Often accused of celebrating independent or confidential comics, the Angouleme festival dedicated Wednesday night to the most popular author of the moment. Riad Sattouf, known mainly for its sagas The Arab of the future Y Esther’s notebooks, won this Wednesday the Grand Prix d’Angoulême, the supreme prize for the 9th Art. Finalist against Alison Bechdel and Catherine Meurisse, she succeeds Julie Doucet.
In Angoulême, this designer won the most awards during his career. René-Goscinny Prize exactly twenty years ago for The Poor Adventures of Jeremysince then he has twice won the Fauve d’or, which awards the best album (brutal paschal in 2010 and The Arab of the future in 2015). This prodigious ascent will be the subject of an exhibition next year, as is the tradition of the festival.
The choice of Riad Sattouf should not fail to react in a context of strong discontent in the sector towards the Angoulême festival. Although the repeated absence of women’s Grand Prizes (only four in 50 editions) and exhibitions dedicated to women authors (only one this year) accentuates the resentment, this new focus on an author runs the risk of dividing a sector a little more quite disjointed.
a turning point
The Grand Prix comes especially for Riad Sattouf at a decisive moment in his career. The final volume of The Arab of the future, a moving account of her separation from her younger brother, kidnapped by their Syrian father, has just been published. The designer also posted the young actora hilarious evocation of the career of Vincent Lacoste, whose considerable success has cemented Riad Sattouf’s place among the great figures of comics.
The Grand Prix also comes to salute an author whose fame goes beyond the world of comics. Also a director (he received the César for best debut film for the handsome children and is preparing a film with Les Inconnus), Riad Sattouf is also an intellectual figure, one of the rare comics authors whose view of the news matters. In 2017, he was one of the first French artists to call to block Marine Le Pen.
discover your place
Known for his seemingly simplistic style, which is part of the Hergé tradition of clean lines, Riad Sattouf is a talented designer, capable of shifting to ultra-realism and favoring minimalism, like his idol Mœbius. . collaborator of charliehebdo Y Freezing Fluidhe has developed, in contrast to his clear line, a collegiate and provocative sense of humor all in self-mockery.
The discovery in the late 90s of a new generation of designers played a decisive role in its formation. Marked by Phamille Brochure by Jean-Christophe Menu, then he understands the possibility of telling intimate stories in a different way. Reading Pierre La Police, a master of absurd humor, is also a revelation, as is his encounter with Émile Bravo, also a follower of the clear line to tell dark stories.
When Riad Sattouf moved to the Vosges atelier in Paris in the early 2000s, where Christophe Blain, Mathieu Sapin and Joann Sfar worked, he learned to find his place in comics. Blain was then a hit with historical comics (isaac the pirate), Sfar with heroic fantasy and mythological tales (keep) and Sapin with the surreal comedy (supermurgeman). It is moving towards intimate stories to stand out.
A coherent work
During these years, the cartoonist builds record after record, a coherent work marked by a fine observation of the troubles of adolescence. His stories are usually initiation stories, inspired by his own life (my circumcision, The Arab of the future), that of their relatives (Esther’s notebooks, the young actor) and observations obtained in the field (The secret life of the young).
His body of work is populated by notables such as Pascal Brutal, a macho hero and bodybuilder who appeared on four cult albums released between 2006 and 2014. Fascinated by comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s observational comedy and his ability to find the extraordinary in the insignificant, imagine in homage The Poor Adventures of Jeremy (2003-2005).
The phenomenal success achieved since 2015 with The Arab of the future it somewhat overshadowed these early works, which should be rediscovered thanks to the Grand Prix. Riad Sattouf himself, who recently launched his own publishing house, Les Livres du Futur, has big plans, and plans in particular to republish his early works, including Farlouse Pipit (2004-2006), one of his favorite works.
bugs and revisions
Like all successful artists, Sattouf has also experienced bitter failures, such as his film Jacky in the kingdom of girls (2014). One of his books my circumcision (2004), about his circumcision as a teenager, was nearly banned by the Children’s Publication Supervision and Control Commission. Since then it has been withdrawn from sale to avoid parasitizing The Arab of the futurewhere he tells the same story.
Often acclaimed by the press and the public, his observational work does not always meet with unanimous approval. His ironic and distant view of the world, which could be perceived as derogatory, has often been criticized. boards back to the university (2007), an immersive account of the cartoonist at one of the best universities in France, which shows his character fantasizing about schoolgirls, also debated.
A master of autobiographically inspired stories, Riad Sattouf has not yet shown the full extent of his artistic palette. The designer has never published science fiction stories, a genre that he especially appreciates. For the moment, his projects have not come to fruition and in the meantime he has found indirect ways of approaching it by observing our world as a being from another dimension.
Source: BFM TV
