The winner of girls’s life-style journal ELLE ‘s second annual Grand Prix de la BD [Comics Grand Prize] was announced in Paris last week and it was revealed that the twenty-five person jury came out with a tie: David Sala‘s Le poids des héros [tr. ‘The Weight of Heroes‘] and Jean Marc Rochette‘s La dernière reine [tr: ‘The Last Queen‘] – both published by Casterman. Of the two winners Rochette’s made the Angoulême 2023 Official Selection.
The ELLE Grand Prix de la BD started final 12 months, with the debuting winner being Corinne Rey/Coco‘s Charlie Hebdo restoration story Dessiner encore [tr. ‘Drawing Again‘]. Fifteen graphic novels are chosen by ELLE, from which a panel of twenty-five readers then vote on the winner.
In the fifteen guide shortlist for this 12 months’s prize, two English-originated books confirmed up within the operating – the French editions of Alison Bechdel‘s The Secret of Superhuman Strength (Le secret de la power surhumaine from Denoël Graphic) and Jennifer Hayden‘s The Story of My Tits (Nénés chéris from La Cité graphique).
Translated by DeepL:
“On Tuesday, December 6, 2022, the second annual Elle Grand Prix de la BD took place at the Publicis Drugstore on the Champs-Élysées. After religiously devouring the fifteen books in competition, our jury of twenty-five readers elected not one but two joint winners! This year’s winners are: “Le poids des héros”, by David Sala (Casterman) and “La dernière reine”, by Jean-Marc Rochette (Casterman). The authors obtained their trophies from the arms of the 2021 winner, Coco, for “Dessiner Encore” (Les Arènes BD).”
The Joint-Winning Books (with DeepL-translated synopses)
Le poids des héros [tr. ‘The Weight of Heroes‘] , David Sala (Casterman)
Translated Synopsis:
“In Le Poids des héros, David Sala traces his early personal trajectory marked by the mentor figures of his grandfathers, war heroes and resistance fighters. By summoning his point of view as a little boy, he plunges us into a majestic and abundant exploration of childhood and adolescence. The use of the imagination allows us to approach the dark areas and the flaws from a safe distance, while recomposing a universal learning and transmission path for the reader. Without forgetting the imperishable taste of bike races, the discovery of the first US rap songs, the first times of artistic initiation at the Emile Cohl school.”
La dernière reine [tr: ‘The Last Queen‘], Jean Marc Rochette (Casterman)
Translated synopsis:
“A battle-scarred man from World War I, Edouard Roux finds refuge within the studio of the animal sculptor Jeanne Sauvage. She offers him a face and introduces him to the artists of Montmartre. In trade, Édouard introduces her to the majesty of the Vercors plateau and the story of the final bear he noticed killed as a toddler. In the center of the Cirque d’Archiane, he reveals the Last Queen to her and encourages Jeanne to create the masterpiece that may make her well-known.
“In the vein of the good serial novels of the nineteenth century, The Last Queen crosses the destinies of the final bear of the Vercors and of Edouard Roux, the damaged face of World War II.
“As in Le Loup, man and animal confront each other in a powerful story, mixing ecological questions, feminism, love story and art history.”
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