Since time immemorial, healers – or trementinaires, as they were known in Catalonia – were in charge of healing and helping neighbors when they fell ill. This is how they did it in the Pyrenees of the 19th century, a space that the cartoonist Jaime Martín wraps in mystery in A dark mantle (Norma comics), a story where reality and fantasy are confused while its protagonist, Mara, faces prejudices and interests of the majority and rebels against the suffocating weight of conventions. A narrative that is published this Friday, May 3 (also in Catalan) coinciding with the first day of the Comic Fair in Barcelona.
The gender perspective and sisterhood are breathed between the pages of this graphic novel starring three women from different generations. “The three of them help each other to fight against the beliefs of the town’s residents, especially when a young unknown woman arrives in the village and is not well received,” says Jaime Martín about a comic he started writing during confinement. In the midst of a pandemic, “I wanted to reflect that fear that the unknown produces and that, in the end, brings out the worst in each person when they are subjected to a certain pressure.”
“It is not a story of fantastic beings, although it is possible that in the north of Catalonia some witches were burned,” comments the author, “I was able to verify it during the documentation process, which is one of the things I enjoy most when it comes to of writing”, a part of the process not always valued. “Normally it is not given enough value, since perhaps a lot of research must be done so that the information is not erroneous in one or two vignettes,” comments the author of The Silent Wars.
“At no time have I wanted to make a thriller, it is not my genre, but I do like to incorporate elements of enigma and sobriety to hook the reader,” says Martín, accomplice. “It is a story that breaks with social conventions, where women confront the power of the Church.” And the thing is that the trementinaires were in charge of selling oils and ointments, they knew the medicinal properties of the plants and how to neutralize poisons, “that’s why most people didn’t trust them, although they had a very important function within the village.” Although marginalized in their immediate environment, “the relationship was so close and supportive that support networks were even created that went from the Pyrenees to almost Valencia,” concludes Martín, also the author of two autobiographical novels, I will never be 20 years old. and We will always be 20 years old.
