Photo by Sophia Evans
Edo Brenes, the cartoonist behind “Puerto Langosta,” the monthly comic strip “Collage Sandwich” and “Blackberry Cheers” has won the Observer/Cape/Comica Award graphic short story prize for his self-contained comic strip “Memories of Limón.”
Brenes won the award in its 12th year for his quietly charming memoir about the lives of his grandparents. The comic is set across two time periods, with a journalist in the present quizzing an elderly Costa Rican couple on their time in Limón; leading to their recollections of the mundane experiences of 1940s Costa Rica in a story that quickly unravels itself to reveal an allegory for their own relationship.
“The interviewer in the story is really me, and though the couple are not exactly my grandparents, I did hear stories from them about Costa Rica in the 1940s that were just like these,” said Brenes. “It’s so exciting. I rarely enter competitions. But this one seemed like a great opportunity, and I already had the storyline in my head. It was only after I’d finished and sent it in that I discovered who’d won it in the past. I’m amazed to be in their company.”
Brenes pencilled, inked and colored the comic on his own, saying “I chose pastels here, so it wouldn’t feel too modern. It took me a long time to get the time shifts right, so it was important that the color felt right, too. It’s a very simple, quiet story. This is how people talk – or at least, people who do not want to overcomplicate their lives.”
2nd place was a split tie between Jessika Green’s “Four Hands,” and Fred Morris and Dominic Linton’s “The Devil’s Deal.” You can read “Memories of Limon” here, “Four Hands” here and “The Devil’s Deal” here.
