1885-09-05, Madrid Cómico, Hermenegildo Esteban, Cilla (cropped)

He was born in the Extremaduran city of Cáceres on April 24, 1859. Ramón Cilla was a prolific artist who studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Madrid. One of the pioneers of comic strips in Spain, he published his illustrations in magazines in both Madrid and Barcelona, including Pisto, Gedeón, Silencio, La Semana Cómica, Barcelona Cómica, Madrid Cómico, Blanco y Negro, La Gran Vía, Los Madriles, La Caricatura and El Cencerro. He has been considered "the most successful cartoonist of his time" and "one of the great cartoonists of the end of the century". His best known signature -apart from his surname "Cilla"- was the pseudonym "Chiflatis". Cilla's illustrations in Madrid Cómico were often accompanied by a small satirical text by Sinesio Delgado, with whom Cilla stated in an interview that his life was very closely linked. In his caricatures he used what some have called the "quisquilla" model, a style of which he was one of the pioneers in the country, representing people with a very large head in comparison with the rest of the body. He died in Salamanca in 1937.