Eslabon débil

Graphic novel

Jordi Giol

 MINV 25

Eslabón Débil is a graphic novel that portrays the intimate and social struggle of a woman facing precarity, the passage of time, and the responsibility of holding her family together. The work was created as a final project for a Master’s Degree in Illustration and was awarded the 19º Premio FNAC-Salamandra Graphic, which led to its publication.

Teresa is a woman in her sixties who lives in the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona. Widowed and surviving on a minimal pension, she shares a small apartment with her two adult children in a city hit hard by economic crisis, soaring rents, and a lack of opportunities. Daily life is a constant struggle to stay afloat, marked by the feeling that the margin for error is growing increasingly narrow.

In her youth, Teresa was a promising boxer. However, she gave up the ring to raise her children, sacrificing her career and personal ambitions. Years later, her sporting past feels like a distant memory, buried under decades of work, renunciation, and silence.

Manu, the younger son, works as a boxing trainer in a local gym, but his income is not enough to make ends meet. Financial pressure pushes him into the world of illegal gambling, where he becomes trapped in a spiral of debt and guilt. José, the older son, has been living in Brussels for years. Physical distance has turned into emotional distance as well, leaving the family fractured and marked by a lack of communication.

When Teresa hears about a clandestine boxing tournament with a prize that could change their lives, she makes a desperate decision: to step back into the ring. Despite her age and a body that no longer responds as it once did, she enters the fight in the hope of offering her children a way out.

Beyond the outcome of the tournament, Eslabón Débil is a story about dignity, sacrifice, and the invisible strength of those who support others. A narrative in which the true victory lies not in winning, but in enduring and facing what hurts the most.