A spring breeze is blowing over the Angoulême International Comics Festival (FIBD). Canceled in January 2021 due to the pandemic, suspended a year later, then finally postponed to mid-March, the 49e edition of the main European exhibition dedicated to the 9e art opens, Thursday, March 17, in a surprisingly radiant context, at least in appearance. The lifting of the mask and the good health displayed by the specialized edition bode well for a splendid and relaxed event, placed under the aegis of Chris Ware, the Proustian genius of a medium whose narrative potential he has shaken up.
Present in Charente for the exhibition dedicated to him, the American saw a woman succeed him on the Grand Prix list, Wednesday evening, during the inauguration of the festival. Three authors – Penelope Bagieu, Julie Doucet, Catherine Meurisse – made up the trio of finalists who came out on top in a vote by professionals in the sector: unheard of since the festival changed its Grand Prix designation system in 2017; a year before, a lively controversy had underlined the under-representation of women in comics.
New price and mini-crisis
The election in the second round of the ballot of Julie Doucet, 56, has everything of the strong symbol, today, for Angoulême. The Canadian had indeed stopped comics in 1999 precisely because she felt isolated in an environment that was too masculine for her taste. Her reintegration into the fold, through this prize which she accepts with good heart, is a godsend for the FIBD in terms of image. Julie Doucet is nonetheless the third woman “only” to make the Grand Prix list, after Florence Cestac in 2000 and the Japanese Rumiko Takahashi in 2019.
Customary of controversies, Angoulême will not have escaped, despite everything, a new mini-crisis, this year. Its object? The creation of a new prize, the eco-fauve (the fauves are the trophies given to the best albums of the past year), intended to reward a work dealing with ecology. Seeing that the prize in question was associated with the name of a company – Raja, European leader in cardboard packaging – revolted the members of the jury (two authors, two scientists, an environmental activist), who denounced an operation of “ greenwashing”. Their resignation en bloc led to the withdrawal of three of the seven titles in contention by their own authors, including Etienne Davodeau and Christophe Blain.
Julie Doucet is the third woman to make the Grand Prix list, after Florence Cestac and the Japanese Rumiko Takahashi
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