Angoulême Festival showrunners face turmoil and author boycott

France’s Angoulême Festival (FIBD) – one of the most important calendar events in global comics – has been immersed in a growing crisis since January. Following mounting pressure by authors and publisher groups, the festival’s owners, Association FIBD, have announced a call for proposals from alternative organising partners to potentially replace the widely unpopular Franck Bondoux and his company 9e Art+, with a deadline set for October.

Begun in 1974, Angoulême is one of the largest comics events in the world (beaten only by Comiket in Japan and Lucca in Italy); today the late-January event attracts over 250,000 visitors to a small French city some 75 miles from Bordeaux, in south-west France. Spread largely across the centre of the old district of Angoulême (with cobbled streets and medieval architecture), the event contains multitudes: several enormous marquees with every imaginable publisher catering to mainstream, alternative, and world comics tastes; it hosts large professional exhibitions featuring original comics art; plus a dedicated professional marketplace where language rights for books from around the world are bought and sold by publishers and agents. Coverage of the festival and its awards makes it into every French newspaper, and national politicians will often make an appearance to be associated with the brand. The festival has led to the development of the city itself, hosting art schools, animation studios and workshops; as well as a dedicated museum and archive of the artform. After over fifty years it is more than a French comics event, widely perceived inside and outside the industry (and worldwide) as a public good. France has many comics festivals but there is only one Angoulême.

And now this institution is embroiled in its biggest controversy yet. The first flashpoint of the Festival’s latest crisis took place January 23 with the publication of an article in Humanité which called into question the administration of the festival by Franck Bondoux and 9e Art+. Among its allegations the article cited overuse of subcontractors, employee burnout, nepotism (via the insertion of Bondoux’s daughter, Johanna Bondoux, into key roles), growing commercialisation, and – most startling – the mishandling of an alleged rape of a contractor at the 51st festival in 2024.

Unusually the festival put out a press statement on the day of publication trying to deny the allegations – while at the same time drawing attention to the article in question. Open letters from major publishing groups decried the situation and called for change – first the Alternative Publishers Syndicate (SEA) on January 27, followed by the National Publishers Syndicate (SNE) on January 28. While on the weekend of the festival itself, members of the SEA visibly but silently staged their protest at their booths. Bondoux for his part remained intransigent – with a heated press conference on February 2 (the Sunday of the festival itself) where he denied all wrongdoing and appeared to engage in victim blaming, in the case of the contractor.

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Bondoux has been involved with the Angoulême Festival since 2003 via his company Partnership Consulting, brought on mainly for the purpose of expanding the financial capacity of the event with additional sponsors. In 2006 he would be named General Delegate of the Festival by its non-profit owner, Association FIBD, in its bid to maintain the event’s independence from the city administration, with a newly formed private company (majority owned by Bondoux) 9e Art+ assuming operational control starting with 2007’s edition. An interesting little detail is that Bondoux reportedly came from outside the world of comics and arts events, having previously been involved in sports marketing. Before he formed his consultancy company in 1999, he cut his teeth as an employee of notorious Swiss company International Sport and Leisure – which collapsed in 2001 and was linked to the FIFA corruption scandals that later came to light. 

The timing of the January exposé wasn’t arbitrary. Since 2006, Bondoux and his company have been running the festival. Unpopular before, 9e Art+ had its contract automatically renewed in 2015 – for the 2017 to 2026 period – on a technicality (the cancellation deadline was missed). While many critics concede he brought a degree of professionalism to the event during his tenure, his leadership style, the growing commercialisation of a cultural fixture, and allegations of odd financial maneuverings have dogged him. He has also made some enormously embarrassing (and chauvinistic) public gaffs, not least during the furore that erupted in 2016 over the Grand Prix career achievement award longlist being devoid of women. This year a decision on the renewal of the 10-year contract for 9e Art+ to continue running the event was due to take place. If no decision were reached by May, 9e Art+ would automatically have its contract renewed for an additional ten years, to 2036.

