Well, attendance is down, according to first estimates, by 25%, which is normal for an offbeat festival that has suffered the defection of major publishers like Glénat or Urban for example. The advantage is that it allowed for less crowded aisles during visits. If we feel that the Manga City was reduced to acquisitions due to the absence of Japanese guests, efforts had been made by the “mainstream” publishers of the World of Bubbles.
- Photo ; D. Pasamonik (The Comics Agency)
The Grand Prix, granted, as we know, to Julie Doucet, had his ceremony at the theater, national stage, instead of the Alpha where the event usually takes place. This was the occasion for a concert of drawings organized at the opening with the participation of a dozen artists of ten different nationalities and the virtuoso Franco-Ukrainian pianist, Dimitri Naïditch. Is that why the surroundings were overly armored with police? It seems that the prefect of Angoulême believed that her theater would suffer the same fate as that of Mariupol…
- Opening, a concert of drawings by a dozen artists of ten different nationalities with the Franco-Ukrainian solo pianist Dimitri Naïditc.
- Photos: Jérôme Blachon
The Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot, which had snubbed the BD Boum Festival a few months earlier, when it was present at that time in Blois, came to do its rounds at a leisurely pace, neglecting Manga City, when manga represents 55% of the market of comics in France and that he made the success of his Culture Pass. We will forgive an old reader of the Mickey Diary and of Pilot who would have, if we are to believe Free Charente, 1600 comics in its library and which assimilates the President of the Senate, Gerard Larcherto Obelix…
Women creators and Canada in the spotlight
Our Canadian friends were able to roar the Caribou (their local “cocorico”) with their first Grand Prix de la Ville d’Angoulême awarded to Julie Doucet for her entire career, with Mégantic, a train in the night from Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny & Christian Quesnel (Ed. Ecosociété) for the Eco-Fauve Raja, and the Fauve de l’Audace for A Familiar Face from Michael DeForge (Ed. Atrabile), while the helmsman of the Festival de BD du Québec, Thomas Louis Cotereceived from the hands of the Minister of Culture the insignia of Chevalier des Arts et des lettres.
- From Chris Ware to Julie Doucet, the trophy remains in the Americas
- Photo : Jérôme Blachon.
What is striking is the better presence of women in the prize list. In addition to the Grand Prize already mentioned (remember that the three finalists were women, a unique event in the history of the festival), the presence of women authors progresses in the results: 7 out of 18 authors rewarded. In the Off du Off, the “Couilles au cul” Prize for artistic courage was awarded to a Moroccan author, Zainab Fasiki, which we will still hear about. The heroines (remember the famous “Bechdel criterion”) are not left out either. It is a satisfaction.
- Zainab Fasiki receives the “Balls in the ass” Prize in the Off of Off of Angoulême
- Photo: D. Pasamonik (The Comics Agency)
Prizes and sponsors
We really appreciated the short, well-punctuated ceremonies, except when it came to getting the sponsors to talk, sorry the “partners”. But where are they going to find their representatives? Between the SNCF which congratulates its team of comm live (nothing to shake, frankly), Michel Field of France TV which acted as host instead of hosts on the mode Jacques Martin (from TV) with its jury-viewers, to tell us that there was a rugby match on TV at 9 p.m. and that we’d better get out, not without showing erudition by mentioning comics The Rugbymena successful series of which he had forgotten the name of the publisher (Bamboo), and Mrs. Raja, the boss of the French leader in cardboard packaging, who gives us a haunting speech for a quarter of an hour so as not to say the only thing that interested us: damn it, but who replaced the resigning jury of the Prix Éco-Fauve and what was the selection criteria for the four remaining titles out of the initial six?
- The Canadian tandem of Eco-Fauve
- Photo ; D. Pasamonik (The Comics Agency)
Remains this list. Oh, let’s not criticize the selected titles too much: most of them are good choices which were even for some, our favorites, but… no comics, no mangas (except an unfortunate price of translators), no major publishers this year, with the exception of the Fauve des Lycéens in Dargaud, the Series Prize in Dupuis, a heritage in Casterman, and a Youth Prize in Glénat out of 83 nominations… awards that stand of the trinket. Delcourt absent, he who has long occupied the prize list, and Futuropolis, and Gallimard, and Rue de Sèvres who leave empty-handed… The Indie option has long been that of the Festival, but there, it seems to have become more radical. Le Figaro speaks of an “elitist track record” (Le Figaro !).
The comic strip, the famous “comic strip” of yesteryear and formerly is dead, one could conclude: long live THE comic strips!
As a result, Le Festival du Livre, the event of the Syndicat National de l’Edition which replaces Livre-Paris after the rupture between SNE and its operator Reed, which is to take place at the Palais Éphémère of the Grand Palais from April 22 to 24, 2022, leaves no room on its side for alternative labels. Another kind of self….
At Japan Expo, on the contrary, changes are announced to adapt to the new configurations of today’s comics. Always on point, these…
Positivons !
Finally, it seems that this edition has started a wave of Covid in the world of comics: many authors have returned positive from the Angoumoisine team, but also journalists, including in the editorial staff of ActuaBD. com (there were ten of us at the festival).
Nothing serious so far, symptoms close to the common cold. But here is a first concrete effect of the danger of inter-self…
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