ANGOULÊME 2026 cancelled, Bondoux defiant [UPDATED]

Angoulême International Comics Festival’s 2026 event cannot go ahead but Franck Bondoux is not responsible, that is the claim laid out in a letter delivered today by his lawyers. In it Bondoux (under the guise of his company 9e Art+) places the blame for the major French festival’s cancellation entirely on public funders, demands to remain as festival organiser for the 2027 event – and possibly beyond. This, the latest turn in the crisis engulfing one of the world’s largest dedicated comics events.

Today’s missive arrived after a deadline of December 1 was set by public funders last Thursday (November 27) for Bondoux to provide a “prompt and comprehensive response” on whether his company could feasibly go ahead with the next Angoulême Festival, scheduled to take place January 29 to February 1, 2026. The letter was signed by Angoulême mayor Xavier Bonnefont; the representatives of the départment of Charente (of which Angoulême is the administrative capital), president Jérôme Sourisseau and prefect Jérôme Harnois; and Nouvelle Aquitaine regional council president Alain Rousset. It seems instead of a comprehensive response, Bondoux decided to threaten a lawsuit instead.

According to the letter, sent by his representatives at the law firm August Debouzy [translated via DeepL]:

“[T]he 2026 edition of the Festival will not be able to take place under appropriate conditions. This situation is in no way the result of a choice made by 9e Art+, whose sole objective is to organize the FIBD, but rather a unilateral decision taken without consultation by public funders.”

There is presently no indication in this letter that Bondoux has any intention of stepping down as Angoulême Festival general delegate (a self-created position held since 2004) or that his company is going anywhere. Bondoux’s present contract for 9e Art+ runs through 2027, and he claims that the event “legally belongs to 9e Art+”. It is possible he could mount legal action to try to ensure the Association FIBD’s original (widely contested) result to keep 9e Art+ running the show, despite the owner’s decision to nullify and rerun the process following immense industry backlash, which in the letter is claimed to have been entirely done by “local public actors”:

“Outside of any legal framework, local public actors have, in their own words, ‘thrown their weight around’ to prevent the renewal of the private contract entrusting 9e Art+ with the management of the festival. They thus forced the cancellation of the results of the recent call for projects, which 9e Art+ had won fairly, as part of a partnership [it was to be paired with public body Cité de la BD]. These same public actors have also, by their own admission, ensured that 9e Art+ cannot compete in the new selection process that they have imposed.”

According to Bondeaux’s letter, the 2026 cancellation was due entirely to the national, regional, departmental, and municipal administrations’ joint decision on November 20 to withdraw their funding, which fills nearly half of the Festival budget. Curiously the message sidesteps mentioning that their decision actually came after a massive author boycott and publisher withdrawals. The boycott – which includes many former Grand Prix winners and major publishers including Casterman, Dupuis, Lombard, Delcourt, and Dupuis – was initiated by a November 8 decision by festival owner Association FIBD to retain 9e Art+ as the organiser of the 52-year-old festival until 2036. 9e Art+ has been operating the Angoulême Festival since 2007. 

The letter adds:

“At their press conference on November 20, the public funders expressed their refusal to pay the subsidies that they know are essential for the 2026 edition to take place. This statement sent a strong and clear signal to all stakeholders that it would be impossible to organize the Festival, which inevitably led, in the days that followed, to the withdrawal of many of the event’s participants (exhibitors, partner companies, etc.) who had remained involved until then in the hope that it would take place.”

What Bondoux Says…What Actually Happened

Angoulême’s ongoing crisis began in January 2025 with the publication of a Humanité report on 9e Art+ which revealed allegations of toxic management culture, misogyny, financial irregularities, employee burnout, overcommercialisation, and the mishandling of an employee’s sexual assault. While the company had weathered years of escalating scandals, the latter accusation in the report caused widespread protest from authors unions, publishers, and groups combating sexual harassment and assault in the industry. From January to June pressure mounted on Angoulême Festival owner Association FIBD to discontinue its contract with operator 9e Art+, and engage in a transparent process for alternative proposals. While the process took place, it wasn’t transparent, and when the outcome was announced (November 8) to reappoint 9e Art+, the French comics world was outraged. It was also revealed that Bondoux had sent a letter on September 25 threatening to sue public partners if his company were not reappointed. 

