The extraordinary story of the McCoy sisters, the conjoined twins who triumphed as singers in slave-holding America

The peculiar life of the McCoy sisters, who died in 1912, and the idea of reclaim your philanthropic legacy -after fame, they dedicated themselves to helping the black community- they moved the cartoonist Mart Yuls and the screenwriter Helium Mira to reconstruct the barely known life of these conjoined twins, who never wanted to separate, in the graphic novel The two-headed nightingalerecently published by Dolmen Editorial after two years of work. The comic will be presented on January 26 at Detroit Llibres in Alcoy.

“I proposed the story because I like to collect notes from peculiar livesof people who do unusual things, and I found the Photography of these sisters a long time ago. When Helio asked me to do something together, I proposed this story, which had all the ingredients to be told: two women, black, slaves and born with a malformationwhich finally ends very well, considering how it could have ended badly,” explains Mart Yuls, who adds that after their first years enslaved and commercially exploited, the McCoys also crossed paths with “savior angels along the way” who helped them. in its Free life.

“They triumphed, they achieved greatness and they became upper class women thanks to his singing talent, and that saved them from a miserable life. The nice thing is that then they They used their wealth to help their community that, with the end of slavery, found itself in no man’s land. Although they suffered a lot and always wanted to take advantage of them, instead of generating resentment and hatred, they showed great human quality,” highlights the cartoonist, who believes that, “as Kant says, “Talent and virtue usually go hand in hand.” And this is the case.

The essence of the book is that, the triumph of music over barbarism or monstrosity. “The book does not focus on the topic freak nor in the typical circus story of the Elephant Man. HE breaks the idea of ​​normality and readers discover that monsters It’s not them but the characters that swarm around them,” adds Yuls.

Despite the difficulties of delving into the lives of these artists – surprisingly, not made into a film yet – neither the cartoonist nor the scriptwriter felt attracted to the format of biopic to use,”we move away from the morbid and focus on a more humanistic vision and in his compassionate character. We wanted to make your story known and repair this injustice that they have forgotten”comments the author of the images of The two-headed nightingalewho has not had a hard time diving into the Victorian age from the end of the 19th century.

“I love it, I have always had a weakness for that era, with its buildings and constructions, those costumes… The architecture seems very beautiful to me, every corner told something, I really like that world of Dickens and I think that has a special charmalthough it was a very turbulent but very interesting time for humanity because the modern world advanced and mixed with the blows of the ancient one,” he points out.

They both pose repeat the experience and Back to the past in another graphic novel. But that will be another story.