Portrait of the comics artist as a failure. Conflicted authorship, metacomic and exercises in style in Kiko da Silva’s El infierno del dibujante

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the authorial projections of the comics artist in Kiko da Silva’s El infierno del dibujante (2015) and argues that da Silva creates a work with conflicted authorship in which he actively engages with metafiction, not only including numerous paratexts in the form of fictional facsimile (images, documents, etc.) that highlight the materiality of comics but also expanding the work through online and public happenings. Da Silva’s graphic novel appropriates various graphic styles and genres to pay tribute to and/or parody real cartoonists that influence the protagonist, a failed author whose life paradoxically becomes the comic he always wanted to write. In portraying a character who is supposedly plagiarised, El infierno del dibujante also provides a reflection on the notion of originality and copy in art, drawing attention to the comics industry and the production, reception and social recognition of comics.