Unprecedented for twenty years, the same publisher, independent moreover, won the Fauve d’Or for the best album of the Angoulême Festival. A year after the very moving Listening, pretty Marcia, by Marcello Quintanilha, the publisher Çà et là, which this year held the record for nominations in the official selection, doubled the bet this year by winning the prestigious trophy for The color of things in the Switzerland’s Martin Panchaud and the audience award for Naphtaline from Argentina Sole Otero. Two albums which were also among the favorites of La Croix for this 50th edition.
The first is an extraordinary graphic novel, with undeniable formal audacity, since the characters, embodied by small circles, evolve in sets seen from above, reminiscent of the staging of video games. The dialogues, written in the margins of the illustrations, like captions, are very well felt. And essential, as their role is increased tenfold compared to a classic comic strip, to give life to these color circles.
Denied by all publishers
The story ? The disappearance of his father and the violent aggression of his mother leave a 14-year-old boy alone, when he has just pocketed a fortune by playing races. We are surprised to be carried away by this melodrama with black humor, with its gallery of pathetic losers, to the point of forgetting that they are only circles wandering on the pages…
Rejected by all French-speaking publishers, Martin Panchaud’s album was the subject of a first edition in Germany, before editions here and there derogated from the rule of publishing only non-French-speaking authors and agreed to do so. publish. This independent publisher has taken a good turn, since The Color of Things has won several awards (from the ACBD critics, in particular) and excellent word-of-mouth stimulated by booksellers (16,000 copies sold since last September).
Major absentees: the big publishers
The public prize went to Naphtaline, by Sole Otero, a fascinating Argentinian family fresco, in which characters with disproportionate bodies struggle, as if weighed down by the weight of the past. That of the grandmother of a young woman who occupies her grandmother’s apartment after her death and who traces the thread of her tormented existence.
The Beast of the series returns to a murky manga about the toxic relationship between a mother and her son, Blood Ties, by Shuzo Oshimi (Ki-oon). The Festival also awarded honorary trophies to the great mangakas who had made the trip, Junji Ito, master of horror, Ryōichi Ikegami, thriller veteran, and Hajime Isayama, creator of the Attack on Titan phenomenon (110 million albums sold), to full houses during their respective masterclasses.
The big absentees from this list are the big publishing houses, and in particular Casterman, also publisher of Bastien Vivès, whose last album by Jean-Marc Rochette, The Last Queen, was among the big favorites.
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The winners of the 50th edition of the Angoulême Festival
FAUVE D’OR – PRIZE FOR BEST ALBUM
The Color of Things, Martin Panchaud, Here and There
SPECIAL JURY FAUVE
Animan, Anouk Ricard, Exemplary Editions
FAWN SERIES
Blood Ties T.11, Shuzo Oshimi – Translation by Sébastien Ludmann, Ki-oon
FAUVE REVELATION
A Rainette in autumn (and more…), Linnea Sterte – Translation by Astrid Boitel, Les Éditions de la Cerise
FAUVE OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
Khat, Ximo Abadía – Translation by Anne Calmels and David Schalvelzon, Éditions La Joie de lire
FAUVE – FRANCE TELEVISION AUDIENCE AWARD
Naphtaline, Sole Otero – Translation by Éloïse de la Maison, Here and There
FAUVE HERITAGE
Flowers of Stone, Hisashi Sakaguchi – Translation by Ilan Nguyen, Revival
ECO-FAUVA RAJA
Under the sun, Ana Penyas – Translation by Benoît Mitaine, Actes Sud L’An 2
FAUVE YOUTH
The Long Walk of the Turkeys, Léonie Bischoff – Bathleen Karr, Rue de Sèvres
FAUVE SPECIAL OF THE YOUTH GRAND JURY
All Princesses Die After Midnight, Quentin Zuttion, Le Lombard
FAUVE POLAR SNCF
Hound Dog, Nicolas Pegon, Denoël Graphic
RENÉ GOSCINNY AWARD – BEST SCREENPLAY
Nightmares ex Machina, Thierry Smolderen, Drawing by Jorge González, Dargaud
RENÉ GOSCINNY PRIZE – YOUNG SCREENPLAY PRIZE
Skin, Mieke Versyp, Here and There
FAVES OF HONOR
Junji Itō
Ryoichi Ikegami
SPECIAL FAUVE OF THE 50th EDITION
Hajime Isayama
ECUMENICAL JURY AWARD
The Spring of Sakura, by Marie Jaffredo (West Winds)
CHRISTIAN COMIC JURY AWARD
Matteo Ricci – in the Forbidden City, by Jean Dufaux and Martin Jamar, Dargaud