Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Angoulême, france

Legal Threat To The New Angoulême Comics Festival From The Old One

A legal threat to the new planned Angoulême Comics Festival for next year, is coming from the previous one #angouleme

The International Comics Festival of Angoulême (FIBD), the third biggest such event in the world, and possibly the most important for the comics industry, was originally slated to run from yesterday through the weekend. It was officially cancelled last year following months of escalating tensions between creators, publishers, readers and the event's organiser, 9e Art+. This marks the first time the festival has been entirely scrapped, leaving a void in the cultural calendar but sparking a wave of alternative celebrations across France and beyond. And one hell of a legal fight.

Authors and publishers accused 9e Art+, led by director Franck Bondoux since 2007, and appointed by the FIBD Association, the owners of the show, to run it, of brutal management, financial opacity, lack of artistic diversity, and exploitative practices such as unpaid labour for creators who were expected to cover their own travel and accommodation costs to the show. Additional scandals, including the dismissal of a former employee who reported rape incidents at the 2024 festival, and who then went public with her story, led to a breaking point for support. A widespread boycott – or girlcott – ensued, with major publishers withdrawing and public funders demanding the event's termination, which eventually occurred.

The decision was a blow to Angoulême, a city that typically welcomes 200,000 visitors during the festival, generating around 3.5 million euros in economic benefits for local businesses, hotels, and restaurants. Local residents expressed mixed feelings, acknowledging the need for change while lamenting the financial hit – one caterer estimated a 50% revenue loss.

In the absence of the official festival, the city of Angoulême rallied to preserve its status as the capital of comics. Le Grand Off happening right now is a free, grassroots fringe event alternative organised by local librarians, authors, publishers, and the municipality, backed by a €1.25 million budget, including nearly €1 million in public funding, with over 150 events across more than 60 venues, including exhibitions, workshops, author signings, roundtables, performances, drawn concerts, and stage shows. Highlights include a retrospective on Claire Bretécher at the Musée de la bande dessinée, an exhibition on Matthieu Sapin at the Préfecture de la Charente, and a Christian Comics Convention and awards. Publishers like Dupuis sent prominent authors such as Carole Maurel, Vero Cazot, Emile Bravo, and Yoon-sun Park for signings at local bookstores and the Espace Franquin. Other events, such as those in Toulouse, showcased works by local artists like Aude Bertrand. An Independent Comics Tourism Office featuring drawings by Anouk Ricard, the 2025 Grand Prize winner, who would have been the honorary President of the 2026 show, but who became the most vocal critic of the former organisation.

The Association for the Development of Comics in Angoulême, or ADBDA, previously set up by the local government to act as an alternative to the concentration of power held by the show, includes representatives from authors' unions, independent publishers, the university and public authorities. They already announced a call for people to run a new show in the city for 2027, potentially moving from January/February to March, and one that might address the many issues that faced the previous show. Such as financial opacity, alleged toxic management, a lack of creator remuneration, and insufficient diversity.

But yesterday, at the Montparnasse Tower, Franck Bondoux announced that 9e Art+ and the FIBD Association would sue ADBDA for unfair competition and parasitism, stating, "We will defend ourselves against this takeover, against the violation of our rights. We remain open, but we can no longer accept being treated in this way… For two months we have been reaching out and have received no response from the public authorities. I wasn't expecting thanks, but the situation is this: we now have to defend ourselves." Bondoux accused the ADBDA, formed in 2017 and comprising authors, publishers, and public funders, of attempting to "dispossess" the original festival by launching a call for projects on the same day for a new major BD event starting in 2027, with applications due by March, while Bondoux criticised public authorities for refusing dialogue.

The suit seeks urgent judicial measures via référé proceedings. Specifically, the annulment of the ADBDA's call for projects 2027, along with an injunction prohibiting the ADBDA from organising any comic book event in the city during the first quarter of each year, over contractual rights. He emphasises that 9e Art+ holds a contract from the FIBD association to organise the festival through 2027, arguing that the ADBDA's initiative, backed by public funders, authors, publishers, and local stakeholders, constitutes an illegitimate attempt to usurp the established event. Bondoux accuses opponents of violating acquired rights and engaging in a campaign of denigration that led to the 2026 cancellation. Notably, he is not legally targeting this year's Le Grand Off festival, as he accepts the idea of ​​a region organising an event to compensate for the absence of the Festival. He also accepts, that a new show would take on elements of the old, but doesn't understand the refusal to engage in any dialogue for the last few months.

The Angoulême festival owners have also posted their own statement joining Franck Bondoux and 9e Art+ in this endeavour, headlined "Angoulême Festival: The Founding Association struggles to seize justice to defend its rights" and states;

"Creator of the Angoulême International Comic Book Festival in 1974, the Association of FIBD is, in this regard, the owner of this event, which has become a global reference. It notes with extreme seriousness that the Association for the Development of Comics in Angoulême (ADBDA) launched, on January 13, a call for projects to designate the organiser of an event presented as a new one, but which takes almost entirely the perimeter, content, geographical implantation and spirit of FIBD. The agenda prepared by the ADBDA is thus proceeding with a manifest and assumed resumption of the Festival, while claiming to change its name. This gross subterfuge, simple semantic artifact would not be able to disguise the reality: it is a good replica of FIBD as it has been built, structured and developed for more than fifty years, and especially in recent editions. More seriously, the ADBDA claims in this same document the full and entire ownership of this future event, thus acting as an attempt to dispossession, pure and simple spoliation of the FIBD Association, its history, its work, its volunteers and its rights."

"Deliberately marginalized and then excluded by the public authorities of the entire process, excluded from any discussion, deprived of its founding manifestation, the FBID Association, which has been eliminated as a target of extreme violence on the part of some elected officials who had no other aim than delegitimizing it, is now being forced, Regretfully, but with determination, to seize justice and put ourselves under its protection. In the face of this unjustifiable appropriation, judicial appointment is now the only possible way to enforce the law and recall the fundamental principles that govern associative and cultural life. Consequently, the FIBD Association, together with 9th art+, decided at the earliest to assign the ADBDA."

"This same authoritarian governance has also resulted, without consultation, in the cancellation of the 2026 edition of the FIBD, a decision with heavy consequences for the entire cultural, economic and international ecosystem of the Festival (cf. The press conference of public financiers of November 20, 2025), in the first row of which the Angoumois territory, the employees of the Festival for some for more than 30 years, – a real social break – the traders, restaurateurs and hoteliers. A lack of earning millions of euros for the territory."

"The question of the future of FIBD is raised, starting with the organisation of the 2027 edition, contractually entrusted to 9eArt+. No positive outcome can emerge until dialogue replaces the coup orchestrated by ADBDA. Pretending to recreate ex nihilo a new edition of FIBD by erasing everything that made his legitimacy, history and radiance makes no sense. Especially since the recent cancellation of the Festival has deeply shaken the confidence of many participants, including internationally. If the authors and authors are obviously the essential basis of the event, the FIBD exists only by the convergence of all its stakeholders. The Association of FIBD is one of the cornerstones: the founder, manager for more than half a century, it has also, since the beginning, carried the commitment of its volunteers. These volunteers, today strangely absent from all speeches, are, however, called to become increasingly indispensable to the survival of great cultural events. They embody that human closeness, transmission and loyalty that many claim, yet ignore. Will they finally be recognised, respected and heard? In the absence of dialogue and respect, it is now up to the justice to say so. She is the one who now embodies the hope of the FIBD Association."

More to come…

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