From heaven to hell with Henfil’s Fradinhos: a multimodal social semiotics analysis

Abstract

Henfil was an artist focused on the criticism of customs, opposed to common sense and moralism. This article presents a set of drawings published by Henfil in the Brazilian weekly newspaper O Pasquim, between February and April 1970, where the cartoonist created a series of comics with the characters Fradinhos, experiencing an afterlife, from Heaven to Hell. Henfil’s drawings, characterized by quick strokes, simple scenarios and sensitive lines, seek to expose the artist's political-militant yearnings in a period (1970s) when there was a fever for Brazilian comics, subverting the graphic narratives of traditional comics from the United States. Henfil didn’t make sad drawings, but aggressive ones, which portrayed the reality (perhaps even more aggressive) experienced by the cartoonist and other Brazilians during the military dictatorship (1964 - 1985). In deeper layers of multimodal social semiotics analysis, the hope contained in the plots is perceptible, beyond the grotesque. Henfil believed in a changing society, where the oppressed could have revenge on their oppressor. The objective of this work is to provide a rescue of Henfil's work, as well as a multimodal social semiotics analysis of the cartoons - and their grotesque elements - by producing an imaginary about the Catholicism.