Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions that some readers may find disturbing.
The Angouleme International Comics The festival, the second largest such event in Europe, has removed French illustrator Bastien Vivés as its guest amid fresh criticism that his work promotes incest, paedophilia and child pornography. The festival will take place from 26 to 29 January.
The guest of honor typically produces and designs an exhibition of all-original artwork that will debut at the festival and run through March 12, however the announcement sparked international headlines, several detailed explanationsand an online petition collecting more than 110,000 signatures.
Vives’ work has attracted critical acclaim and controversy in equal measure, especially three of her books – 2011 Melons of Rage2018 Little Pauland 2018 Mental dump – which depict sex scenes between several children and their siblings, parents and an adult male family friend. A young farmer who appears in two of these books receives extra sexual attention from his sister and older women for his “unusually large penis”.
Punctual concerns from critics
Critics, including child protection agencies and feminists, say the 38-year-old’s graphic novels, while fictional, promote incest and child pornography through their repeated depictions of sex involving minors. The artist and his publishers have defended the comic works citing the creative freedom in portraying “forbidden fantasies”.
In response to an online petition, some shops in France have chosen not to stock his book Little Paul. Emma, a French cartoonist who went viral for her online comic at invisible “mental burden” of womenpublicly criticized the comic festival’s board and Vives’ work on her social media channels. On Twitter denounced abusive statements Vives has previously made about her, including a Facebook post wishing her dead and for her son to suffer anal rape whenever her posts are liked on the social media platform.
Criticism has reignited scrutiny over how issues of consent and pedophilia are addressed by the French public and artist community. In 2021, it became illegal in France to publish that he depicts a minor in a pornographic way, adding to the criticism and accusations against Vives.
On December 14, the Angoulême International Comics Festival published a Press release who stated that “new developments have radically changed the nature of this situation and made it necessary for the Festival to cancel this exhibition”, citing threats of physical violence aimed at the festival team, Vives and festival participants as the reason. The statement also said the festival was unaware of many of the comments Vivès made “which may appear to some people to be very shocking and/or inappropriate”.
After Vives was removed from the comic festival, he posted a statement on Instagram condemning pedophilia, rape culture and violence against women. He also apologized for his comments about cartoonist Emma.
