The creative team of Season of the Bruja, a new five-issue series that blends Latine culture within a magical world, always wanted to show readers a bruja, not just a witch. The difference might not be as obvious to anyone outside Latine culture, but it comes through on the pages of this new magical adventure that'll entice even casual comic readers. Published by Oni Press, Season of the Bruja #1 follows Althalia Cabrera, a witchy hipster who is the youngest in a long line of powerful magic users dating back to an Indigenous Mexican culture.

In an interview with CBR, Season of the Bruja writer Aaron Durán and artist Sara Soler discussed the inspiration behind the comic. The pair discussed their collaborative process and the power of reclaiming Mexican-American identity through words. Also included with this interview is a preview of Season of the Bruja #1's cover, variant cover, and interior pages.

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Season of the Bruja is specifically about a bruja, not a witch, a difference that might only be obvious to someone who understands the cultural aspects. Did you conceive it that way? Or was that something that happened as you were writing it?

Aaron Durán: Yeah, I've always conceived it as more than that. The stories I grew up with, to me, it was more than just the rough translation. It's always been more someone who passes down stories, has much more ingrained social elements, and, in a way, is also a resistance movement in the [sense that they'll] have to intertwine their traditional beliefs in the system they're allowed to still exist in. That's very much one of the inspirations, and that's why I wanted to call it this, why it was called Season of the Bruja. I stuck with it thinking, "Was it just a Mexican-American witch book?" I'm like, "No, it's more than that." That's what she is. But it's much more than just someone who just cast spells. There's a much deeper cultural impact with that word.

When it comes to the visual aspect, is there an attempt to make the visuals reflect a little bit of this Latinidad?

Sara Soler: Well, for the visual part of the comic, maybe I'm super obvious but I feel like the inspiration was Disney's Coco. If Encanto had been done before, maybe there would be references from that too. I also got references from Mexican fighters. It was really a big work of investigation because I'm not Mexican. I'm not Latina, but I have always loved Mexican culture. In fact, I know that Aaron was a bit concerned at the beginning of the project because I'm from Spain and the priests and the bad guys are from Spain too. I'm totally on the side of the brujas here.

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How was the collaboration between the two? It seems like a complicated thing to put the words and have someone else create images for those words. Is there a back and forth in that regard?

Durán: I can't think of a time that Sarah ever brought us a character design or a visual where we thought, "That's not it." We'd have notes to tweak it or add more details. But her vision was always spot on with whatever I had in my mind, and often, she improved upon it. Almost every time she made what I had in my head look better on the page. I hope I made it easier for Sarah in that department. Whenever I work with an artist, especially if I haven't met them before, one of the first things I like to do is ask, "How much description do you like? Do you want me to give you, like a full: these are her actual physical traits? Would you rather have: this is her emotional character?" I think we did a combo of both a little bit. We said, "Look, she's not very tall, and she's built this way." So, from there, Sarah just created these wonderful characters that we get to play with.

Soler: I'm so glad that you and Oni Press give me a lot of freedom for the designs because when the descriptions are super specific, I'm like there's nothing to do here. It's already done. Every time I came with a design or a character or whatever, you loved it. It's so nice. I feel like I am part of this comic like a creator too.

Durán: I think a lot of times the visual style that Sarah helped develop happened also really informally. She would be working on a character design, and I'd be on Instagram Stories, and the algorithm would just show me some piece of like the Aztec culture they've discovered. Or I just find a random video about the importance of certain flowers, and I would just send it to her like, "Isn't this neat, Sarah?" She'd reply, "Yeah." All of a sudden, the next few sketches I'm seeing part of that being worked in. So, I think a lot of the visual style of Season of Bruja came from just Sarah, and just nerding out over stuff and sharing things back and forth.

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There was a bit of magical realism in this. Was that something you decided to do or was that sort of a happy accident?

Durán: I had intentionally set out to try to avoid a lot of magical realism. Not because I don't love it, I adore it. But I think when I first started plotting the story out, I was in this headspace of… Mexican-Americans or Mexicans, we're the magical realism folks. Like a third of the panels I get invited on at literary shows or comic shows involve magical realism. I'm like, "We do more than that." But then it wound up happening, so clearly it is ingrained. I did not set out to do it. But I guess if I'm doing a comic book about a Mexican American bruja, it might be a little disingenuous to say I'm trying to avoid magical realism. It's going to happen. But it was unintentional. It just worked its way in.

Season of the Bruja also brings in some of the Indigenous culture elements that sometimes get left behind when talking about the specific boxes we are put in. How was working that in?

Durán: Yeah, that very much is intentional. Part of it is me trying to discover my own roots and part being the generation I am as a Mexican-American. I'm of that generation that is now trying to reconnect. Like, I'm not the direct child of an immigrant. I'm second and third generation. I feel like our parents were the ones that assimilated so hard that it cut their kids off from what they remember growing up. So, this book is also very much me doing that research for myself and the character. That's one of the things I hope really comes through on the book because it's not a 100% Mexican folklore and folk story. I'm trying to create a distinct Mexican-American experience, which is its own experience. Hopefully, hopefully, we're getting there.

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Do you have a favorite moment? Do you have a favorite panel?

Soler: I have a favorite page, but I think it’s a big spoiler as it's one of the final pages. But from the first issue, I love the page when our bruja takes on the demon and it's like ultra-possessed and floating around the kitchen. I love this part. It's so badass.

Durán: I think, for me, there's a panel in the middle of the book where our bruja is upset that her Abuela wants to go to the History Museum to see all of these Aztec and Mesoamerican artifacts and art and jewelry that was essentially stolen. Her Abuela just wants to see the beauty and kind of connect with the old cultures. Althalia is very much angry. She's like, "Those aren't artifacts, they're spoils of conquest. We shouldn't celebrate them." Isadora grabs her by the chin and looks in the mirror and says, "But look, we're still here. They didn't take us away."

The first issue of Season of the Bruja will be available Tuesday, March 29.

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