Brussels’ thirteenth BD Comic Strip Festival introduced the recipients of the 2022 Prix Atomium de la Bande Dessinée over the weekend. There was an eclectic mixture of winners, and cartoonist Judith Vanistendael obtained a profession achievement award.
According to the PR:
“Brussels is a hotbed of creativity and the comic strip industry is particularly well represented there. Nevertheless, comic strip creation has been weakened in recent years and professionals sometimes have difficulty making a living from their art. To support authors, the Brussels authorities have for six years now awarded the Atomium Comic Strip Prizes as part of the BD Comic Strip Festival. Most of these are cash prizes to enable the winners to finance their work. This year, €95,000 will be distributed between the nine prizes.”
Winners of the 2022 Atomium Prizes ranged from a choose-your-own-adventure type graphic novel about the trials and tribulations of being a feminine creator in the male-dominated, precarious lifetime of the European BD scene – Emilie Plateau‘s L’épopée infernale (tr. The Infernal Journey); a homosexual love story throughout the generational divide – Cyril Legrais and Alice V.D.M‘s, Les oies cendrées (tr. Greylag Geese); and an author’s haunting grief of a sibling misplaced too younger – Jean-Louis Tripp‘s Le petit frère (tr: Little Brother).
Denis Lapière, Daniel Couvreur and Christian Durieux‘s Le Faux Soir (tr. The False Soir) primarily based on the true story of an underground satirical newspaper produced in Belgium throughout Nazi occupation obtained two awards – the 2022 Atomium Brussels, for work set in Brussels, and the Cognito historic comics prize.
Judith Vanistendael obtained a profession achievement award. Trained at artwork faculties in Belgium and Germany, Vanistendael has produced comics, zines and kids’s image books since the 2000s. Several of her graphic novels have been launched in English, by way of SelfMadeHero – these embody the semiautobiographical Dance by the Light of the Moon; the 2014 Eisner-award nominated When David Lost His Voice; and Mark Bellido-collaboration Mikel.
Check out the full listing of winners with the DeepL translated ebook synopses.
RAYMOND LEBLANC PRIZE FOR YOUNG ARTISTS: Cyril Legrais & Alice V.D.M, Les oies cendrées (tr. Greylag Geese)
Prize for creators that haven’t printed greater than two books
Award: €10,000 and a publishing contract with Editions Futuropolis
Jury Verdict:
“A delicate subject treated with sensitivity and tenderness… A love story between two men with a significant age difference is not commonplace in usual comic strip representations. The simple fact of featuring an older “hero” isn’t frequent. The energy of this challenge lies not solely in the proven fact that it shatters taboos (sexuality of senior residents, homosexuality, and so forth.) but in addition in the proven fact that it creates a lovely story, enhanced by elegant slicing, which can soften the hardest hearts.”
WALLONIA-BRUSSELS FEDERATION COMICS PRIZE : Emilie Plateau, L’épopée infernale (tr. The Infernal Journey), MISMA publications
Prize for work by creators primarily based in the Wallonia-Brussels area of Belgium
Award: €10,000
Synopsis:
“With L’EPOPEE INFERNALE, Emilie Plateau parodies the mythical ” You are the hero ” books that we learn as youngsters in the 90s. Except that as an alternative of dwelling a heroic fantasy epic, we’ll undergo the each day misadventures of a comic book ebook writer.
“From the sending of a brand new manuscript to publishing homes to its publication in print, together with invites to festivals and bookstore signings, Emilie Plateau examines the microcosm of the comedian ebook business with a fine-toothed comb, exposing with humor the precarious state of affairs of authors usually in addition to the lengthy wrestle of ladies in an setting that’s nonetheless all too usually sexist and misogynistic.
“Readers will have to make crucial choices to progress in this interactive quest and avoid the pitfalls of a journey full of pitfalls. And who knows? Perhaps in the end they will win the Holy Grail coveted by so many comic book authors: the Fauve d’or at Angoulême!”
Jury Verdict:
“”L’épopée infernale” (éd. Misma, 2022) is a a number of alternative ebook. Emilie Plateau makes use of the codes of “books in which you are the hero/heroine”. It humorously and sensitively reveals the trials and tribulations of her avatar, the writer Emily D. Plateu, as she finds her place in the comedian ebook world.
