[Meeting…] Ezra Winston

In this section we have seen several examples of immortal characters. The first one we talked about was Vandal Savage, that caveman who, after achieving immortality, pulled the threads of a story written under his own handwriting. On the contrary, Gilgamesh the Immortal, the former monarch of Uruk, ended up so fed up with a humanity condemned to repeat the same mistakes that it consumed his spirit until he became a gloomy and apathetic being. Today's article will discuss the series Mort Cinder, whose protagonist is also immortal, but not exactly in the same way as the previous two. Technically he is capable of dying (at least, as far as is known, by caused death), so the secret of his "immortality" lies in the fact that each death will be followed by a resurrection. However, it will not be about him that I speak, but about the one who witnessed his fate without intending to, as if following a previously planned destiny. A man of flesh and blood, mortal and quite advanced in years, too. Today I will present, therefore, Ezra Winston, co-star of the Oesterheld and Breccia series,

The Chelsea Antique Shop

Ezra Winston is a old antique dealer who ran a small antique shop in the London neighborhood of Chelsea that has been passed down within your family over generations. Its appearance does not attract attention at all. On the contrary, it is that of an old scholar of that time, with bulky glasses, a simple suit, vest and tie and with the alopecia typical of age. A discretion that is enhanced by his introverted attitude and shy appearance. This man spends the day surrounded by old junk, with human treatment reduced to buying and selling antiques, in which he usually makes a profit. always bidding below its real value. His main occupation lies in collect, analyze and catalog each of these objects, which is why he has acquired a notable knowledge of their typology (he goes so far as to say that, figuratively, he maintains a kind of dialogue with them), as well as a certain fluency in reading ancient writing systems, particularly Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The elderly character would soon end up being the one who met the millennial Mort Cinder, the latter becoming the center of attention. Nevertheless,  makes his first appearance in the comic Ezra Winston, the antiquarian, and therefore, it is precursor to the Mort Cinder series as such. On that occasion he already had to deal with a series of inexplicable phenomena when a series of items from ancient Egypt came into his hands, among which was a mirror that belonged to the wife of an ancient Egyptian scribe and the scarab figure.

The One Who Met Mort Cinder

Despite this paranormal background, the truly strange events would begin for our antique dealer in the first installment of the series, Lead Eyes. It all started like so many other days, when "Skeleton", one of their main suppliers, showed up at their business with a merchandise wrapped in newspaper. This had been preceded by an apparently trivial event unrelated to it, the stopping of the hands of the old Louis VI clock at half past nine. The page of the newspaper that served as a wrapper seemed like another equally fortuitous detail, a news from last week about the hanging of a murderer named Mort Cinder (“coincidentally”, it was also among the junk in the antique store). The mysterious artifact in the shape of a spider filled him with strangeness and repulsion, as if it did not come from this world, despite which he accepted it. His rejection only increased when he saw that, after holding him for a moment, It had left an indelible mark on the palm of his hand.. After trying to erase it in vain, he decided to go to a doctor in Mertonville, but not before receiving a visit from three mysterious characters dressed in black who moved in unison (“as if united by an invisible thread,” Ezra observed), and with disturbing leaden eyes, whom he sent away with a lie after being questioned about the “Skeleton.”

His journey to the doctor's office was a chain of surreal but interrelated events: la presencia de idénticas marcas de la araña en distintas personas con las que se topó, la misma noticia de la ejecución de Mort Cinder (esta vez reparó que sucedió en Mertonville, el mismo lugar al que se dirigía) las manecillas del reloj deteniéndose una vez más en las nueve y media y un nuevo encuentro con los “Ojos de Plomo”, quienes en esta ocasión trataron de acuchillarle. El confundido anticuario emprendió una huida que le terminó llevando al cementerio en el cual fue enterrado el supuesto asesino de la noticia. Fue en ese momento en el que comprendió que había acudido a una cita concertada por una extraña fuerza que no alcanzaba a comprender, y que ésta tendría lugar en el cementerio de Mertonville a las nueve y media de la noche. Súbitamente, entraron en el recinto los “Ojos de Plomo”, quienes se dispusieron a clavar una estaca de hierro en el ataúd de un cadáver exhumado. Movido por un impulso irracional, Ezra decidió actuar para evitarlo…

Este fue el accidentado encuentro entre Ezra Winston y Mort Cinder y el inicio de una serie de aventuras en las que el primero hará casi de comparsa, ya sea a causa de las limitaciones físicas propias de su edad (aunque lo que le falta en fortaleza física le sobra en fuerza de voluntad y entrega por ayudar a su amigo) o por quedar reducido al papel de oyente de sus antiquísimas vivencias (se retrotraen hasta la construcción de la Torre de Babel), habitualmente a cuento de algún artefacto de su colección que encierra una historia más apasionante de la que pueda parecer tras el desgaste del paso de los siglos y los milenios. Se pasará así del mencionado diálogo metafórico con objetos mudos e inertes al literal con toda una reliquia humana. Vamos, el sueño de todo arqueólogo y anticuario.

Conclusion and recommendations

Ezra Winston es un anciano anticuario bastante corriente. Habitualmente absorto en las antigüedades que acopia en su negocio, jamás sospechará que el destino le reserva encontrarse con una reliquia viva capaz de evocar el pasado de forma incomparablemente más vívida que todos sus artefactos juntos. Además de catalizador de la historia, es interesante por lo lejos que está de la naturaleza juvenil de tantos otros personajes principales.

Las distintas entregas de la serieMort Cinder, más la historietaEzra Winston, the antiquarian, han sido publicadas en la revista Misterix y recopiladas en distintas ediciones y editoriales, tanto en Argentina y Latinoamérica como e España y en uno o más tomos que actualmente están descatalogados, pero que se pueden adquirir de segunda mano.