Britain's Posy Simmonds wins top prize at Angoulême Comics Festival

British graphic novelist Posy Simmonds has been awarded the Grand Prix – the world's most prestigious award in the field – at the Angoulême comics festival. This year's event, which opens to the public on Thursday, is shaping up to be more international than ever, with three Japanese guests and Canada as the country of honour.

Born in 1945, Simmonds started out as a newspaper cartoonist before going on to publish children's books and graphic novels.

She is best known for her long association with the British newspaper The Guardian, for which she drew the series Gemma Bovery (2000) and Tamara Drewe (2005-06), both later published as books and made into films.

A long-time francophile who studied at the Sorbonne university in Paris, Simmonds chaired the jury at the Angouleme festival in 2017.

She is one of the few women to break through in the British comics world, and she won press cartoonist of the year in 1981.

The French Association of comics critics and journalists gave her its critic's prize in 2009, for Tamara Drewe.

She won international acclaim for True Love, an avant-garde graphic novel that was a sort of precursor to the Bridget Jones novels.

Her third graphic novel, Cassandra Darke, was published in 2018. Loosely based on Charles Dickens' novella A Christmas Carol, it is set in current times with a protagonist likened to a female version of Ebenezer Scrooge.

Simmonds' work is currently the focus of a retrospective at the Pompidou Centre in Paris until 1 April, 2024.

She was in the running for the Angoulême Grand Prix with French writer Catherine Meurisse and American Daniel Clowes.

Mangaka mania

Simmonds will be feted throughout the four-day festival. More than 1,300 authors are expected from all over the world, with Canada as the country of honour. 

Three major mangakas – Japanese comic book masters – have been invited for master classes and exhibitions.

Hiroaki Samura's work is being honoured with an exhibition, while a screening and conferences are organised to honour Rintaro.

Shin'ichi Sakamoto's highly-anticipated new manga, #DRCL: Midnight Children, inspired by Bram Stoker's Dracula, will be presented to the public as an immersive experience at the Guez-de-Balzac chapel.

And author Moto Hagio, one of the few women in a very male-dominated field, will have an exhibit of her work at the Angoulême museum that delves into gender issues.

Arab of the Future, and others on display

Franco-Syrian author Riad Sattouf, winner of the 2023 Grand Prix, is president of this year's festival, and the Vaisseau Moebius is hosting an exhibition dedicated to his world-renowned series Arab of the Future.

No fewer than 20 different awards are handed out during the festival in different categories, including a dozen for young talents and school children.

One of the members of the main prize jury is Thomas Bangalter, formerly half of the Daft Punk music duo. The youth grand jury is headed by actress and director Aïssa Maïga.

In a nod to the 2024 Summer Olympics being held in Paris, sport will be honoured, with an exhibition, The Art of Running – Catching the Race, with drawings by Italian artist Lorenzo Mattotti accompanied by texts by Maria Pourchet.