The annual Angouleme comics festival is taking place RIGHT NOW, and sadly for comics news website traffic, unlike last year’s disaster, things are progressing in an orderly and well-mannered fashion.
And we have a new Grand Prix winner, Cosey, the pen name of Bernard Cosandey. Cosey beat out two other finalists, Chris Ware and Manu Larcenet.
Le Grand Prix du Festival d'Angoulême 2017 est #Cosey
Toutes les photos du #FIBD2017 : https://t.co/0LKtqBfgEj
#partageonslaBD pic.twitter.com/FSg8FO3EnB— Festival d'Angoulême (@bdangouleme) January 26, 2017
Cosey, 66, is perhaps the least known of this year’s finalists in the US. He’s also the only one who has drawn an accl. In France he’s known for Jonathan, an adventure comic squarely in the Tintin tradition. His latest book is a vintage reimagining of Mickey Mouse, published by Glenat. in France and, just last week, IDW in the US.
It’s perhaps a sign of how distracted the rest of the world is – as well as how well-run this year’s Angouleme is – that this news has barely made a ripple outside of a few French websites like Le Huffington Post.
Cosey succeeds Hermann as President for next year’s festival. The vote – which ended up being another old Belgian guy – was conducted via choices from a diverse selection committee, and then voted on by exhibiting cartoonists around the world. Different route, same destination. Still, the orderly transfer of power is something to be cherished.
One of my top five favorite cartoonists.
– “he’s known for Jonathan, an adventure comic squarely in the Tintin tradition”
JONATHAN is a rather more mature and introspective series set around the Himalayas and inspired by Buddhism. There is some adventure, but usually without a villain. Each story is about Jonathan meeting someone with a dream to fulfill or a problem to overcome. Only TINTIN IN TIBET could somehow compare.
Manu Larcenet’s “Ordinary Victories” is on sale at comiXology through Sunday, and is well worth a read. NBM published an English translation of it about a decade ago or so.
Larcenet’s most recent work is “Blast,” a giant four part (200 page per volume) black and white piece that has a bit of influence from manga, storytelling wise. It is available in English through Izneo, or the first volume only is available on comiXology. The reviews I saw were pretty good for it..
Err, Ms. MacDonald? While he started (at least) his career in Belgium, Cosey is from Switzerland… (source: everywhere, but for instance https://www.actualitte.com/article/bd-manga-comics/cosey-recoit-le-grand-prix-de-la-44e-edition-du-festival-de-la-bd-d-angouleme/69296 )
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