El Mesías

In ‘El Mesías’, Wauter Mannaert and writer Mark Bellido merge two storylines based on actual events. On the one hand, we have El Pocero, a filthy rich estate agent who loses everything overnight when the property market collapses. The other story is that of Marinaleda, a Spanish village organised as a cooperative and led by an extremely left-wing mayor. As a result of the economic crisis in Spain, his village becomes the centre of attention. The bankrupt estate agent ends up in Marinaleda, where he becomes the mayor’s chauffeur. The interaction between these two characters is the axis around which the whole book revolves.

The authors seize their chance to explore what life could be like if the ‘one percent’ were condemned to a passive role in society. As is often the case with utopias, everything does not go as smoothly as the leaders initially promise. Personal ambition, the urge for control, love: these can be an uneasy match with ideology. ‘El Mesías’ tells, in uninked pencil drawings, the tale of people who are searching for something, in a story that actually keeps hope alive.