Festival Prize at Angouleme Goes To Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian



Various on-line comics news sources bring first word this morning that the Angouleme Festival has awarded its biggest, overall honor to Charles Berberian and Philippe Dupuy, the pair behind the Monsieur Jean albums and a concurrent autobiographical series about their creation. If true, this would be 1) an excellent choice based on the quality of work, 2) the capper on a sustained Festival endorsement of the 1990s generation that began with previous choices Zep and Lewis Trondheim, 3) the first time a pair of artists has been named together.

The festival's Grand Prix is a singular honor in comics: not only is it an international award, not only is a massive amount of press attention focused on the winners' work, he/she/they also act as a principal focus for publicity leading up to next year's festival and serve as that festival's president, having direct influence if not outright responsibility for such things as the composition of the prize jury and the exhibits at the event. Plus, if I remember right, you're announced to the Festival by standing on a balcony and drinking champagne, kind of like the comics version of the smoke that announces a new pope, but with alcohol. It's one of the coolest things in comics.

Dupuy and Berberian's comics are published in North America by Drawn and Quarterly, and I recommend them all.
 
posted 5:30 am PST | Permalink
 

---

 
Daily Blog Archives
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
 
Full Archives