This Friday January 29 was held, without an audience, the awards ceremony of the Angoulême comic book festival. Health crisis requires, it was therefore live that it was broadcast from the Angoulême theater. The Fauve d’Or for best album was awarded to The hunting accident by David L. Carson and Landis Blair.
For the first time since its creation, the Angoulême festival, with public, meetings and exhibitions, should be held this year in June (in any case, if sanitary conditions allow it, fingers crossed). But the flagship comic book event did not want to postpone its traditional award ceremony which just took place this Friday, January 29, live from the Angoulême theater. It operates in a complicated context with a growing market (+ 9% in the number of sales with 53 million copies purchased in France according to a study by GFK) but a pauperization of authors and a social situation that has become very tense. Last year, while taking the stage to receive the Goscinny Prize, Fabien Vehlmann and Gwen de Bonneval, took the opportunity to invite a hundred colleagues to join them and wave a blank sheet of paper in protest, launching the protest movement We will no longer go to Angoulême. This year, the Autrices Auteurs en Action collective puts even more pressure on the power in place by massively calling for a boycott of the festival which will take place in June (we will come back to this).
Appointed as master of ceremonies in order to brighten up the gloomy general atmosphere, actor and humorist Thomas VDB also opened hostilities from the outset by declaring: “2020 was supposed to be the year of comics, we didn’t notice too much”… Conceived in the form of a talkshow, this awards ceremony had above all the merit of summing up 2020 – a very good year for creation – in fifteen awards forming a coherent whole. Chaired by the screenwriter and writer Benoît Peeters, also a comic book historian, the grand jury which included both the designer Anouk Ricard and the singer Albin de la Simone, chose like the previous ones, to honor singular books more than commercial successes, showing how much, beyond the top sales, comics remains a lively and exciting medium. The symbol of the line followed, both demanding and open, can be found in the desire to honor the Quebec author Michel Rabagliati for his series. Paul on the occasion of the publication of the dark and beautiful Paul at home. “Sublime”, even said about it the writer Virginie Despentes in the issue of Inrockuptible with Luz as editor, adding: “Normally I shouldn’t give a damn about this man’s problems but I’m passionate about it!”.
>> To read also: The 25 comics that marked the year
A quality and legitimate track record
The Fauve d’Or, the most popular award and which can (re) launch a commercial career, goes to an outsider, The hunting accident by the Americans David L. Carson and Landis Blair. Published by Editions Sonatine, a neophyte house in the field of comics, this graphic novel with the allure of a beautiful black paving stone, hailed in Les Inrockuptibles like one of the events of the literary season, mixes graphic flashes and a fascinating story – that of Matt Rizzo, telling his son how a stay in prison and the discovery of Hell of Dante transformed it.
We will also salute the special jury prize awarded to the Englishman Steven Appleby (friend of Posy Simmonds) for the amazing Dragman where a man acquires superpowers by disguising himself as a woman. Another pleasing news is the awarding of the revelation prize to French designer Marane Mauzars for her Dance ! under the influence (among others) of Pina Bausch where bodies and colors dance. Two of his compatriots are also entitled to the honors.
Screenwriter Loo Hui Phang receives the Goscinny Prize for her body of work, including the excellent Black-Out drawn by Hughes Micol, biography of a fictional Métis actor trying to get real roles in Hollywood. Apostrophizing the President of the Republic and the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot through a video message, Loo Hui Phan quipped, returning to the distress of authors in France: “Black-Out… I didn’t think this title would illustrate our situation ”. Gabrielle Piquet obtains the “Price of daring” for The mechanics of the sage elegant line and said on stage: “50% of the perpetrators are below the poverty line and I am one of them”. The Belgian Léonie Bischoff receives, for her poetic and sensual Anaïs Nin, on the sea of lies the France Televisions Audience Award following the vote of 13 viewers. This list also realizes a big gap between present and past since The scout, the box containing the stories in prints of the American Lynd Ward dating from the 1930s is rewarded – almost logically. The Hunting Accident and Ward’s avant-garde works are separated by nearly a century but harmoniously find their place in a list which – despite the absence of some of our favorites – is undoubtedly of quality and legitimate.
>> To read also: “Tunnels”: a tragicomic comic strip which digs under the border between Israel and Palestine
The complete list
Fauve d’Or – Best Album Award
The hunting accident (Sonatine)
Landis Blair and David L. Carlson
Translated from the American by Julie Sibony
Fauve d’Angoulême – Special Jury Prize
Dragman (Denoël Graphic)
Steven Appleby
Translated from English by Lili Sztajn
Fauve d’Angoulême – Series Prize
Paul at home (The watermelon)
Michel Rabagliati
Fauve d’Angoulême – Audacity Award
The Mechanics of the Sage (Attractive)
Gabrielle Piquet
Fauve d’Angoulême – Revelation award
Dance ! (The Lombard)
Maurane Mazars
Fauve d’Angoulême – Heritage Prize
The Scout (Mr. Toussaint Louverture)
Lynd Ward
Fauve d’Angoulême – High school student prize
Man skin (Glénat)
Hubert and Zanzim
Fauve d’Angoulême – France Televisions Audience Award
Anaïs Nin, on the sea of lies (Casterman)
Léonie Bischoff
Fauve Polar SNCF
GoSt111 (Glénat)
Mark Eacersall, Henri Scala and Marion Mousse
Fauve d’Angoulême – Youth Prize 12-16 years old
Middlewest / Tome 1 – Anger (Urban Comics)
Skottie Young and Jorge Corona
Translated from the American by Julien Di Giacaomo
Fauve d’Angoulême – Youth Prize 8-12 years old
The Friends Club (2024)
Sophie guerrive
Fauve d’Angoulême – Alternative comic book prize
KUTI, The Thick book of KUTI (Finland)
Goscinny Prize
Loo Hui Phang
Black-out (Futuropolis) with Hugues Micol
Prix Konishi
Miyako Slocombe
For the translation of Tokyo Tarareba Girls by Akiko Higashimura (The Black Lizard)
>> To read also: “Le Long des ruins”, a bluish interior adventure by Jeremy Perrodeau
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