“Emilie Plateau shows a constant willingness in her creative approach and in the graphic and narrative approach to complex subjects: gender identity, place of women in art and culture, recognition of graphic authors, treatment of minorities, etc. She was primarily noticed for “Noire, la vie méconnue de Claudette Colvin”, an adaptation of a textual content by Tania de Montaigne (2019). Emilie Plateau additionally devotes an excessive amount of power to collective fanzine and micro-publishing initiatives”
BRUSSELS ATOMIUM PRIZE : Denis Lapière, Daniel Couvreur & Christian Durieux, Le Faux Soir (tr. False Soir), éditions Futurolopis
Atomium Prize for comics set in Brussels
Award: €7,500
Synopsis:
“On November 9, 1943, the Belgian resistance succeeded in the most audacious coup in the history of the underground press by distributing, under the nose of the Nazi occupiers, a pastiche of the “Soir volé”, the Belgian each day newspaper confiscated from its homeowners by the Propaganda Abteilung, which had additionally changed its pre-war journalists with an editorial employees made up of zealots of the new order. 50,000 copies have been distributed both in the regular circuit or by means of clandestine channels at 10 francs apiece with a purpose to finance the Independence Front. On November 9, 1943, the nice burst of laughter that swept by means of occupied Belgium was heard in the Allied capitals, London and Washington. If the Faux Soir was an illustration of the Brussels Zwanze, it was above all an act of bravery and resistance that earned its authors dying or jail. This fascinating story questions the energy of phrases and satire as a weapon of resistance in opposition to all oppressions.”
Jury Verdict:
“In Le Faux Soir, Daniel Couvreur, head of the tradition division of the newspaper Le Soir, conducts an investigation into the unimaginable historical past of this excessive level of the Belgian resistance. The journalist is accompanied on this story by the scriptwriter Denis Lapière, the cartoonist Christian Durieux and the editor Sébastien Gnaedig. The story alternates between the present investigation and recontextualised historic episodes. The jury was significantly impressed by the success of this earlier than and after in Brussels. This comedian ebook will remind all generations of the daring resistance operation carried out by the press division of the Independence Front. With the assist of accomplices in the ‘stolen Soir’, the resistance secretly printed and distributed a pretend model of Le Soir in Brussels newsstands on 9 November 1943. The Faux Soir brazenly mocked the Nazi occupiers by means of articles stuffed with the mocking spirit of the Brussels zwanze. Let us keep in mind that the authors can pay for this act of non-violent resistance with their lives or their freedom.“
LA PREMIÈRE GRAPHIC NOVEL PRIZE: Jean-Louis Tripp, Le petit frère (tr: Little Brother), éditions Casterman
Graphic Novel prize for works that resonated with listeners of Belgian radio station La Première.
Award: Recipient will get €20,000 in promoting house, in addition to appreciable editorial presence on the media channels of La Première radio station.
Synopsis:
“One evening in August 1976. Jean-Louis is 18 years old. It is the time of family vacations, of the great heat and of carefree life… But a brutal event will interrupt everything: Gilles, Jean-Louis’ brother, is mowed down by a car. Transported to the hospital, the boy succumbs to his injuries a few hours later. For Jean-Louis, haunted by guilt, a difficult journey of mourning begins… 45 years later, the author chooses to go back over this episode and to go through each moment of the drama again. With frankness and sensitivity, he probes his memory and that of his family to recount the immediate and more distant aftermath of the accident, struggling to draw the tragic loss of a little brother of 11 years who continues to exist in his family history…”
Jury Verdict:
“The jury of the Première Graphic Novel Prize 2022 wanted to reward a work that, in sharing the most intimate part of a person, manages to touch on the universal. The mourning that Jean-Louis Tripp recounts, the loss of his little brother, deeply moved our six jurors. One confided that he had to step away for a while before continuing his reading, another said he was overwhelmed, while yet another highlighted the silences that run through this work. Jean-Louis Tripp tells the story of himself and his loved ones with sensitivity and precision, without pathos but also without concessions, and this is how he communed with everyone who read him – he spoke to them about their own story as well, a story of living with death. A story of presence despite absence.”
