The Angoulême comics festival, one of the most famous in the world, is in “mortal danger”, twenty Grand Prix winners, including Anouk Ricard, Lewis Trondheim, Jacques Tardi and Riad Sattouf, warned this Monday in L’Humanité, while calls for a boycott of the event are growing.
“The festival has accumulated scandals, miscommunications and a lack of ambition, all of this in a state of management obscurity,” denounced a forum of signatories calling for “rapid and profound change” through the withdrawal of the festival’s historic manager, 9eArt+, who was reappointed on Saturday as the event’s organizer.
“This is the right time to turn the page on 9eArt+ so that the festival can rediscover, with a new operator, the values that have built its international reputation,” continued the Grand Prize winners.
The company 9eArt+, organizer since 2007, updated on Saturday following a call for tenders that was criticized for its lack of clarity. However, his party was asked to partner with the Cité Internationale de la BD to organize the edition starting in 2028.
“Comics deserve better”
This announcement raised the ire of much of the comics sector, after the 2025 edition was marked by a serious crisis of confidence towards 9eArt+, which was accused of commercial misconduct, obscurity, and firing an employee following a rape complaint in 2024.
On social networks, calls for a boycott have increased in recent days, made by big names in comics such as Pénélope Bagieu or Catherine Meurisse. “Like many other authors, I will not sign at the festival in January”, because “comics deserve better”, defended the “Culottées” author on Instagram around #NOFIBD2026.
On Monday, Anouk Ricard, winner of the 2025 Grand Prix in Angoulême, said he was “appalled” by the choice to renew the festival’s historic delegation, justifying his choice to boycott the event.
Responding to AFP, the Ministry of Culture regretted that “the outlines of the next edition remain unclear, despite the ongoing efforts of public funders and the hopes of authors, publishers and festivalgoers”. Cité internationale de la BD and 9eArt+ have until November 20 to present the joint project. The Culture Ministry said it was waiting for “the results of discussions to take a definite position”.
