Quebec at Angoulême 2025: Is this the year the bubble burst?

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Marc Tessier | March 10, 2025

For 52 years the city of Angoulême in south-west France has become the epicenter of the francophone comic world for a few days every January. This ancient, fortified city housing 50,000 souls welcomes close to 200,000 festival goers and the movers and shakers of the French-Belgian bande dessinée empire, four times the city’s population. Part of l’UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network, this beacon of comics art and history has a museum of comics (CNBDI), an artists’ residency and an archival library, all steered wisely by the International City of Comics and Images (la Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l’image). Here comics have influenced the local urban landscape – city street names, a huge sculpted bust of Hergé, giant murals and shop storefronts showcasing comic art and artifacts. During the festival, this charming medieval city is literally invaded by hordes of comic lovers.

A love/hate relationship

Even if the smiles and joy this event generates go way beyond the gates of the city, this annual meeting generally stirs its lot of controversies. This year, just a few days before the festival opened, the newspaper L’Humanité uncovered the horrid story of the rape of Chloé, an employee of 9e Art (the organization tasked with running the festival) during the festival’s annual Saturday party in 2024. On top of immediately firing the woman, 9e art director Frank Bondoux dismissed the accusations without a hint of empathy. A huge number of artists and publishers immediately came out in support of the victim. In the Nouveau Monde site that houses the smaller publishers, every stand had a poster that said, "Chloé, on te croit" ("Chloé, we believe you"). When the prizes were given out, every winner and nominee touched upon the subject and the lack of responsible action from 9e Art. Discussions were held among publishers about not returning to the event next year and forming an official OFF festival instead.

This scandal was the fuse that lit past frustrations regarding 9e Art’s toxic management of the festival, a lack of opacity regarding its finances, hints of nepotism and dragging the event toward a more commercial outlook. These days, it seems it’s not about celebrating the medium of comics, its artists or writers. The Festival international de la bande dessinée d’Angoulême seems to be first and foremost about growth and making money.

Respected author, publisher and French essayist Jean-Christophe Menu who has been coming to the festival for 40 years is one of its most vocal critics. At the end of the eighties, he put out an OFF daily newspaper on the sidelines of the festival with artists from the alternative scene (that would turn into the French publisher L’Association a few years later). In 2005, he published Plates-bandes (a play on words with a double meaning: boring comics and also a barren landscape). In it, he criticized the general moribund French publishing milieu and the festival.

Has Menu’s opinion on Angoulême changed? "Having a booth here, I feel there is no respect towards me as an author and publisher," he said. "The last few years, I tried to get in touch with the festival for a number of reasons. There was no one to talk to, no artistic direction and no one in the organization who knows anything about bande dessinée. That’s a problem. It’s like we’re going backwards."

While walking around the site, we noticed the dreaded hunters of sketches with huge bags full of books to sign. They come to Angoulême to line up for hours to get a sketch in their books (often wearing a dunce cap this year in reference to a popular manga). The others, who come here for a more humane exchange with their favorite artists show a healthy curiosity as they try to discover hidden gems and new, exciting authors. These two visions of the festivals are further emphasized as most of the curious crowd winds up in the Bulle du Nouveau Monde (with the smaller publishers) and the sketch hunters go to the more commercial Le Monde des Bulles (with the big time conglomerate publishers).

Our main objective in going to Angoulême this year was to cover for The Comics Journal the Québécois delegation and talk about its artists. Some are a bit known outside of Quebec but most aren’t because they publish books in French in a huge English North American market.

The are some exceptions, like Quebec City native Philippe Girard, whose book Leonard Cohen: On a Wire was a great success for D&Q in English and for Casterman in French. He has just published a book on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry for Quebec publisher La Pastèque.

Does he feel the difference as he shuffles back and forth between the Bulle du Nouveau Monde and Le Monde des Bulles? "Most readers come up to me the same way, without distinction on where I will be signing," he said. "In 99% of cases, it’s because of the book. It’s the subject matter that attracts them. As for the rest, the environment here has changed so much in the last 20 years that although they are still those who hunt for a drawing, most of the readers that I meet are above all interested in the authors. To ask for a sketch is just an excuse to get to know the artist; you can feel it from both sides, that is what makes this contact special for them, meeting the author in person."

We also noticed a few differences from previous years. The climate seemed way more tense. As 2025 marks the ten-year anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris, groups of French soldiers were everywhere patrolling the site, each holding a very big machine gun walking beside families carrying bags filled with graphic novels and their kids wearing Spirou bellhop hats. A striking contrast! On Saturday a peaceful march in support of Chloé began, which resulted in city hall (where we and other journalists gather every year) being quickly evacuated. At every Bulle entrance and official events, systematic searches were performed on everyone who wanted to attend or enter. As Canadians, we were constantly asked by the French how we felt about becoming the 51st state of the U.S. The French were joking about this with us but there was a serious tone underneath and they were very aware of what was happening in the States with the Trump administration.

