Barcelona

Criselda Yabes
Cover and illustrations by Jerico Marte

Set in 2050, this dystopian illustrated novella follows Barcelona, a woman who leads a gang of orphans from the Drug War in vanishing Manila, a city that is slowly sinking underwater. A young officer from the south, which has separated itself from the rest of the old country, tries to rescue her from doom. A complex history of fates comes in between, as Barcelona must decide whether to join a new world of harmony led by oracle women and sustained by a stable ecosystem with nature. Or is the violence of the past so ingrained in her veins that leaving seems impossible?