AWARDS ROUNDUP: Posy Simmonds and Milo Manara honoured, and more

Welcome to Awards Roundup, where we intermittently catch up on some recent prizes. In this edition – Posy Simmonds receives a French honour, Milo Manara gets an honorary degree, Red Harvest gets shortlisted for the 2026 Kobzar Book Award, and – despite no Angoulême on the horizon – award season is still in effect in France as several comics awards dropped their winners and finalists.

Posy Simmonds receives French Honour in London

At a ceremony held December 5 at the French Embassy in London, Posy Simmonds was bestowed the rank of Officer in France’s Order of Arts & Letters (Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) by the French ambassador to the UK, Hélène Duchêne. 

The Order of Arts and Letters is an award bestowed by the French Ministry of Culture. It has three ranks – Knight (Chevalier), Officer (Officier) and, the highest, Commander (Commandeur). It has a very large number of French cartoonists in its ranks but comparatively few cartoonists from outside. She joins such luminaries as Art Spiegelman (Officier, 2012) and Chris Ware (Chevalier, 2024).

According to a post on social media by the French Embassy in the UK, 

“[On Friday, December 5] author and cartoonist Posy Simmonds was made Officier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. France has long paid tribute to [novelist Gustave] Flaubert; it now salutes the artist who turned Madame Bovary into Gemma Bovery and gave us Tamara Drewe, proving that a comic strip can read like a novel.

“A fitting honour for a storyteller who, throughout her career, has contributed to the ties between Britain and France.”

Simmonds has had a long connection with France. In her youth she studied at the Sorbonne University and remains fluent in French to this day. Her work has built quite a following in Europe and she has been graced with multiple exhibitions – including at the Pompidou Centre in Paris – and recognised with multiple awards. In 2024 she became the first British cartoonist to receive Angoulême’s Grand Prix, and in 2022 received the Grand Prix Töpffer in Switzerland.

In the UK – where she serialised the majority of her graphic novels in the Guardian newspaper – she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2004; and received the MBE civic award in 2002 for ‘services to the newspaper industry’. She is presently working on her next graphic novel, a planned prequel to her 2018 book Cassandra Darke, itself inspired by Ebenezer Scrooge from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

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Milo Manara receives Honorary Degree

Italian maestro Milo Manara was given an honorary degree from the University of Teramo on December 3. According to Fumettologia, Department of Communication Sciences director Paola Besutti said the degree in Media, Arts & Culture recognises, “…Manara’s innovation in visual communication, his decades-long career, and his international representation of a significant part of the Italian comics tradition.” University rector Christian Corsi said it “aims to reaffirm the cultural value of comics as a language worthy of university study and critical analysis”. 

Manara, who is 80, has been working with the comics medium for almost sixty years. He joins a handful of other Italian comics names to receive honorary degrees including Disney cartoonist and instructor Giovan Battista Carpi (Educational Sciences, University of Bologna; 1997), and comics writer/publisher Sergio Bonelli (Communication Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome; 2005).

The creator had just published the second, concluding volume of his ambitious adaptation of Umberto Eco’s award winning novel The Name of the Rose in Italy on November 28.

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Red Harvest Shortlisted for Kobzar Book Award 

Michael Cherkas‘ Red Harvest (NBM) is one of the three finalists for the 2026 Kobzar Book Award. The winner will be announced at a ceremony taking place March 26, 2026. It sits beside nonfiction book The Matryoshka Memoirs, by Sasha Colby (ECW Press) and academic history No Place Like Home: Enemy Alien Internment in Canada during the Great War, by Bohdan S. Kordan (McGill-Queen’s University Press)

Highlighting the title on their social media accounts, the Shevchenko Foundation (who adminster the award) said,

“A powerful graphic novel rooted in the memories of Holodomor survivor Mykola Kovalenko, Red Harvest brings the reader into the lived experience of those who endured the Terror Famine. Through Cherkas’ storytelling and illustration, this history becomes deeply human; an exploration of survival, identity, and truth in the face of unimaginable brutality.”