Quebec and Angoulême

The French-Québécois scene has been able to develop strong ties with the festival over the years. A few delegations of artists have been visiting Angoulême since 1985. Local authors have won prestigious prizes over the years, like Michel Rabagliati (Prix du public for The Song of Roland in 2010 and a Fauve for best series for Paul at Home in 2021), Guy Delisle (Fauve d’or honouring the best book for Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City in 2012), Isabelle Arsenault (Fauve des écoles for Albert’s Quiet Place in 2020), Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny and Christian Quesnel (Éco-Fauve Radja for A Train in the Night: The Tragedy of Lac-Megantic in 2022) and Julie Doucet (Grand Prix de la ville d’Angoulême in 2022).

After an imposing delegation of 60 artists represented the whole of Canada in 2024, this year the festival was host to a smaller group of 20 Quebecois artists and a few English Canadians. In 1985, the very first delegation from Québec was organized, mostly artists from the satirical monthly magazine CROC. The aim of this delegation was to get a feel for the European market while also affirming that there were comics being produced in French in Québec. Rémy Simard was part of the group and, 40 years later, he’s back with this year’s delegation, making him the dean of this group.

"Back then, this was a unique opportunity to meet our idols, but in retrospect, the festival mostly helped me discover and get to know my Québécois colleagues that I had not met before. Back in those days, we barely had any books to show to the French public. It really was a first contact for all of us. We came back transformed and charged up," he said with a smile. Simard now specializes in drawing and writing graphic novels for the young people (while having a varied career over the years, including a stint as a publisher of graphic novels in the nineties).

Back in 2025, we can feel the same youthful enthusiasm from author Catherin’s whose new book Momm was published this autumn by Pow Pow. This was her first trip to Angoulême.

"Coming here, it’s like being at the comics Olympics or at the Oscars. My very first contact with the readers from France is fantastic," she said, wearing a huge smile and a sweater she knitted herself with the word Angoulême stitched on the front.

What does she think she’ll bring back from this experience? "So much love, I am taking it all in and enjoying every second."

The official Spanish pavilion. Spain was the official guest this year of the festival.

Angoulême, business as usual?

Luckily, things have changed since the first delegation from Quebec. Today, publishers La Pastèque and Pow Pow have their own stand in the Nouveau Monde section. The library of Quebec in Paris and the UNESCO pavilion play host to the artists from Canada that come to sign their books. A lot of Quebec authors and artists are also published by prestigious French publishers. That’s the case with Alain Chevarier and Mark McGuire, creators of the gripping Clay-Footed Giants, originally published in Quebec by Moelle grafik in 2022, then by Mad Cave Studios in 2024 for the American market, and now, in France by celebrated publisher Sarbacane. All this came about after their présentation in Angoulême during the Shoot the Book event in 2023. Alain and Mark had three minutes to pitch their story to an audience of television and film producers. A classic case of David vs Goliath! Last team to present, they easily outshined all previous presentations by big media conglomerates with their humor and honesty. This duo returned this year to sign their brand-new French edition.

"The Angoulême audience has already expressed a strong interest for our book in its original version. Two years ago, by Saturday, we had sold out of all our copies. Visitors to Angoulême are very curious and evidently, they like to go off the beaten path. Now, it’s mostly people in the industry that are changing their attitudes towards us when we mention Sarbacane. We are taken a bit more seriously," said illustrator and co-writer Chevarier. "Mark and I are meeting with our French agent that represents the book. Publishers in Russia, Vietnam, Poland, Portugal and a few others have shown a keen interest."

La Pastèque's Frédéric Gauthier and Martin Brault are used to coming to Angoulême, holding forth 25 times in past years and winning three major awards. "Even before publishing one single book, it became clear in our strategy as book sellers that to make it in Quebec, we had to break into the markets outside Canada. When we began publishing books, 60% of our revenues came from France. A trend that has since reversed itself. We first came to Angoulême in 1998. This visit led to us to signing a distribution contract with our French distributor at the time," Gauthier said. "Angoulême, because of its force of attraction and the attendance of foreign publishers, with whom it is possible to buy and sell book rights, makes it imperative for us to attend. That being said, our new growth strategy for France is to foster a tight collaboration with the bookstores here. We come here to meet them to plan and organize book tours with our authors."

The Trade Commissioner Service of Canada and the Canadian Embassy in France were at the international rights market to represent about a dozen publishers from all over Canada. Matt Joudrey from At Bay Press was on a short list of Canadian publishers who had 15 minutes to talk about his books to a room full of interested parties.

"The opportunity to present our comics at the biggest comics festival in the world, to publishers from countries all over the world, provides exceptional opportunities for our press and the authors we represent," he said. "Being able to put our catalogue in the context of publishing houses, agents, media representatives, and other creative entities generates significant attention for our titles and their respective creators. Having met with over 40 other publishing houses in three days who were interested in our rights, allows for the expansion of Canadian comics in a global way. Presenting adds a facet to these other opportunities that cannot be understated. The Canadian Comics Presentation that took place on day three of the rights fair was an exciting way to round out a busy schedule."

