French graphic novel auteur Christophe Chabouté has been awarded the 2025 Landernau Prize for his latest book Plus loin qu’ailleurs (tr. “Further Than Elsewhere”). He receives €6,000 (~$7,000), and his book gets a major promotional boost across 233 E.Leclerc Espaces Culturels retail points across France.
The Prix Landernau is a literary prize founded by French entrepreneur and business tycoon Michel-Édouard Leclerc. Begun in 2008, it presently has four categories: novels, children’s books, crime/thrillers (Polars), and comics (bande dessinée, BD). The comics prize was introduced in 2012. Last year’s prize winner was Ulysse et Cyrano, written by Antoine Cristau and Xavier Dorison, art by Stéphane Servain; published by Casterman.
Referred to as the Landernau Prix BD, the comics award is selected by a jury of eleven E. Leclerc booksellers from across France, who are chaired by an established comics author. The 2025 Landernau Prix BD chair was Catel Muller, the artist best known (alongside writer José-Louis Bocquet) for women’s graphic biographies – including Kiki de Montparnasse, Josephine Baker, and Alice Guy (all available in English from SelfMadeHero).
Founded in 1948, E.Leclerc is one of the dominant supermarket/hypermarket retail chains in France by both market share and turnover. It has over 700 stores and the larger ones (233) have dedicated spaces – Espaces Culturels – for multimedia entertainment which very much includes books and comics. France is the largest book market in Europe and bande dessinée is the second largest book retail category so the level of promotion guaranteed by the award should give a decent sales bump.
Already a multi award winner in France, Chabouté has had a number of excellent titles in English – from fiction like The Park Bench, Alone; to adaptations, like Herman Melville‘s Moby Dick, Jack London‘s To Build A Fire, and Benoît Cohen‘s Yellow Cab. As described by French literary site Actualitté, his work “explores stories centered on solitary lives, inner journeys, and fleeting moments”.
Published by Vents d’Ouest in France, Further Than Elsewhere is another meditative piece that focuses on a man who has remained in Alaska. Actualitté says [translated via DeepL]:
“He ‘dreamed of leaving, but was forced to stay… So he left by staying.’ This idea structures the entire book, which offers a reflection on how a familiar landscape can become the object of a personal quest. Repeated gestures, minute observations, and variations in light become the driving forces behind a small-scale narrative.
“The book invites us to look at familiar places differently by focusing on elements that are, at first glance, secondary. It takes a slow and contemplative approach, centered on wonder at what usually escapes the eye. This approach echoes Chabouté’s recurring concerns about margins, loneliness, and micro-events.”
The last time a Chabouté work got the translation treatment was Yellow Cab, from IDW in 2022. The Benoît Cohen adaptation was first published in French with Vents d’Ouest in 2021. Further Than Elsewhere is Chabouté second book since then – after 2023’s Musée [tr. ‘Museum‘]. Hopefully at least one of these intriguing works will get picked up for English release soon.
