The publishing world is complex and publishing yourself is a huge challenge, but Sergio Carrera has taken the step with ‘Alma’. A comic that compiles three stories as the full author of Carrera, two of them already published in Argentina and a third original for this book, after being the cartoonist for Toxic Detective with scripts by Claudio Cerdán.
The way of living life depends on each one and their circumstances, the only thing we know is that it will end at some point. And that is why making the most of it is one of the great compulsions of the human being. ‘Alma’ introduces us to some lives that, in abnormal circumstances, try to manage to live as long as possible.
In the first, eternal Buenos Aires, an angel collects the souls of the deceased, to learn what love is, and what a human life is compared to its eternal existence, one short and full of experiences, and another endless and missing of emotions. Through this character, Carreras asks us and reflects on whether safety and responsibility is a bond that prevents us from achieving impossible dreams. If love is the key to awakening, or if in the end, living a full life, it is not a matter of time.
With a clear influence on Gaiman’s work, especially in the chapters with his sister Death, the author repeats certain schemes that the British screenwriter uses, encounters with different characters to exemplify what it is to live, and with a young woman who wants to live. , despite the fact that when she was alive, she did not know how to do it. Love, need, some magic and fantasy in a work that is also reminiscent of that film by Nicholas Cage: City of Angels.
The change of third in the second story, The good side, it’s huge. We went from fantasy to stark reality, full of pain. That of the war veteran, that of the mother who has lost her child. With a quite unknown background conflict such as the Falklands War for non-Argentines, or British, this story speaks of forgiveness, fear, repentance, change. Again love acts as a catalyst, but it is not only romantic love, but also that of a mother for her child, the strength of her memory and her redemptive and recuperative power.
In this case, the story has a structure in which the flashbacks introduce the background of the protagonist, explaining and shaping that personality that has been diminished and almost destroyed by the war, and by a sin from which it cannot be freed. Without morals, or revenge, the Falklands war is portrayed as another of the conflicts that destroys man, and from which one cannot get out without physical and mental scars. And how the repair of a soul is through people, sometimes unknown.
The last story is original for this work, Void, and is about the loneliness of the last person in the world after the apocalypse. Created to finish the book, no copy has been provided to leave the public surprised to discover the auction of a triptych about life, and about feeling.
Sergio Carrera demonstrated in Toxic Detective that a complex work can be thrown behind the back without any fear. But in a more introversive story, things change. The Argentine has plenty of experience in the USA comic to know how to tell a story, write it and show in art more than what can be read, it is a much more complex subject. And as the evolution from story to story shows, he has gained storytelling talent, and packaging. The first story being the one that uses the most external elements and influences to tell its story, the following ones abandon those resources to enter their own, more personal work, in which they gain in simplicity in speech, and strength in feeling.
With influences that may recall Alex Maleev or Duncan Fegredo, Sergio Carrera works in pure black and white, without grays or patterns, with pen and ink, seeking emotional impact with a loose and free drawing in expressions, and canonical with environments. With compositions that serve clarity, he does not seek acrobatics between panels, and creates a strong and dynamic narrative that is easy to read. With well-characterized characters, he focuses on their expressiveness to have fewer words and more things.
Alma is a compilation of stories about life and is also a sample of the evolution of an author. From its beginning in which it imitates a style, to its own voice. and from a drawing focused on the action and focus of each vignette, to creating paintings of people and feelings, seeking to show more than what is drawn.
Soul can be got through Verkami.
Soul
Author : Sergio Carrera
Number of pages : 128
Description : ALMA where he tells us the stories of ‘Eternal Buenos Aires’, ‘The good side’ and ‘Empty’.