ANGOULÊME: Enraged publishers seek removal of Bondoux, Mayor gets involved

1 day ago 4

The list of exits grows. Now nearly all of the biggest publishers in French comics have cancelled their presence at Angoulême International Comics Festival 2026 in response to Franck Bondoux’s company 9e Art+ remaining as operator until 2036. Festival owner Assocation FIBD has been given a November 17 deadline to come up with an acceptable alternative – including the immediate removal of Bondoux – or they all walk. By Tuesday evening it was being indicated that the local government may take over.

According to Libération, the entire Média Participations group have now cancelled – including Dupuis, Dargaud, Lombard, manga publisher Kana and localizer of American material Urban Comics. Also the Madrigall group (Casterman, Denoël Graphic, Futuropolis, Sarbacane and Gallimard BD). As of Wednesday morning, Delcourt has exited. Glénat’s presence at the festival hangs by a thread. The majority of independent and alternative publishers have also cancelled their booths.

A new twist emerged on Tuesday evening as the mayor of Angoulême, Xavier Bonnefont, has fully involved himself in the crisis. He has given the Association FIBD until November 17 to remove Franck Bondoux and 9e Art+ from the new contract – thereby leaving it solely in the hands of the publicly owned Cité de la BD – starting in 2028 or the association will have its ownership control of the festival stripped away. Bonnefont will also try and have Bondoux and 9e Art+ exit the current contract which runs until 2027. Ironically – as we covered previously – the reason for Bondoux’s rise and the emergence of 9e Art+ was because the local government wanted to take control of the festival from the association.

Bonnefont, who has been the elected mayor of Angoulême since 2014 and is up for reelection in March 2026, said to France3 [translation via DeepL]:

“I hope to call time on the matter this week with the Association FIBD in a climate that will allow for a smooth transition and the best possible operation of the 2026 edition…[W]hat I’m going to focus on doing with all of the Cité de la BD’s public partners is to see how we can move the festival forward. We want to build together and return to a moment of calm. The situation cannot continue…It is unthinkable for Angoulême not to have a 2026 edition.”

He added:

“As mayor of Angoulême, I am taking responsibility and am prepared to put an end, perhaps, to an association-based arrangement…The company 9e Art+ will also have to agree to step down.”

On Monday night a heated online conference between publishers and the mayor of Angoulême took place. None were happy with the Association FIBD’s decision to essentially hand the organisational reins of the festival back to the contentious Franck Bondoux and his company 9e Art+, which has caused the majority of their authors to boycott the show in disgust.

On November 8, following a supposed open call for alternative proposals for the future running of the event by Association FIBD (where the expected three finalists turned out to be two), the association requested that publicly-owned body Cité de la BD and 9e Art+ were to figure out a joint premise for the nine year contract starting in 2028. This outcome would keep 9e Art+ at the heart of one of the most important events in world comics despite years of complaints and public scandal until 2036. The open call was likewise criticised because the conditions of the judicial process – such as the inclusion of at least one independent third party to oversee and participate – was not upheld, and the other applicants were not given clear reasons for being turned away. On November 10 it emerged that Franck Bondoux had threatened lawsuits if his company did not receive the new operating contract.

Bondoux and his private company 9e Art+ have been a target of growing ire over the twenty years that they have been running the festival. Accusations range from a lack of transparency of operations, financial irregularities, toxic management culture, over-commercialisation (with some sponsors being particularly controversial), and more. In January, Humanité released a damning report which also brought to light allegations that a contractor was raped at the 2024 event then dismissed when they raised the matter internally. Also a source of frustration is treatment of creators who have busy schedules during the event but are given zero privileges such as a break area, or a chance to jump the long (sometimes hour-long) queues for the popular exhibitions exclusive to the festival weekend. Even the winners of the annual awards – the highest in French comics – are snubbed by Bondoux, who is officially the General Delegate of the festival.

With the current state of walkouts (on Monday the count had been at least 40), the festival’s enormous marquees of comics marketplaces would be either empty of venders or close to. And with no authors present to do signings, sketches, or panels the festival is pretty hollowed out.

There are also reports that authors who are receiving spotlight exhibitions for the festival weekend in 2026 are now requesting their publishers have them cancelled too. According to a Le Monde report, David Prudhomme and Mathieu Bablet requested this of their publishers. While Bablet’s exhibition (published by Rue de Sevres/Label 619) had yet to be officially announced, the David Prudhomme retrospective La vie d’un trait [tr: Life in one go] (in partnership with Futuropolis) announced October 14 has now disappeared from the website. The same may occur for the Émilie Tronche exhibition (with Casterman and film company Les Valseurs), which was announced October 31.

Prior to the November 8 decision, Angoulême had already begun the promotional rounds for the January 2026 edition – beginning the annual youth comics competitions, and announcing the first major exhibitions. Already two manga exhibitions (Hitoshi Iwaaki’s Parasyte and a Kazuo Umezz retrospective) and others were announced – not least 2025 Grand Prix Anouk Ricard’s own retrospective exhibition, which is still theoretically on the cards but will be devoid of her involvement as she has declared her own boycott.

The Angoulême Festival (full title: Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Angoulême, otherwise called Angoulême FIBD) is one of the largest comics events in the world. Attracting 150,000 to 200,000 visitors annually, it is the third largest after Comiket in Japan and Lucca Comics & Games in Italy. Begun in 1974, it takes place in the medieval town at the centre of a small city in Southwest France, not far from Bordeaux. The festival has transformed the city, becoming home to one of the largest comics museums in the world and a number of art schools and studios. Along with the public-facing exhibitions and commercial marquees, the festival has a dedicated international comics rights market. The largest in the world focused exclusively on the medium, the rights market attracts publishers from across the globe and a number of critically acclaimed releases Stateside have been sourced from there.