It is under that same roof that Renaud Plante (of the publishing imprints Front Froid and Nouvelle Adresse) spent most of his time in Angoulême. "It is an opportunity for us to meet foreign publishers and sell the rights to our books (and to buy the rights to some undiscovered gems!). We easily doubled and tripled our meetings compared to last year, our list of contacts is growing. It gives us hope for the years to come," he said. "Last year, we were not expecting anything, and we came back with a sale of one of our titles to Spain. This year, we had a sale in France, and we still have to follow up on our meetings. It bodes well."

Is finding a distributor in France the next step for Plante? "Last year we had meetings in the hopes of having a deal to distribute our books in France," he said. "To have a presence in the bookstores of France does not happen at the flick of a switch, it’s a long-term investment. It must be planned. The French market is so saturated. … For the time being, we want to come back to Angoulême and have a stand to sell books in 2026 or 2027."

What about the art?

On the Quebec side, we must admit that the the mediation to publicize the artistry of our local comics creators at Angoulême is quite thin. This edition of Angoulême had very little to offer within the official program. It's a sharp contrast to the 2023 edition, when there was a huge retrospective of Julie Doucet’s work and she took part in various official panels, including a round table coordinated by Maël Rannou on the last day of the festival with various Quebec authors like Obom, Julie Delporte, Siris and Marc Tessier. In 2000, Quebec was the official "country" invited and included a huge official delegation of 40 artists with a multimedia exhibition housed in the same location that featured Doucet’s retrospective in 2023. This exhibit, organized by William Swift and Stéphane Lemardelé, was a huge success, with 40 pieces that featured original comic art, paintings, sculptures and multimedia projections. Keep in mind that when Canada was officially invited last year, there was no original art, just a series of panels with reproductions.

This year the United States were represented by a major retrospective on Superman, which featured a lot of originals pages. John Romita Jr., was given an award for the whole of his career. He made an appreciated effort to speak in French and later gave a master class to a lucky few. England was also featured with the huge retrospective on Posy Simmonds, who won the Grand Prix de la ville d’Angoulême in 2024.

Aiming to be an international event, Angoulême is trying every year to be more accessible and attract more visitors, sometimes at the expense of the authors who would like the focus to be more on the artistry of making comics while using mediation to help the public appreciate and understand the different visions involved in making these bandes dessinées. Recent editions have seen this aspect melt away like snow in the sun, diminishing the diversity of the exhibits presented with less conferences and talks on comics. It is not surprising that in that context, a few alternative publishers like les Requins Marteaux – who won the Elvis d’or for best rock comic for the French translation of Mean Girls Club: Pink Dawn by Vancouver resident Ryan Heshka – decided to hold forth this year at the OFF site, away from the official festival as a sign of protest. They were followed there by Super Loto Éditions and Éditions Le Monte-en-l’air. Many others have talked about joining them next year and leaving the official festival.

The impact of winning a prize

Ongoing since the first edition of the festival in 1974, the awards in Angoulême are the most prestigious in the Francophone world. What do these prizes bring forth?

"It gives the books a boot in visibility in the French bookstores in Europe but also, they are featured and talked about in the media back home in Québec. After Michel Rabagliati won in 2010 his first prize in Angoulême for Paul in Québec, it was followed by an appearance on a popular television show! We had to go back to press and rush to quickly reprint all his Paul books," Frédéric Gauthier of La Pastèque said.

Quebec native Guy Delisle, nominated this year for his new book Muybridge, has been living in France for the past 30 years. He has steadily published, and his graphic novels reach a vast market. A nomination has a different impact on him.

"It’s like a small echo in the vast world of comics. It has nothing to do with an event like the Oscars. With that said, it is always a pleasure to be nominated. After the French version of Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City won, I received multiple invitations to attend festivals all over the world. The book surely sold more because of that. After, it’s back to work as usual," he said with a humble smile.

Even though Quebec was well represented in the official awards section this year with Mourir Pour la Cause (Are You Willing to Die for the Cause" in its French version published by Pow Pow) by Chris Oliveros (translated by Alexandre Fontaine Rousseau) and in the alternative prizes for best collective comics magazine by Planches, La Flopée, and KrRole – none won anything. Let it be known, though, just to be nominated in Angoulême is a victory by itself.

Conclusion

Our talks in Angoulême with various movers and shakers (publishers, authors, journalists and festival goers) led us to conclude that the local Quebec output of graphic novels is now well known beyond our borders. One thing is certain, Quebec has carved a solid spot in the international francophone landscape. Our authors are respected here, and we can have passionate discussions about the themes explored in our books.

Hearing the Quebec accent has become common in Angoulême. "I was walking alone in the streets of Angoulême towards the festival and I was surprised to hear myself say, seems like another day at the office! As if, coming here, has become a normal thing in my life as an author of comics. And to think, just a few years back, just the idea of someday coming here made me so excited," the author Cathon marveled.

Let’s hope this feeling of normality continues, especially in these uncertain times.