The Kobzar Book Award recognises Canadian literary work that highlights the lives and experiences of Ukrainian Canadians. It occurs every two years and winners receive $25,000. Begun in 2003, the inaugeral award took place in 2006. The award covers a wide variety of work including fiction, nonfiction, kids books, poetry, plays, screenplays, musicals.

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First Print Awards

On December 5, French podcast First Print gave its second annual awards for work sourced from the English language. Composed of nine categories, the awards took place in front of around 200 people at the CGR Paris – Lilas cinema. 

• Best Superhero One-Shot: The Boy Wonder (French title: Robin, the Boy Wonder) by Juni Ba, translated into French by Benjamin Viette (Urban Comics; original publisher DC Black Label)
• Best Superhero Series: Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 1 by Jonathan Hickman, Marco Checchetto and David Messina, translated by Jérémy Manesse (Panini Comics; original publisher Marvel Comics)
• Best Indie One-Shot: Drome by Jesse Lonergan, translated by Virgile Iscan (404 Graphic; original publisher 23rd Street)
• Best Indie Series: Sacrificers Volume 3 (French title: Sacrifice) by Rick Remender, Max Fiumara and André Lima Araujo, translated by Benjamin Rivière (Urban Comics; original publisher Image)
• Best Kids Book: The Cartoonists Club (French title: La Bande des Bédémaniacs) by Scott McCloud and Reina Telgemeier, translated by Fanny Soubiran (Rue de Sèvres; original publisher Scholastic)
• Claude Vistel Prize for Heritage Comics (Reprints Category): The Tale of One Bad Rat (French title: L’Histoire d’un Vilain Rat), by Bryan Talbot, translated by François Peneaud (Delirium; original publisher Jonathan Cape) — this category is named after the late renowned translator who first introduced Marvel titles to the French market 
• Public Award (audience vote): Absolute Batman vol 1, by Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta, translated by Jérôme Wicky (Urban Comics; original publisher DC) — decided by over 700 votes
• Booksellers Prize: Helen of Wyndhorn (French title: Helen de Wyndhorn), by Tom King and Bilquis Evely, translated by Marie Renier (Glénat; original publisher Dark Horse) — award decided by a panel of 28 retailers across France and Belgium 
• Grand Prize: Somna, by Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay, translated by Hélène Remaud (Delcourt; original publisher DSTLRY)

The Awards are designed to highlight the niche of (translated) Anglo-American comics in France, where they form about 4% of the country’s overall comics market. As First Print said in their press release: 

“The First Print Awards aim to highlight the diversity and richness of English-language comics published in France, while inviting readers to take an interest in this aspect of the 9th Art, which is too often overlooked despite its immense qualities.”

The grand jury for the 2025 First Print Awards included retailer Anna Cazalis (Pulp’s comic shop, Bordeaux-branch), content creator/podcaster Nivraë, Nouvel Obs magazine literary/comics journalist Amandine Schmitt, journalist Daniel Andreyev, YouTuber Le Commis des Comics, comedian Frédérick Sigrist, and First Print founders Arnaud Tomasini and Olivier-Corentin Mouchon.

First Print was formed by journalists Arnaud Tomasini and Olivier-Corentin Mouchon in 2014 out of their shared passion for American pop culture and Anglo-American comic books. Supported by crowdfunding, it has become a local reference point for French enthusiasts to stay up to date on the happenings in the US comics industry. 

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Le Point-Wolinski Prix BD 2025 winner

Nine Antico‘s Une Obsession [tr. ‘An Obsession’] was picked as the 2025 recipient of the Wolinski Comics Prize by weekly news and current affairs magazine Le Point. According to the magazine’s website: 

“In Une Obsession , Nine Antico…delivers an intimate and introspective account that questions her relationship with love, sex, and men. Through a journey in a sensual and embodied Venice, she revisits a breakup, a long-buried childhood memory, and the ambiguities of certain formative experiences. She describes how fascination, obsession, and precocity shaped the development of her sexuality and fueled a difficulty in reconciling her desire, her body, and her access to pleasure.”

