Review by Frank Plowright
The first two volumes of Alvar Mayor have been very good, but The Three Deaths of Alvar Mayor raises the quality to excellence. Both writer Carlos Trillo and artist Enrique Breccia now have an absolute certainty what can be done with the 17th century Spaniard wandering South America, or more precisely what can be told around him.
Mayor remains a guide at the right price, definitely a solid friend, a man with a conscience, yet perhaps forever a loner not entirely part of any world. Increasingly, though, he takes the role of leading people toward their fates. Don’t be too concerned as most deserve what they get. The best example of such stories is Mayor helping an old friend of his father’s, a city dignitary having to flee from the man who usurped him. While Mayor believes him a victim of bad luck, Don Fernandalvarez remembers the life he’s had, revealing his appalling abuse of power.
Prophecy, belief and superstition are frequent pegs around which stories are hung, the two part title story being a fine example. Trillo visited similar territory in The Ominous Wind, but this is a far more accomplished version as an old woman cackles at Mayor’s possible fates. She knows enough of his past to drop the right names, but how genuine is she?
Breccia contributes greatly to the success by having the woman all-but covered in darkness as she addresses Mayor from the shadows, only the outline of her head, long nose and a mouth with a single tooth visible. Breccia is now accentuating his contrasts reflecting Mayor’s character via a stark black and white world. Unusually, though, he emphasises the light as much as the dark, his large areas of white space both brave and striking, with the cover an example. It’s now a rare panel where someone is fully seen, applying equally to Mayor, although in close-up Breccia designs consistently remarkable faces. Mayor’s gaunt features are now second nature, but it’s a rare man whose features are anything other than lived-in, while almost every woman is a beauty.
For all the spiritual tone, Trillo’s not above introducing farcical elements, an early example here being Mayor and colleagues having to dress as travelling performers. These, though, are far outweighed by tragic stories, the most tragic of all being the man who’s dragged his wife’s body in a coffin for twenty years in search of a mystical river that will return her to life.
It’s not just because they’re set in the past that these stories from 1979 to 1981 are timeless. They’re astoundingly drawn, make universal comments on human nature and never outstay their welcome. The reprints conclude with The Gold of Peru.
As with earlier editions, this isn’t available via the largest online booksellers, but seeing as Stuart Ng Books has gone to the trouble of stocking it, why not try there?
