Angoulême Grand Prix is the most prestigious award in the comic book medium. But of late, with accusations of sexism and corruption rife no one seems to want to win it.
Two years the awards was criticised for issuing an all-male thirty-strong nominee list, and for twelve nominees of those nominees to withdraw from the list, making it impractical to continue. Initially six women’s names were added to the list, before the whole nominee longlist system were withdrawn and those eligible asked to vote for whoever they liked, reflecting their life’s work in comics.
In 2015, the three final nominees were Alan Moore, Katsuhiro Otomo and Hermann. Moore and Hermann declined to be nominated, so Otomo won.
In 2016, amidst all the fuss, and with Alan Moore and Claire Wendling declining to be honoured, Hermann relented after lobbying from friends, and won the prize.
In 2017, Chris Ware, Cosey and Larcenet, were nominated and Cosey won.
And now in 2018… they’ve gone straight to allowing any of the creators to vote for anyone they want, resulting in Richard Corben, Emmanuel Guibert and Chris Ware as the three nominees for the Grand Prix Prize for Angouleme 2018.
A first round of voting took place last week, with 1230 comic book creators participating, The second round will take place from tomorrow until Sunday. Anyone who has had comic book work published in France can participate. Which, by the way, includes most professional comic book creators in America…. just saying.
