SYNOPSIS

The first of the four stories, VINUH-MAGHOB, drawn by Miguel Cáceres, takes place in the highest of the planes of creation, the celestial realms. In a half-built world where the Music Makers seem to have taken a break, different races of celestial creatures face a grave threat: the advance of the Mirritel, an invincible horde of warriors whose leader, the enigmatic and unknown Lilith, is said to be fusing races to create a new and powerful celestial being capable of competing with the creators themselves. In this wild environment, the unnamed protagonist of this story will plot a betrayal with which he will seek the protection of his people, the winged ones, once powerful but now excessively courtly and diplomatic. This story connects directly with the second story: Ixion's escape, through an epilogue of barely two pages.

For the second of the four stories, THE FLIGHT OF IXION, we will enter another of the three planes of creation: hell. The main character, Ixion, will be recognized from the beginning as the nameless protagonist of the first story, even though his physical appearance is not the same. He wakes up in a hostile and unknown environment, in the hells where the condemned are sent to purge their sins during life. His obsession throughout the story will be to achieve something that no one has ever achieved: escape from the Jailer who rules the underworld, and from the sentence that has been established for him. To do so, he will have to open a series of doors, which will take him on a crazy journey in which he will travel through twelve different hells, pursued at all times by his implacable demon captor. For this comic we had the graphic vision of the magnificent Doctor Zonum, an illustrator whose overflowing imagination and style fit like a glove with the morbid and surreal canvases that we wanted to achieve. Although this story does not have, apparently, an easy connection to the first one (except for the main character), this will be of vital importance in the course of the last story, and therefore of the conclusion of the volume. As a wink for the most astute reader, in some vignettes a character of no apparent importance will appear, another demon from hell, who will be none other than the protagonist of the third of the stories, at a time prior to this one. This is Lucifer himself, who is already plotting an effective plan to achieve his purpose with the help of Ixion the traitor, the door opener.

The third story is titled JALDABAOTH, and it is here that the first clues to the cohesion of the novel begin to emerge. Drawn again by Miguel Cáceres, the action takes place on the third of the created planes: the land of men, the forbidden place for both celestials and demons. After Lilith has unified the races beyond the clouds to create her super race of cherubs, the Music Creators glimpse the threat looming over the earth and begin a systematic purge of the kingdom of heaven. Jaldabaoth, an imposing seraph warrior, is sent to the lower plane to finish off those celestials fallen in combat and thus protect the entrance to hell, a place populated by creatures whose control could destabilize the conflict.

Jaldabaoth is aided by one of his offspring, Luc (short for Lucifer), a boy far more astute than his previous servants who soon reveals that he is more than just a child, and that Lilith is far from defeated.

In the fourth story, entitled THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BELIAL, everything is narrated, from the beginning of time, through a codex written by the fallen cherub, Belial. The narrative technique used imitates the classic biblical style, with chapters and verses, and each page is accompanied by a full-page illustration by Miguel Cáceres that emulates a drawing style similar to medieval codices such as Beatus of Liébana.

Apart from filling in the gaps left by the three previous stories, The Gospel According to Belial will continue with the events that occurred in Ixion and Jaldabaoth until leading to Lucifer's final conquest of Hell, all narrated in a beautiful way, because a prophet professes love, and only beautiful texts can be born from love.

Ultimately, The Black Gospel takes a very original approach to a familiar concept, and aims to offer a fresh perspective in both style and form, with a broken narrative in which the reader will have to put the pieces together for themselves before facing the final revelation. However, each of the four stories works well independently, as if they were biblical stories.