August 2022. There is a portugueses popular saying that goes like this: “Who cares about the grandchildren plants a cork oak tree.”

Histórias à sombra do Montado is a personal project that aims to combine 2 passions of mine: The Souther Portuguese Alentejo region and all its environmental, human and social capital, and comics.

Characterized by forests of cork oaks or holm oaks arranged on rolling plains, the Montado is today the landscape that symbolizes the Alentejo, marking culture, work cycles, and the local economy.
It is one of the richest ecosystems in the world and Portugal has the largest area in the world (it concentrates 34% of the world's area, with a total of 736 thousand hectares, corresponding to 23% of the national forest).

Despite the Portuguese Parliament having recognized the cork oak as a national tree in 2011, being a protected species since 2001, and being shortly to be considered cultural landscape of humanity by UNESCO, the cork oak forest is currently in decline.

In this way, we wanted to build a project that pays a well-deserved tribute to the cork oak and the cork oak forest, strengthening feelings of identity and belonging that cross multiple generations and, at the same time, may contribute to disseminate a set of good practices for the preservation of the cork oak forest that can be implemented by everyone.

It is materialized in the publication of 4 comic stories, in which the cork oak is always present, directly or indirectly, to be distributed throughout the municipality of Odemira.

More about the project here: www.historiasasombradomontado.pt

Awards/Nominations:
Nominated for best independent comic in Festival BD Amadora (International Comics Festival)

Founders: Hugo Tornelo, Rita Gonzalez
Creative Director: Hugo Tornelo
Writers: Luís Afonso, Afonso Cruz, Ana Bárbara Pedrosa, Ana Margarida de Carvalho
Illustrators: Joana Afonso, Marta Teives, João Maio Pinto, Nuno Saraiva
Editorial Design: Rui Santos
Production Shop: Javalimagico