Featuring the English Language Debut of Dazzling Spanish Cartoonist Anabel Colazo
Oni Press, the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 199, is thrilled to present the next stunning addition to its slate of 2025 graphic novel releases with ESPADA: THE WILL OF THE BLADE– the first English translation of the sensational graphic novel by Spanish cartoonist Anabel Colazo.
From writer/illustrator Anabel Colazo (No Mires Atrás, Encuentros Cercanos) comes a tale of a young princess and her quest to carve out her own destiny amid a lineage of power.
There was a time when everyone had access to magic, until a dispute for power attracted a demon from another world who destroyed everything . . . or so legend has it. However, there is another very different apocryphal version, according to which a hero, carrying a sword, came to the Kingdom to guide and protect its people. But who was that hero, and what became of him? Why is the queen now the only person capable of using magic? Attracted by all these enigmas of the past, Ania, princess of the Kingdom and heir to the throne by imposition, will try to find out the truth of these magical fables—now that she has just found a mysterious sword.
“Espada started as many fantasy stories, with a chosen hero that was bound to fulfill their duty… but never did,” said writer and illustrator Anabel Colazo. “Our main character just happens to be in the right place to take her chance and complete the quest that the hero left undone. Through the eyes of this character I wanted to explore the many ways in which power affects people, and the possible outcomes that come with those who embrace it. I really like playing video games, where exploring worlds feels like everything is a piece of a bigger picture in the story that’s being told, so I tried to bring a pinch of this feeling to Espada as well.”
ESPADA will be enchanting comic shops and bookstores everywhere in May 2025!
About the Creator
Anabel Colazo was born in Ibiza in 1993, studied fine arts in Valencia, and currently resides in A Coruña. She was one of the minds behind the fanzine Nimio, and has collaborated on others such as Paranoidland (both winners of the best fanzine award at the Barcelona Comic Fair). She also appeared in the collective anthology Teen Wolf (Fosfatina, 2016). She debuted in comics in 2015 with The Impossible Crystal (DeHavilland), and in 2017, she released her first full-length work, Close Encounters, which was followed by Don’t Look Back (2019) and Espada (2022), to great public reception—and criticism. Ediciones La Cúpula has published both titles in Spain, and they have subsequently been translated into French and German