Welcome to Angoulême, Posy!
After heated debates last year about the place of women in the French Graphic Novel sphere, we are thrilled to see that British cartoonist Posy Simmonds will be president of this year's Grand Jury at Angoulême International Comics Festival (Festival international de la bande dessinée d'Angoulême). The 44th edition of the Festival will take place in Angoulême from 26th to 29th of January 2017.
Click to take a look at the various attractions of the Festival
This is great news for all our friends who have been working hard in recent years to cultivate links between British graphic novels and French bandes dessinées: the team at House of Illustration, those at Lakes International Comic Arts Festival, curator Paul Gravett, commentator Alex Fitch, publishers at SelfMadeHero, Gosh Comics, and so many more... It may also underline the organisers’ desire to make amends after last year’s controversy around the absence of female artists in the official shortlist.
Most of all, it is an acknowledgment of Posy Simmonds’ lifelong achievement as a cartoonist and writer. Most notably, her partnership with The Guardian since 1977, and her much loved Gemma Bovery and Tamara Drewe.
France24 took this opportunity to interview her about her creating process, but also about what defines her “good-natured satire” of British life, current politics (spoiler alert: it's not great), British tastes in handbags (not great either, apparently), and much more.
At the Comix Creatrix exhibition at House of Illustration last year, Posy Simmonds reflected on her trade as close to that of a film director: “you do the script, but you also do the lighting, the dialogue, the props, the location…” No wonder both Gemma Bovery and Tamara Drewe were adapted to the big screen.
To know more about the members of this year’s Grand Jury and the shortlist for the Fauve d’Or, the most prestigious prize awarded by the Festival d’Angoulême, visit their official website.
If you are, like me, on the edge of your seat waiting for this year's winners - maybe not quite as excited as I am, but still - I strongly recommend that you check out the latest French laureates of the Fauve d’Or:
- 2013: Quai d’Orsay by Christophe Blain and Abel Lanzac (published in the UK by Selfmadehero as Weapons of Mass Diplomacy),
- 2014: Come Prima by Alfred (available on ComiXology thanks to Delcourt in English)
- 2015: L’Arabe du futur (published in English by Two Roads as The Arab of the Future, volume 1 and 2). We interviewed the author, Riad Sattouf, here on Culturethèque.