Translated from the hands of Cédric Mayen and Jandro González One of the great mysteries of the 20th century, The Mystery of the Dyatlov Pass, has been translated into comics by Norma Editorial.
Norma Editorial brings us to The Dyatlov Mystery, the story of one of the greatest mysteries of the last century, one of those stories that love the supernatural and conspiracy theories. Crossing the Urals in February is not a challenge for everyone, so it’s time to dress warmly.
The inexplicable nature of the Dyatlov passing event
We must begin by clarifying that this comedy is nothing more or less than a reconstruction of the inexplicable event of the late 1950s when a group of mountaineers mysteriously disappeared in an area known as the Dyatlov Pass in the Urals. Mountains named in honor of the leader of this group, Igor Dyatlov.
Two weeks later, with no sign of life, the Russian army went into action and ended up finding the bodies of these students far from the camp where their tents had collapsed. The way the bodies were found and the circumstances of their death do not match the expectations of mountain climbing, which has led to many speculations over the years.
Obviously, this situation makes those who love the Yeti legend question its involvement in the deaths of the mountaineers, but there is also room to speculate about alien intervention. And given the high levels of radiation found in some of the corpses, theories involving KGB agents or secret military experiments must be added.
Fix the secret
This situation is both the best and the worst of this job. On the one hand, it is clear that the research work done by the authors in order to complete this story as faithfully as possible, avoids the temptation to reflect and promote only what is proven to be true. Their own hypotheses about what happened.
But at the same time, the reader may miss, once the end of the work is completed, some guess about what happened. The official version indicating the cause of the incident as skiing is not correct, or at least it is clearly explained that there is information about what the Russian government is trying to hide for unknown reasons, but this may not be enough for the most solution-minded reader.
This is a brave and admirable choice the authors have made here. And to soften the anti-climactic effect of the conclusion, a complete dossier is included at the end, from popular conspiracy theories to others that have high scientific strength but cannot escape a certain degree of speculation. Either way, once the comic is over, it’s very satisfying to read this final installment, whether or not you already knew the incident.
Cool colors
Cedric Mayan’s plot is set in two different timelines: on the one hand, we start the journey in the last days until the death toll begins, and on the other hand, we follow the former police officer Lev Ivanov in the investigation. Full of official restrictions.
Color is one of the most prominent aspects of this work as it sets the scene and separates it by a few weeks, serving as a narrative to bridge the gap between the two periods. While the cold colors are used to follow Ivanov in his investigations, the tragic story of the journey is experienced in sepia tones.
But Jandro Gonzalez’s writing is also worth mentioning, especially when it comes to describing mountain landscapes and humanizing the main characters that the reader must relate to.
This edition by Norma Editorial is a 22 x 31 cm hardback edition without a dust jacket. And the translation of the first edition of Le mystere du col Dyatlov, as well as the last part, contains an extensive dossier on the event told in the comic, filled with illustrations and pictorial proposals. The volume contains 108 color pages. It has a recommended retail price of €28 and goes on sale in February 2024.
The secret of Dyatlov’s pass
A fascinating reconstruction of the most shocking unexplained event of the 20th century
In the year On the night of February 1, 1959, nine members of a mountain expedition mysteriously disappeared in the heart of the Urals in the Dyatlov Pass. They were found a month later, but they were all dead and in various stages of decomposition. The investigation, heavily hampered by the KGB, has yielded no results and the mystery continues. What happened that night?
Screenwriter Cedric Mayen and artist Jandro Gonzalez (Barcelona Vampire, Red Shadow) reconstruct the events of this authentic Soviet “X-Files” based on the instructions given by the prosecutor Lev Nikitich Ivanov.
Authors: Cedric Mayen and Jandro Gonzalez