Eight events not to be missed in the program of the Angoulême International Comics Festival 2022

From cancellations to postponements due to the health crisis, the Angoulême international comic book festival will this time take place from March 17 to 20, 2022. The presence of the immense Chris Ware, a women’s grand prix, Fauves, exhibitions, masterclasses… Franceinfo Culture presents eight highlights of this 49th spring edition.

1Chris Ware: an exhibition and a masterclass with a master of the 9th art

Grand Prix 2021 of the Angoulême Festival, the American author Chris Ware will be in Angoulême for Building Chris Ware, the major retrospective devoted to him from March 17 to 20 at the Espace Franquin, and for an exceptional masterclass on Saturday March 19. An opportunity to discover this cult author, with a singular and inventive universe. Developed in close collaboration with Chris Ware, the exhibition presents many original plates and objects designed by the artist. “The avowed aim is, implicitly, to invite the public to penetrate as closely as possible to the mysteries of the language of comics and its potentialities”announces the festival.

“I was immediately captured by his drawings because it appealed to me, to see so many different formats, so many varieties of style, from the same author”says Riad Sattouf, Fauve d’or 2015 for The Arab of the Future 1, an early fan. The masterclass will be led by Benoît Peeters and June Misserey, curators of the exhibition.

– “Building Chris Ware” exhibition, Espace Franquin, from March 17 to 20
– Masterclass Chris Ware, Saturday March 19 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Espace Franquin

2Three women for a Grand Prix

Since 2014, the Grand Prix of the Angoulême International Comics Festival has been awarded following a vote by the community of professional comic book authors. This year, three women made it to the final: Pénélope Bagieu, Julie Doucet and Catherine Meurisse. The 2022 Grand Prix will be announced at the Angoulême theater on Wednesday March 16 during an exceptional opening ceremony in support of Ukraine.

3Tell yourself”, the autobiography in comics

From Marjane Satrapi to David B., via Art Spiegelman, autobiography in comics is a genre that many authors have been practicing for several decades, in various forms.

The 49th edition of the Angoulême festival aims to shed light on this trend, with exhibitions, masterclasses, meetings with Aude Picault, Jean-Christophe Menu, Pénélope Bagieu, Edmond Baudoin, David Prudhomme… or even Roberto Saviano.

4L’exposition Shigeru Mizuki

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth, this year the festival is offering a retrospective devoted to Japanese mangaka Shigeru Mizuki, who made a name for himself in France with Nonnon Bâ (Cornelius, 2011). Lhe stories of this pioneer of horror manga, traumatized very young by his enrollment in the second world confit, are often inspired by war and inhabited by the famous Yōkai, emblematic figures of Japanese folklore.

Rich in 200 documents and originals, the exhibition dissects the drawing work of Shigeru Mizuki, “a juxtaposition between the quasi-documentary precision of the sets and the cartoonish expressiveness of the characters”, and also endeavors to explore the biographical and political dimension of his work.

“Shigeru Mizuki, tales of a fantastic life”, at the Angoullême museum, from March 17 to 20, 2022

5From Popeye to Persepolis: comics and animated films

On the sidelines of the festival, this exhibition invites visitors to discover the relationship between comics and animated cinema, whose stories have always been intertwined.

Rich in several hundred pieces, boards, drawings, documents, objects such as projection devices, archive films or even contemporary installations, the exhibition, installed in a space of 400 m2 of the Cité internationale de la bande Dessine sets out to show how comics and cartoons have served as a support for the dissemination of a mass culture, playing a major role in the construction of our contemporary civilizations, of which the image has become one of the centerpieces.

“From Popeye to Persepolis”until November 6, 2022 at the museum of the International Comic Strip Center in Angoulême

6Deadly Adele

The facetious Adèle imagined by the screenwriter Mr Tan and drawn by Diane Le Feyer is the playground star: 18 volumes, 10 million copies sold since its birth, and since declined in all directions, in novels, games, or even a television adaptation planned for 2022… The young pestouille full of pep is staged in an interactive exhibition in the form of a journey in which the children “will have a lot to do to become full members of the Bizarres club”.

“Mortelle Adèle, the forbidden exhibition at Nazebroques”, from March 17 to 20 at Chais Magelis

7A screening-meeting with Riad Sattouf and Vincent Lacoste

It has become a tradition at the Angoulême festival to focus on the relationship between the 9th and the 7th art. Several events are on the program of the Quartier BD Ciné Séries, preview screenings (Inu-Oh, by the Japanese Masaaki Yuasa, Lastman Hearoes -Episode 1, by Jérémie Hoareau, screenings-meetings: with Catel to talk aboutAlice Guy, but also a screening of the film The beautiful kidsfollowed by a meeting with Riad Sattouf and Vincent Lacoste, to talk about the latest album by the author of The Arabic of the Future, The young actor (Books of the future, 2021).

“Les beaux gosses”, at the CGR cinema, Saturday March 19 at 2.30 p.m.

8Goscinny, committed screenwriter

The Fine Arts Museum of Angoulême presents René Goscinny screenwriter, what a job! an exhibition devoted to the scriptwriting work of Asterix’s father. You can discover there the “polygraph character” of Goscinny’s work and try to understand the “the springs of his writing”.

The exhibition also retraces a lesser-known part of Goscinny: his commitment in the fight for copyrights, “a fight that has contributed to the recognition of comics as an art in its own right”.

“René Goscinny screenwriter, what a job!” until March 20 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Angoulême

The program hour by hour of the Angoulême International Comics Festival, from March 17 to 20, 2022

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