Oni Press has announced a new miniseries that blends Latinx culture with the world of magic. Season of the Bruja is a five-issue series written by Aaron Durán, with art and colors by Sara Soler, and lettering by AndWorld Design’s Jaime Martinez. The series follows a young magic user as she comes into her abilities and faces reemergent threats from the past.
Here’s how Oni Press describes Season of the Bruja:
Althalia Cabrera might seem like any other witchy Portland hipster whiling away her days behind the counter of a freaky occult museum, but there’s more to her whole deal than a trendy pursuit of the craft. Althalia is a bruja by blood—the youngest in a long line of powerful magic users from a long-ago culture indigenous to Mexico. In her twenty years, Althalia has studied with her loving abuela by her side, supporting and mentoring her use of the family magic, and protecting her from the darkest parts of their practice’s history. But just as Althalia’s inner light and power begin to shine, the darkness of the past finds its way into her world and strikes a tragic blow, testing Althalia in ways she might not be prepared to survive.
Season of the Bruja is the first collaboration and first Oni Press work for both Aaron Durán and Sara Soler. Durán is a writer and podcaster who has previously published a pair of novels, as well as self-published comics including La Brujeria. Soler is best known for writing and illustrating the graphic novel Us, published in Spanish by Astiberri. She has also done work for Dark Horse on the Dr. Horrible: Best Friends Forever one-shot and one volume of the Plants vs. Zombies series.
In a statement announcing the series, both Durán and Soler expressed their enthusiasm about working together and with editor Shawna Gore and the rest of the team at Oni Press:
“Season of the Bruja is an exploration of forgotten culture and heritage I’ve been trying to tell for years,” said Aaron Durán. “Working with Sara has been a dream; her art and energy elevated our comic to levels I would never have imagined, and Shawna [Gore, Oni Press senior editor] does what all great editors do: she found the strongest story within the pages and helped Sara and I bring it to life.”
Sara Soler said, “Season of the Bruja is a story that vindicates culture and diversity, the fighting for one’s own rights and also of learning, forgiveness, and the love that you can find in the family, whether of blood or not. Aaron is an exceptional storyteller, not only because of how he tells the story, but because of the values with which the script has been infused. And […] I couldn’t have asked for a better editor! [Shawna] has fought tooth and nail to carry out this project throughout some of the most difficult years I can remember (Hi there, 2020!) […]. Aaron and Shawna have made Season of the Bruja the kind of project I’ve always wanted to be involved in!”
Check out a preview of interior pages from the first issue of Season of the Bruja below. The debut of the five-issue miniseries is due to arrive in stores on Wednesday, March 16th, 2022.
