Tales of murder, casual violence and infanticide that Hongkongers love

There is, apparently, something quite dark in the humorous tastes of Hongkongers.

“Most of my followers on Facebook are from Brazil and Hong Kong,” says Spanish cartoonist and illustrator Joan Cornellà – who has more than three million followers, and whose work is very dark indeed.

The Barcelona-based artist, full name Joan Cornellà Vázquez, mostly draws six-panel cartoons, devoid of text, that feature the very blackest of humour. Often shocking beyond belief, they tackle every possible taboo subject, including murder, casual violence, bestiality, infanticide and racism, as well as featuring plentiful body parts in the wrong places.

Cornellà sets up a brilliantly awkward tension between form and content, with his disquieting themes rendered using brightly coloured, simply drawn, ever-smiling, childlike people: cartoon emblems of empty cheeriness, like 1950s US advertising or airline safety cards.

You’re led to expect the usual redemptive narrative, only for the whole thing to get turned on its head in a way that is simultaneously quite upsetting and deeply hilarious.

His characters look blandly happy about things that should definitely not induce that response – physical violence towards the vulnerable is a favourite. Adding to the unsettling effect, it isn’t always possible to work out what’s happening at first glance.