Angoulême Comics Festival 2024: Daniel Clowes receives the Fauve d’or for Monica

Special envoy to Angoulême

This Saturday, January 27, 2024, the awards ceremony for the 51st Angoulême International Comics Festival was held at the city's theater in a warm atmosphere and infectious enthusiasm. The emotion was often palpable, especially among the youngest, while the jurors and winners of the numerous categories (full list at the end of the article) each took their turn on the stage.

The most prestigious award, the Fauve d’or, crowned Monica by Daniel Clowes “best album of the year”. The American was also one of three finalists for the Angoulême Grand Prix, alongside Frenchwoman Catherine Meurisse and Englishwoman Posy Simmonds, the latter having won. In 2023, the previous Fauve d’or crowned The Color of Things by Swiss Martin Panchaud, an album as exciting as it was experimental.

Also read: Martin Panchaud: “The Color of Things is revenge for my dyslexia”

Monica, presented by its publisher Delcourt as "the author's most personal book", offers a series of interconnected stories, exploring themes such as depression, war or sectarian influence. As is often the case, the author mixes offbeat humor and intimate drama, all bathed in a strange and confusing atmosphere.

Thomas Bangalter (ex-Daft Punk), president of the grand jury, praised “a great, unique and unclassifiable graphic novel, a sensory, labyrinthine, multicolored, addictive experience, which transforms with each reading”. Guy Delcourt went on stage to collect the trophy, specifying that the author had not been able to come because of Covid caught in Paris.

Here is the comment that Daniel Clowes offered about the first panel of his comic: “My grandparents had this book, The World We Live In. The cover was supposed to represent the Earth as it is formed, with the continents coming together from a sea of ​​lava. As a child, I found it terrifying, it made me think of the end of the world. It seemed to compile everything that could happen at the beginning (or end) of our world into one melodramatic image. While thinking about the design of Monica, I looked for a way to create a story dedicated to a specific person at a specific moment in history, and to integrate them both into a larger story, that of race human and the universe. I naturally came back to this cover because it evokes both the beginning and the end of the world, a complete story. If I could live up to this ambitious position, it was a worthy challenge.”

Covered with Eisner and Harvey prizes in the United States, Daniel Clowes, 62, had until now never been rewarded in France, despite being selected in Angoulême for Patience in 2017, his previous title. Published for a long time by Cornélius, the designer recently moved to Delcourt. Three of his comics have been adapted for the big screen: Ghost World in 2001, Art School Confidential in 2006, and Wilson in 2017.

HONOR FAUVE | HAGIO MOTORCYCLE

PRIX KONISHI

Odilon GREVET for the translation of Bokko/Stratège T.1

Original story by Kenichi SAKEMI; scenario of Sentaro KUBOTA; drawing by Hideki MORI, published by Vega Dupuis.

RENÉ GOSCINNY AWARD – BEST SCREENPLAY

Julie BIRMANT for Dalì - 1 - Before Gala

Drawing by Clément OUBRERIE

Dargaud

RENÉ GOSCINNY PRIZE – YOUNG SCREENPLAY

Simon BOILEAU for

La Ride

Drawing by Florent PIERRE

Dargaud

FAUVE YOUTH

The amazing Miss Bang!

Yoon-Sun PARK

Dupuis Editions

FAUVE SPECIAL OF THE YOUTH GRAND JURY - EX ÆQUO

Afternoon Yawns - Volume 1

Shin'ya KOMATSU

Translation of Aurélien ESTAGER

IMHO Editions

The Little Queens

Magali LE HUCHE

Based on the novel by Clémentine BEAUVAIS

Sarbacane Editions

FAUVE POLAR SNCF VOYAGEURS

Contrition

KEKO (designer); Carlos PORTELA (screenwriter)

Translation by Alexandra CARRASCO

Denoël Graphic

Also read Contrition, an extremely dark comic book in a village open to former sex offenders

FAUVE ALTERNATIVE COMIC

Aline

Ik Ben Aline

(Hollande)

ECO-FAUVE RAJA

Frontier

Guillaume SINGELIN

Label 619 / Rue de Sèvres

Also read: Frontier: another space conquest is possible!

HERITAGE FAUVE

Four Japanese in San Francisco (1904-1924)

Henry Yoshitaka KIYAMA

Traduction of Numata MUTSUKO

Onapratut / Le Portillon

FAUVE - FRANCE TÉLÉVISIONS PUBLIC AWARD

Bad things to say

Beatriz LEMA

Translation by Jean-Marc FRÉMONT

Sarbacane Editions

FAUVE OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Pavil's Face

Jérémy PERRODEAU

2024 Editions

Also read: Jérémy Perrodeau, architect of mysterious worlds

FAUVE REVELATION

The Embarrassed Man

Matthew CHIARA

Citrus

FAUVE OF THE SERIES

The Nice House on the Lake T.2

Álvaro MARTÍNEZ BUENO (cartoonist) ; James TYNION IV (screenwriter)

Translation of Maxime LE DAIN

Urban Comics

Also read: In the running in Angoulême: The Nice House on the Lake, just the end of the world

FAUVE SPECIAL OF THE JURY

Hanbok T.1

Sophie DARCQ

L'Apocalypse

Delcourt

FAUVE D’OR – BEST ALBUM

Monica

Daniel CLOWES

Translation of Jacques BINSZTOK

Delcourt