supernatural beings that have modernized, for better or worse, the clichés of the genre, connecting with the sensitivity of a youthful audience that you will find in “Season of Witches” a very stimulating read.
