Culto Charles

Culto Charles was first founded in the early 1960s by poet and activist A. S. Brandon, along with twenty friends from Stanford University. From the beginning, the sect was based on the belief that an occult dimension lays in the border between life and death. The chosen few claimed that in the short lapse between a cardiac arrest and brain death there is a “black hole” through which one can slide to an unknown supernatural universe. An ultimate reverie, that they referred to as The Paradise of Charles. In order to enter “The Paradise of Charles”, it was necessary to observe a disciplined training guided by “the cabbies”. It consisted on two stages: In the first stage, “the cabbie” instructed the initiated member about a simple private choreography which led to the the individual construction of an ultimate dream, subsequently recreated by the follower on a strange altar. The second stage, the journey, was performed as a group. “The cabbie” provided a concoction of Actaea pachypoda that immediately caused the heart to stop and, therefore, death. Culto Charles ultimately had over 6,000 followers all over the world, causing 3,327 suicides. Media coverage on these collective suicides led to a strong criminal persecution during the 1960s and 1970s. On their late years, most followers tried to go undercover, encouraging individual and clandestine suicides much more difficult to be linked to the sect. On March 3rd, 1977, A. S. Brandon, his wife and 43 other followers were arrested at an industrial warehouse in the small town of Muskogee, Oklahoma. Only a few months later months later, Brandon committed suicide in prison, leaving a note that read: “We’ll meet again in our dreams”. In the summer of 1981, police issued a press release stating that the sect had been eradicated.

EDITION IN (BROKEN) ENGLISH

Partially uncut book, splined top fold and cut marks

Culto Charles, mención especial en el último premio de novela gráfica FNAC SinsEntido, es la primera monografía de José Ja Ja Ja. A lo largo de sus páginas, vemos desarrollarse el último sueño de distintos adeptos del Culto Charles, una enigmática secta fundada en los años 60 del pasado siglo por el poeta A. S. Brandon. Según Brandon y sus acólitos, en la frontera entre la vida y la muerte, en el intervalo de pocos segundos que transcurre entre la parada del corazón y la muerte cerebral, se abre una vía hacia una dimensión oculta a la que se puede acceder a través de un postrero sueño lúcido. El sueño que conducirá al durmiente-moribundo hasta el Paraíso de Charles. Bebiendo del arte folk tanto como de la danza y la arquitectura, José Ja Ja Ja explora la frontera que separa la ilustración del cómic, elaborando retablos narrativos que remiten a distintas épocas y disciplinas y que requieren de la atención y complicidad del lector para desvelar multitud de significados implícitos ciertamente inquietantes.

Edición de 500 ejemplares, firmados y numerados por el autor en exlibris.

Libro parcialmente intonso, con pliegue superior dentado y marcas de corte