On the left, Chris Ware (photo © Seth Kushner) and Catherine Meurisse (© Nicolas Trouillard); on the right, Pénélope Bagieu (photo © Simone Eusebio).
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The Angoulême International Comics Festival was not held in 2021, but was keen to proclaim a Grand Prix, to succeed Emmanuel Guibert. According to a two-round vote proposed to the authors, as usual: Chris Ware, Catherine Meurisse and Pénélope Bagieu came out on top of the first round. But a collective of authors rose up because the Festival ousted the name of the one who would have brought together many ways: Bruno Racine.
Bruno Racine, former president of the Center Pompidou and of the BnF, is the author of a report on “The author and the act of creation” which recommended a series of measures to recognize a status for authors (of comics in particular ) and offer them better recognition of their work. Report that has received no follow-up from the government since its publication last year. The collective of Autrices et Auteurs en Action (AAA), which had called for a boycott of the public side of the Angoulême Festival 2021 if it were to be held, then urged voters for the Grand Prix to give its name, “In order to highlight the difficulties of authors”. What many authors would have done. However, the Festival announced that it was Chris Ware, Catherine Meurisse and Pénélope Bagieu who had gathered the most votes. While noting that “Some have chosen a protest vote (which could not be counted, since it was not about an author or a cartoonist) in order to attract again the ‘attention of the public authorities on the conditions in which the authors exercise their profession “.
Diversion of the FIBD visual, by the AAA collective, with Bruno Racine as a surprise guest.
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For the AAA collective, the FIBD regulations would simply state that it is appropriate to vote for an author (which Bruno Racine is) and not necessarily a comic book author (which he is not). What the Festival refutes, as clarified by Frank Boudoux at Weekly Books and who notes that Bruno Racine does not figure in the top three anyway, bailiff’s statement in support: “There was initially a fairly clever idea from AAA which consisted of taking a step aside and calling for votes for Bruno Racine. If Bruno Racine had obtained a majority of votes, we would have been required to invalidate the vote, but that is not what happened. “
The second round is open from June 8 to 14 and it therefore does not seem that Bruno Racine is invited. Authors are therefore invited to vote for Pénélope Bagieu, Catherine Meurisse or Chris Ware. The latter, 53-year-old American author, and awarded at the Angoulême Festival for Jimmy Corrigan and Building Stories, has been a Grand Prix finalist since 2017, beaten year after year by Cosey, Richard Corben, Rumiko Takahashi and Emmanuel Guibert. Will 2021 finally be his year? Or Catherine Meurisse (The great outdoors, Lightness, Modern Olympics, The Bridges of the Arts…), Already a finalist last year and honored with an exhibition, will it pass him? Unless Pénélope Bagieu (Sacred Witches, The Culottées, California Dreamin’…) Provokes surprise. Answer on June 23.
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