Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: Angoulême, france

Is The 2026 Angoulême Boycott Still On? Yes, No, Depends Who You Ask

Is The 2026 Angoulême Boycott Still On? Yes... and No.. It all pretty much depends upon who you ask.

At the beginning of the month, Bleeding Cool reported how hundreds of comic book creators had signed a petition to boycott next year's Angoulême festival, the second biggest comics art festival in the world, and the biggest in the Western World. The petition denounced the "toxic" contract held between the owners, FIBD, and the outsourced organisers 9e Art+ for nearly 20 years, noting that it had its "management practices" questioned in the press, including accounting opacity. suspicions of nepotism and commercial excess, as well as the treatment of a previous employee's sexual assault as a reason for the boycott, much of which came out of a long investigation by L'Humanité Magazine. There was also an existence of a plan to merge the festival with 9eArt+'s director Franck Bondoux, "between his company and the association that delegates the festival to him," which would have led to a permanent organisation deal, rather than the current renewed contracts. After this, the managers of 9ᵉ  Art+ decided to let go of the festival's former communications manager, who had filed a complaint after being sexually assaulted during last year's festival. This led to "Chloé, we believe you" posters placed across Angoulême this year. And the petition, launched just before meetings on the future of the show were due to take place, has seen many more sign it since.

As a result, some changes have been made. Or rather will be made. FIBD stated that new consultations would be held regarding the festival's organisation from 2028 onwards. Decisions about future direction would be made by a jury made up of FIBD members. And that FIBD would remain the owner of Angoulême. Directly afterwards, funders, including governmental bodies, said that the organisation of the 2028 event would be up for tender, and that Franck Bondoux would resign from 9eArt+ at the end of 2027 at the end of his contract.

The universal boycott appears to have weakened, with the comic book union ADBDA confirming that they and their members would participate in the 2026 event. However, other groups behind the boycotts, such as the union Syndicat des Travailleurs.euses Artistes-Auteurs, or STAA and the campaigning group MeTooBD stated that they had not been contacted by FIBD regarding any of this, and the boycott was still on, over demands of changes to the organisation that have not been addressed, as well as exactly what Franck Bondoux's ongoing role would be. He is still the main shareholder of 9eArt+, and they would still be allowed to tender a bid.

Signatures of those voicing their objections included former Angoulême Grand Prix winners Florence Cestac, Lewis Trondheim, Chris Ware, Art Spiegelman, Blutch, Posy Simmonds, and Julie Doucet, as well as other well known comics creators such as Catherine Meurisse, Joe Sacco, Pascal Rabaté, Daniel Clowes or Emil Ferris, all of whom have won awards at Angoulême for their comics. It also includes last year's Grand Prix winner, Anouk Ricard, who is set to be the president of next year's show and design the festival poster. Luz, who won the Fauve d'Or for best album last year, was also a signatory. This came ahead of a question raised as to whether the board of directors of the Angoulême International Comics Festival Association (FIBD) should terminate its contract with 9eArt+, the festival's organiser since 2007.  The petition read;

"We want to firmly remind the FIBD Association that if, in more than fifty years of existence, the Angoulême festival has become an essential event for comics, it is thanks to the people who bring it to life and who animate it: comics workers, authors, publishers, translators, journalists and critics… and of course the readers, through their loyalty to this event. It now belongs to the community and, as such, it is of public interest for the survival of our medium. It would therefore be unacceptable to constrain it with personal interests or authoritarian choices".

The struggle continues…

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