Creators and publishers now unitedly refuse to attend Angoulême 2026, and many of the lavish exhibitions are being cancelled. Emergency meetings set up by Angoulême mayor Bonnefont to mediate and salvage the 2026 edition saw author unions and publisher groups standing firm: unless Bondoux, his company, and Association FIBD president Delphine Groux (who oversaw the bidding process) were removed, they would not attend any future edition of the Angoulême Festival. On November 20, the public financial partners conceded and announced they would withdraw funding from the festival. National, regional, départmental, and local governments provide approximately 50% of the show’s budget.

Attempts to resolve the situation by Association FIBD had already failed – on November 13 Association president Delphine Groux seemingly unilaterally offered a rerun of the process for alternative service providers, this time with 9e Art+ excluded. Unfortunately by that point she had lost the confidence of the entire comics profession. 

Now and the Future (Off)

How will the event go forward given all this turmoil? Presently, the organisation established after the Festival’s last existential crisis in 2017, the Association for the Development of Comics in Angoulême (ADBDA) is wading through this predicament. The ADBDA brings together public partners, local comics institutions, publisher groups, and at least one author union. It is in the process of expanding further by incorporating additional author unions which were at the forefront of the boycott campaign and a 2,000 signature petition in April that included Art Spiegelman, Posy Simmonds, Julie Doucet and more as signatories. The ADBDA has been actively in discussion about restoring the festival and intends to oversee the process for seeking an alternative show organiser. So far it is clearly united on one thing – a future for the Angoulême Festival without Franck Bondoux and 9e Art+ (and Delphine Groux, for that matter). A number of proposals are being made, but it is still early days.

Future Off, a local (fairly sizeable) zine event unofficially part of the Angoulême Festival, made a statement on Friday that it plans to assert its independence while taking place on the originally planned festival weekend. With a vigorously anti-commercial stance that supports zines and micropublishing, it is a very hard to find treasure in normal years (if you don’t know it is there, you won’t find it). The 2026 Future Off will run a reduced schedule of 2.5 days – from Friday to Sunday, half day Saturday. It is seeking volunteers and offering free tables to any exhibitors. 

Future Off said:

“[As] inhabitants of Angoulême and as a local association, we are on the front line of the festival’s stranglehold on the town, whether through the monopolisation of premises, subsidies or the proliferation of Airbnb listings that it generates.

“Locally and outside our city, a lot of initiatives have started to emerge to show that the festival belongs to its participants and its audience, and that it must be rebuilt through a joint fight and collaboration between them.”

It adds:

“That is why we felt it was important, this year as in previous years, to maintain a cultural programme that highlights micro-publishing, local associations and the unprecedented Girlcott movement.

“We are one of the festival’s offshoots, but as our desire is to promote the fanzine scene, we believe that our existence should not be entirely related to the festival.

“The 2026 edition of FutureOff will therefore go ahead as planned…Long live comics and long live fanzines!”

Beyond the world of comics, the town of Angoulême is bracing itself for the worst. The Angoulême International Comics Festival draws in around 200,000 people, ballooning the population of the town fivefold, and filling the coffers of local businesses so they can survive through to the summer tourism period. There is growing fear that the festival may disappear from the town that has built itself over the past fifty years as the ‘City of Comics’, with studios, art schools, and a dedicated comics museum situated there. Angoulême’s mayor also faces a bruising reelection campaign in March 2026. Meanwhile the départment of Charente is already facing an economic crisis as international trade disputes with the US and China since January 2025 have seen tariffs levied against the area’s most valuable export, cognac. The cognac industry employs around 20% of the population of Charente. Join that with the sudden loss of one of the biggest annual cash injections in the départment’s capital and things look dire. No wonder municipal, départmental and regional officials have been so involved in resolving the crisis.

The 2026 festival may be cancelled but the fight over the fate of its future remains undecided. As they say in the French funnybooks, à suivre…

Letter from Franck Bondoux/9e Art+ legal representatives, attorneys Vincent Brenot and Ghislain Minaire of August Debouzy — December 1, 2026

Out of respect for the public who, over two decades, have enabled it to turn the International Comics Festival, which it organizes, into France’s third largest cultural event (after the Cannes Film Festival and Avignon Arts Festival), 9e Art+, for whom we act as legal counsel, chose to remain silent despite the baseless attacks it has been subjected to for months.