Nine Antico has been a rising star in the world of French comics with several acclaimed books and multiple exhibitions featuring her work. None are available in English…yet.

Begun in 2004, the prize was renamed in honour of former chair of the jury, Georges Wolinski, in 2015. The 2025 jury was chaired by author Natacha Wolinski (Georges’ daughter), a panel of Le Point journalists (Jacques Dupont, Romain Brethes and deputy editor Christophe Ono-dit-Biot), and creators (Coco, Albert Algoud, Ugo Bienvenu, Philippe Druillet, Jul, Catherine Meurisse, Bastien Vivès, Luz). Le Point is a French conservative politics magazine that has been running since 1972 and is one of the most prominant news weeklies in the country.

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Fnac France Inter Prix de la BD 2026 shortlist

The eighth Fnac-France Inter comics prize announced its five finalists. In the running are:

• Ces Lignes qui tracent mon corps [tr. ‘These Lines that Trace My Body’], by Mansoureh Kamari (Casterman) — a graphic memoir and coming of age story about the oppression of Iran’s patriarchal society and a young girl seeking a way out
• Les Gorilles du Général: Septembre 59 [tr. ‘The General’s Gorillas: September ’59’], by Xavier Dorison & Julien Telo (Casterman) — focuses on the bodyguards of General Charles de Gaulle’s who were nicknamed his ‘Gorillas’ during the politically tumultuous year he was inaugerated as President of France.
• Sibylline, chroniques d’une escort girl [tr. ‘Sibylline – Chronicles of an Escort Girl’], by Sixtine Dano (Glénat) — about the life of a nineteen year old student who secretly works as an escort girl
• Silent Jenny, by Mathieu Bablet (Rue de Sevres/Label 619) — an ecologically ravaged future tale and the woman who hopes to save it. Will be published in English from Magnetic Press in 2026
• Soli Deo Gloria [tr. ‘Glory be to God’], by Jean-Christophe Deveney & Édouard Cour (Dupuis) — about the lifechanging power of music 

The twenty book longlist included the French editions James Sturm & Joe Sutphin’s adaptation of Richard Adams’ Watership Down (published by Monsieur Toussaint Louverture), and Patrick Horvath’s Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees (Ankama). The finalists were selected by a panel of 35 members of the general public.

The winner, picked by a jury of journalists and booksellers, will be announced January 7 as part of ‘Comics Month’ in France. The Prix de la BD debuted with the 2019 edition as a partnership between public radio broadcaster France Inter and retailer Fnac. Winning titles get prominent placement in Fnac stores which gives them a significant sales bump. The 2025 winner was the French edition of Will McPhail’s In, published as Au-Dedans by 404 Éditions – to date it has sold around 28,000 copies in France, according to NielsenIQ BookData.

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RTL Grand Prix de la BD winner

Étienne Davodeau‘s Là où tu vas, voyage au pays de la mémoire qui flanche [tr. ‘Wherever You Go, Journey to the Land of Fading Memories’], published by Futuropolis was picked as the 2025 winner of RTL’s Grand Prix de la BD on December 2. The book follows the author’s partner, Françoise Roy, a healthcare worker that cares for dementia and Alzheimer’s patients. The book was also nominated for the France Info graphic journalism award. Davodeau is better known in France for his documentary-style comics and has had a few English-language releases already – including The Initiates (NBM, 2018), and fiction titles Lulu, Anew (NBM, 2015) and The Cross-Eyed Mutt (NBM, 2017).

The RTL Grand Prix de la BD is (another) comics prize sponsored by a broadcaster (the RTL media conglomerate) in partnership with a retailer (Cultura). Begun in 2004, the winners are selected by a panel of booksellers and journalists from RTL’s ‘Comic of the Month’ picks over the past year.

….And that’s a wrap (phew). Anything we missed? Let us know!