It is believed by some that Bondoux has been maneuvering to take control of the festival from the Association FIBD, a non-profit formed by the festival’s founders (FIBD being the acronym of the festival itself – Festival international de la bande dessinée) and largely led by Delphine Groux, daughter of co-founder Francis Groux. Its membership today includes those surviving founders, their nominated heirs, and other festival stakeholders. A seeming proclamation in early April by Bondoux at a closed doors meeting with publishers and later a recorded town hall with the city administration implied that 9e Art+ and Association FIBD (or at least its chair Delphine Groux) were going to enter into a joint venture, turning the festival into a private company (rather than a non-profit that contracts the heavy lifting to a third party) confirming the fears of many. Push back from partners, including civic agencies that supply funding, seems to have nixed that plan. 44% of the estimated €6 million budget of the festival is supplied from public agencies.

With frustrations mounting, authors union Syndicat des Travailleur.euses Artistes-Auteurs (STAA) and campaign group MeTooBD launched a petition on April 17. It rapidly reached 2,000 signatures with major names in French and international comics participating. Among its now-2,300 professional signatories were Chris Ware, Posy Simmonds, Art Spiegelman, Emil Ferris, Alison Bechdel, Ben Katchor, Ulli Lust, and Joe Sacco. Numerous Angoulême awardees and Grand Prix recipients signed, and the creator of the festival mascot Fauve, Lewis Trondheim, was also a signatory. Perhaps more embarrassing was the signature of Fabcaro – who is the current writer of the Asterix series, the hottest selling book in France – usually shifting millions of copies in the space of a couple months with a new release.

Signatories demanded an end to the tenure of 9e Art+ at the end of the contract period and an open call for others to take over the running of the festival. All the signatories stated they would boycott the 2026 festival which would put pressure on their publishers. Among the big draws for publishers exhibiting at the festival (and selling so many books to the public) is having the authors present to sketch and sign them. Also, if publishers attend despite the author boycott it could impact their relationship.

Extracts from the open letter of the petition, published in Humanité, declared [translation via DeepL]:

“For several months now, we, professionals in the comic book industry, authors, and other workers in the field, have been calling on the Angoulême International Comics Festival Association (FIBD) to address the harmful nature of its contract with the company 9e Art+, which has been in place for nearly twenty years. This is a company whose management practices have been questioned in several press articles…”

“On April 3, the FIBD Association raised the possibility of terminating its contract with 9e Art+, but did not express any desire to submit the management of the festival to an impartial call for proposals. On the contrary, it seems to want to finalize its plan to merge with 9e Art+ as a simplified joint stock company, which would effectively become the festival’s sole manager.”

It concluded:

“Faced with this blindness and obstinacy, faced with this intolerable appropriation and faced with the contempt shown towards our repeated appeals, WE, comic book workers, hereby inform the FIBD Association, as well as all its public and private partners, that if it does not decide to formally terminate this contract and issue a call for proposals for the management of the festival, we will call for a massive boycott of the next edition of the Festival in 2026. Without us, the next edition will be an empty shell!”

The latest twist in the saga is that on August 3, the Association FIBD has begun an open call for bidders to take on the festival from 2028 edition, with the deadline for proposals set for 12pm October 17 and the selection process to complete November 8. 9e Art+ will remain in place for an additional two years – the remainder of the contract – and be permitted to enter the bidding process. Meanwhile Franck Bondoux has submitted notice that he will retire as General Delegate of the Festival, and possibly from his company, after the 2027 event – but there are some that remain sceptical he will pull through with it. This sudden change also occurs a few weeks after the opening of exhibitor applications for the 2026 event.

Vocal critics are cautious about this move. For one, Bondoux can easily change his mind, or construct a reason to remain/return to post as General Delegate, or he could continue to run his company via a proxy, potentially his daughter if it wins renewal of the contract. Also the transparency of the bidding process has yet to be made clear – and Bondoux’s own involvement in the selection of bidders.

The crisis is not over and with the economic conditions of the French comics industry in 2025 proving surprisingly fraught, publishers and authors hope for a positive outcome.