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When somebody coined the phrase "whatever you do, don't forget a smile," they didn't anticipate that Joan Cornella would take this idea and take it to the unholy extremes of dark comedy. But perhaps it's for the best, since those smiles are the only thing that cushion our minds from the brutality of the images he portrays; a smile lets us feel safe while we watch the horrifically graphic scenes of his illustrations unfold. It's the only thing that reminds us that none of it is real, and despite the all-too-real sinister undertones and commentary, his style finds home in the realm of the surreal. But you probably need no description or introduction of his works; the chances are, you've probably seen them on Facebook or Instagram before. With a combined 7 million followers on social media platforms, his works are distributed far and wide by dark humor lovers. Enjoy, or don't!

More info: Instagram | Facebook | joancornella.net | twitter.com | youtube.com

The artist is very hard to catch, but thanks to him being one of the most famous comic artists out there, there are lots of little nuggets of knowledge about him that can be found all across the internet. Turns out the Spanish-born artist lives in Hong Kong now. At the height of the pandemic, he didn't experience any differences in his way of living because there was nothing left for him to do but to obsess over his work in New York, which, he admitted, was no different to his usual routine.

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Meet The Black And Acid Humor Of Spanish Cartoonist Joan Cornellà

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PenitentEyeball
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2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And you’ve NOT done this before to see what it would look like on yourself?

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Looking at these illustrations, you might easily assume that Joan Cornella is one twisted, mentally disturbed person, and that he should probably seek help, but you couldn't be more wrong in this regard. In fact, he's very lucid about his works, and is very sensitive when somebody can't differentiate between fiction and reality, as well as the art and the artist. He doesn't consider himself to be a cynical person in the popular sense of the word, which is that a person lacks any sort of trust towards humanity and acts on self-interest. However, he's greatly interested in cynicism, which is a philosophical school of thought that originated from the pupils of Socrates.

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It may come as no surprise that Joan Cornella actively speaks out against limiting people's freedom of expression. And even though he "should've been canceled by now," as one Vice article said, he strangely hasn't, and his active stance towards censorship might've helped him stay that way. Despite avoiding getting cancelled altogether, he's no stranger to frequent bans from Instagram and other social media platforms, and by this point, he has lost count of the times his images got suspended. Joan is, or at least was, often confused by these measures from social media platforms, since he clearly sees them as works of fiction, while some take the irony quite literally, get offended, and ask for censorship.

It's been very interesting to learn about Joan Cornella's influences in one of his many interviews. His vintage-esque style was inspired by old graphics through the works of Crumb, Clowes or Michael Kupperman, as well as Pettibon, Michael Ray Charles and Barbara Kruger, who all indirectly introduced him to the aesthetic he developed later on. Joan loves the naivete of the old advertisements, where there's lots of fake smiles. He once said that his own "smiling face" wasn't borrowed from just one source of inspiration, but is more of a mix of many faces, like the ones from Aphex Twin albums, Goya's characters, or "a random real-world guy who pretends his life is OK but is selling [lousy] banking products."

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Meet The Black And Acid Humor Of Spanish Cartoonist Joan Cornellà

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Bacony Cakes
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

*proceeds to dump a million barrels of cocaine into the gulf of mexico out of my solid gold storage yacht full of hookers*

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Meet The Black And Acid Humor Of Spanish Cartoonist Joan Cornellà

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BetweenTheCracks
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Career politicians, influencers, finance majors...........................

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Meet The Black And Acid Humor Of Spanish Cartoonist Joan Cornellà

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Richard Claessens
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We all do because when you die and go on to the next life... you take nothing with you except maybe other people.... That's why it's important to show them the way

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Meet The Black And Acid Humor Of Spanish Cartoonist Joan Cornellà

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ggus44
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"Don't kid yourself Jimmy, if a cow ever got the chance he'd eat you and everyone you cared about!"

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Meet The Black And Acid Humor Of Spanish Cartoonist Joan Cornellà

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Chloe *Leah* Pheonix
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I know that I'm gonna get downvoted for this but the priests smile makes this even more hilarious

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Meet The Black And Acid Humor Of Spanish Cartoonist Joan Cornellà

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Chloe *Leah* Pheonix
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Is that.... pepto bismol? I know I'm gonna get downvoted to hell for this but seriously

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Meet The Black And Acid Humor Of Spanish Cartoonist Joan Cornellà

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Dark Pearl
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I did actually read a story about a nurse who worked on a cholera ward during the 20th century (I think it was then) and she sat down to have a cup of tea, but ended up drinking a potty-full of cholera... yeah

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