Fauve d’or “color of things” and the remaining winners – Liberation
The best album was awarded to Martin Panchaud’s album, which tells the story of a 14-year-old English boy who is the victim of ridicule from his friends.
Winning the Fauve d’or for best album at the Angoulême International Comic Strip Festival last night, it’s as exciting as it is exciting: then Listen, beautiful Marcia Last year Marcello Quintanilha, this the color of things by Martin Panchaud, who won the supreme prize. A completely unexpected double for the small publishing house “There and”, which four years ago was afraid of going out of business due to lack of sales (see our interview with its founder Serj Ewencyzk).
Color of things Born in Geneva in 1982, Swiss Martin Panchaud is the fruit of ten years of work and the first major comic book. We follow the adventures of 14-year-old Simon, who is overweight and has a problem with violence, growing up between an oppressive father who is addicted to horse racing and a withdrawn mother who makes him mysterious. “esoteric cakes” for the seer of the city. Thanks to the latter, one day, under the pressure of his “friends”, he secretly goes to bet on the row with the Australian horse with the money he stole from his parent’s drawer. “Suffering from jet lag” and which no one believes. Head-turning: now the unloved child earns £16 million. But the disappearance of the money in the drawer causes a terrible argument between the parents. A little later, the father disappeared and the mother was found in a pool of blood, alive but in a coma. Then the teenager embarks on an improbable search for his father (partially due to the fact that he can’t reclaim his jackpot without his parents’ signature because he’s a minor), during which surprising characters appear: a crane operator, an old man. whale…
In addition to the fascinating plot, rich in inconsistencies, it is the style of the presentation that captivates and arouses the unanimity of the jury, chaired by Alexandre Astier, in an unexpected scene (“I was ready to fight!” he puffs out his chest and jokes). The designer actually chooses a vision from above, like a road map, on which small colored disks develop as characters. Two or three pages in, we tell ourselves that there is an unsettling and rigid bias before we become completely absorbed in this amusingly schematic ballet. The author of computer graphics already implemented this system in an entire episode Star Warsbut also experimented with all kinds of schematic representations, narrative or not, inspired for example by tactical sketches of football coaches (City Art Velodrome, 2020). A strange sensitivity to geometric figures came to him, which he attributes to his dyslexia. This comic book project, patiently shaped over ten years, earned him an incentive award from the city of Geneva in 2012 while it was still in the prototype stage. In 2020, it finally appears in Switzerland, but with the German-language publisher Modern Editions, so in a translated version. Then he set out relentlessly to find a French-language publisher. The author tells us about the special closeness of “There and Here”: “Recently I came across a notebook from 2013 marked ‘There and There.’ I circled it, then crossed it out, I said “non-Francophone” because that’s Serge’s line. Later, during a residency in Paris, I discovered an extraordinary book published by this Polish architect Lukacz Wojciechowski (New city, Note). I knew this book was where I wanted it, and I would wait as long as it took.”
Full list:
Dear animals: Junji Itō and Ryoichi Ikegami
Favorite special edition of the 50th edition: Hajime Isayama
France Television Audience Award: Naphthalene By Sole Otero – Translated by Éloïse de la Maison (There and here)
A favorite of high school students: Letter Ximo Abadía – Translated by Anne Kalmels and David Schalvelzon, (The Joy of Reading)
Fausta’s Revelation: A tree frog in the fall (and more…) Linnea Sterte – Translation by Astrid Boitel (Les Éditions de la Cerise)
Fawn Series: Blood relation T.11 by Shuzo Oshimi – Translated by Sébastien Ludmann (Ki-oon)
Special Juror Fau: animator By Anouk Ricard (Example)
Fauve d’or – award for the best album: Color of things Martin Panchaud (here and there)
Philippe Druillet Award: A cliff Manon Debaye (Sarbacane)
Konishi Award for Best Translation: Dai Dark – Volume 1 by Q Hayashida, Translated by Sylvain Chollet (Soleil)
René Goscinny Award for Best Screenplay: For Thierry Smolderen Ghosts of the Past Machina. Painting by Jorge Gonzalez (Dargaud)
René Goscinny Award for Young Screenwriter: For Mieke Versyp Leather. Painting by Sabien Clement (here and there)
Youth: The Long Walk of the Turks Leonie Bischoff and Bathleen Carr (Rue de Sèvres)
Young Grand Jury Special Fauve: All princesses die after midnight Quentin Zuttion (Lombard)
Fauve polar SNCF: Hound Dog Nicolas Pegon (Denoel Graphic)
Alternative comic award: Oven From Calc (Extinció Edicions)
Eco-Fauve Raja: Under the sun Ana Peñas – Translation by Benoît Mitaine (Actes Sud L’An 2)
Fauve heritage: stone flowers By Hisashi Sakaguchi – Translated by Ilan Nguyen, Revival