The recent statements by local public figures, expressed in particular in their joint press conference on November 20 and in an interview with a local official wishing to see 9e Art+ fall “by the end of January,” have now forced it to speak out.

9e Art+ intends to put an end to the allegations that it is responsible for the decision to cancel the 2026 edition of the Festival. The responsibility lies with the public funders who have continually interfered in the management of this private event, with the clear intention of ousting its long-standing organizer.

Outside of any legal framework, local public actors have, in their own words, “thrown their weight around” to prevent the renewal of the private contract entrusting 9e Art+ with the management of the festival. They thus forced the cancellation of the results of the recent call for projects, which 9e Art+ had won fairly, as part of a partnership [it was to be paired with public body Cité de la BD]. These same public actors have also, by their own admission, ensured that 9e Art+ cannot compete in the new selection process that they have imposed.

At their press conference on November 20, the public funders expressed their refusal to pay the subsidies that they know are essential for the 2026 edition to take place. This statement sent a strong and clear signal to all stakeholders that it would be impossible to organize the Festival, which inevitably led, in the days that followed, to the withdrawal of many of the event’s participants (exhibitors, partner companies, etc.) who had remained involved until then in the hope that it would take place.

As a result, the 2026 edition of the Festival will not be able to take place under appropriate conditions. This situation is in no way the result of a choice made by 9e Art+, whose sole objective is to organize the FIBD, but rather a unilateral decision taken without consultation by public funders.

For nearly twenty years, 9e Art+ has worked tirelessly to ensure the success of this cultural event, which, thanks to its efforts as organizer, has become the leading international event in the world of comic books. It is now concerned about the human and economic consequences of the absence of the 2026 edition. For nearly a year, it has committed significant sums to the preparation of this edition, as well as employees, experts, and service providers, and businesses and merchants in Angoulême, Charente, and Nouvelle Aquitaine, who will be deprived of the major economic benefits generated by one of France’s most important festivals.

Even more seriously, there is considerable uncertainty surrounding the conditions for organizing the Festival in 2027, an edition that legally belongs to 9e Art+.

A concerted solution can, and must, now be found.

Despite the smear campaigns—skillfully maintained and never supported by any evidence or administrative or judicial decision—9e Art+ is willing to meet with public funders to lay the groundwork for a smooth transition to a new management of the Festival.

This is in the best interests of the Festival, of all it has contributed to the field of comics for more than half a century, and of the cultural influence of France, of an entire region, and especially of Angoulême.

Future Off statement [English-provided text] — November 28

The Future Off team is supporting the movement of comic book authors and workers, the various communiqués from the inter-organisational comic book collective, and more recently, the forum of the 285 female authors. We share with local authors the idea that the Angoulême Festival is above all and must become a common property that expresses the great diversity of comic books.

We stand alongside those who have long denounced the Festival’s commercial excesses. Its administrative interference, its brutal management and its multiple sexist matters.

We denounce the blame placed on authors, unionists, and journalists who are mobilising and who are unfairly accused of sabotaging the 2026 edition. Quite the contrary, they are courageously defending the very definition of common property and the rights of their profession.

Furthermore, as inhabitants of Angoulême and as a local association, we are on the front line of the festival’s stranglehold on the town, whether through the monopolisation of premises, subsidies or the proliferation of Airbnb listings that it generates.

Locally and outside our city, a lot of initiatives have started to emerge to show that the Angoulême Festival belongs to its participants and its audience, and that it must be rebuilt through a joint fight and a work between them.

That is why we felt it was important, this year as in previous years, to maintain a cultural programme that highlights micro-publishing, local associations and the unprecedented Girlcott movement.

We are one of the Angoulême Festival’s offshoots, but as our desire is to promote the fanzine scene, we believe that our existence should not be entirely related to the Angoulême Festival.

The 2026 edition of FutureOff will therefore go ahead as planned. However, it will only run for three days, from Friday 30 January to Sunday 1 February, and will be closed on Saturday afternoon.

For these reasons, and given that attendance will be lower than in previous years, and therefore revenues for exhibitors will likely be lower, we will not charge for the tables. As every year, we will also do our best to accommodate all participants.

Long live comics and long live fanzines!