COGNITO PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL COMICS:
Denis Lapière, Daniel Couvreur & Christian Durieux, Le Faux Soir (tr: The False Soir), éditions Futuropolis
Prize: €3,000
Jury Verdict:
“The jury unanimously awarded the Cognito Prize to the book Le Faux Soir by Denis Lapière, Daniel Couvreur and Christian Durieux. The album vividly recounts how in 1943, a small group of Belgian resistance fighters wrote and distributed 50,000 copies of a satirical version of the newspaper Le Soir (which had been confiscated by the Nazis and used for German propaganda). This incredible adventure had an impact not only in Belgium but throughout Europe. At a time when we are invaded by lies and misinformation, we thought it would be salutary to remind ourselves how effective humour can be against all forms of political and intellectual dictatorship.”
LE SOIR PRIZE FOR GRAPHIC REPORTAGE: Can Dündar & Anwar, Erdogan le nouveau sultan (tr. Erdogan, the new sultan), éditions Delcourt
Award: €20,000 in promoting house, in addition to appreciable editorial presence on the media channels of the newspaper Le Soir.
Synopsis:
“Two opponents of the Turkish regime and exiles, one a cartoonist, the other a journalist, have chosen the formula of the graphic novel to tell the story of the life and career of Recep Erdogan. A graphic novel that required extensive research, describing the political climate of an era and the rise of Turkey’s strongman, from his childhood to the highest level of power”
Jury Verdict:
“Who is behind President Erdogan? In a perfectly documented graphic novel, Turkish journalist Can Dündar and Egyptian cartoonist Jbr Anwar recount how this pious little boy, who dreamed of being a football star, became a political animal feared and idolised by an entire people. Since childhood, Erdogan has always had faith in his grip and in his destiny. In his mind, democracy was never a goal but a means to power. He removed the opponents to his ascent one by one, by force or by cunning, until he became the new sultan of the Republic of Turkey. Dündar and Anwar shed light on the meteoric career of this figure who is now a fixture on the international political scene.”
ATOMIUM SPIROU YOUNG AUTHORS PRIZE: “Bravo Zulu“, Jean-Christophe Targa
Kids prize by Spirou journal the place members produce a four-page comedian that includes basic Franco-Belgian characters Spirou and Fantasio. Restricted to below 18s who’ve printed not more than three comics beforehand.
Award: Recipients are printed in Spirou journal and paid at the identical charge as professionals.
Jury Verdict:
“In 2022, the editors were won over by the freshness of the story “Bravo Zulu” by Jean-Christophe Targa, who offers delight of place to the creativeness of youngsters throughout the holidays and sprinkled his story with unimaginable innovations {that a} sure Count of Champignac will surely not resign. Lastly, we significantly appreciated the flowing traces worthy of the Spirou spirit chosen to narrate this summer season fantasy.”
BRONZEN ADHEMAR PRIZE: Judith Vanistendael
Biennial award, since 1977 for Flemish authors. An award for complete physique of labor.
Award: €10,000 and an exhibition in Turnhout
Jury Verdict:
“By a majority vote, the jury determined to award the Bronzen Adhemar Prize to Judith Vanistendael for her spectacular physique of labor, her robust persona, her creativity, her immense expertise as a cartoonist and the influential position she performs with the youthful era of comedian ebook artists. It is subsequently solely pure that she must be awarded the most vital comedian ebook prize in Flanders in 2022.
“Vanistendael consistently delivers good comics with social relevance, each time in a different style that still bears her stamp. Not only is her work remarkable, but her influence on the younger generation of comic creators has not escaped the jury’s notice.”
ATOMIUM CITIZEN’S COMIC STRIP PRIZE : Nicolas Wild, À la maison des femmes (tr: In the Maison des Femmes), éditions Delcourt/Encrages
A prize bestowed on works that deal with modern social points at an area stage.
Award: €5,000
Synopsis:
“Violence against women is more visible than before. But these gains are fragile and there is always the fear that the moment will not last. Willing people have gathered at the Maison des Femmes, Plaine Saint Denis, who are determined to help those who need it. Nicolas Wild, a real emotional sponge, went to interview them.”
Jury Verdict:
“Violence against women is at the heart of this fantastic and moving spotlight on an institution located just outside Paris, La Maison des Femmes. A work created with humility and without otherworldliness by an author who truly loves their subject, À La Maison Des Femmes bears witness to the day-to-day commitment of true modern heroines. The comic book gives voice to a multitude of stakeholders and addresses an impressive array of different and complex issues, but never without hope and constructive solutions. Each situation is described by Nicolas Wild on a human level, without great flights of fancy or obscure language. Just with infinite sincerity.”
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