Ibrahim Moustafa responds to LA MANCHA plagiarism allegations

Following its announcement last week, Mad Cave’s upcoming horror series La Mancha became the subject of plagiarism allegations, after Spanish creators El Torres and Jorge Esteban Urabayen stated they had pitched the company a similar comic. La Mancha is a dark spin on Don Quixote by writer Christopher Sebela and artist Ibrahim Moustafa, that reimagines the wannabe knight as a rampaging murderer, and Torres and Urabayen’s eventual book, Killjote: El sanguinario hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, has a similarly bloodthirsty take on the character.

Spanish newspaper La Opinión de Málaga reports Torres stated on social media that he pitched his comic to Mad Cave in 2024, and had decided against pursuing legal action, believing it was untenable. Artist David Rubin (Ether) also claimed on Instagram that Mad Cave had ghosted Torres after he pitched the comic, and called on readers to purchase Killjote instead of La Mancha.

It should be noted this is not the first time Torres has implied or voiced suspicion a project from another country was plagiarized from his work: In 2016, he stated he believed the Blumhouse horror film The Veil had stolen from his comic of the same name, but similarly felt powerless to pursue a lawsuit in the United States.

Mad Cave did not respond to a request for comment, but Moustafa released a statement on Instagram, saying that while he doesn’t know what went down between the publisher and Killjote‘s creators, he believes Sebela came up with their pitch independently after being approached to do a Quixote comic by Mad Cave, and that any similarities are coincidental.

Torres and Urabayen both replied to Moustafa saying they understood, and did not mean to cause any harassment. The former wrote, “Since my first post, I emphasized that it was about how I’m feeling, and that the artists nor the publisher involved should[n’t] be harassed. And many people understood that, and many people just wanted to throw gasoline to a fire. I sincerely apologize for the shitstorm that shouldn’t have reached you.”

The writer has posted that he does not feel boycotting the creative team and publisher are appropriate for the situation, and that he believes Mad Cave stopped responding to him because it fired the editor he was working with. He adds the comic he pitched also involved Quixote fighting vampires, whereas La Mancha casts him as the main villain.

Killjote is set to be released by Tomos y Grapas in Spain in November. La Mancha #1 will be released by Mad Cave on December 16.