Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Angoulême
The lawsuit over the cancelled Angoulême Comics Art Festival in France – and its possible replacement – begins next month
As the dust settles on the replacement fringe festival Le Grand Off for this year’s cancelled Angoulême Comics Art Festival, or FIBD, former organisers of the French comics show are firing back against plans for a reborn festival in 2027, through the courts. Le Grand Off went well, Charente Libre quoted local stakeholders praising the “familiale ambience” and deeper connections fostered by the scaled-back format. Pascal Dulondel of bookstore Librairie Cosmopolite reported selling 1,200 graphic novels, a jump from prior years, thanks to municipal subsidies, while comic book editor Thomas Dassance appreciated the absence of rental fees, allowing focus on exchanges between readers and creators, rather than the usual commercial frenzy. The event’s success has fueled optimism for a reimagined FIBD, but not without contention.
Last week, Le Monde revealed that the Angoulême courts had received a demand to halt efforts to organise a new 2027 festival, and an immediate claim for 300,000 Euros in compensation for actions already taken. Action had been promised previously by 9e Art+ director Franck Bondoux, but now the claims had been filed for both unfair and parasitic competition. And that pits the historic Association FIBD, rights holder to the show since 1974, and 9e Art+, the appointed organiser since 2007, against the government-appointed ADBDA, including Angoulême mayor Xavier Bonnefon, who had previously announced they were to select a new operator to run a replacement show next year.
Key demands include annulling the ADBDA’s call for projects and prohibiting any actions organising a replacement, demanding a thousand Euros fine for each infringement. They accuse ADBDA of “brutal appropriation” and seeking to copy 9e Art+’s model for the show, despite 9e Art+’s contract with FIBD extending through 2027. They seek provisional damages of 250,000 Euros to 9e Art+ and 50,000 Euros to the FIBD Association, to address a “manifestly unlawful disturbance” from the recent events. Le Figaro reported that ADBDA, summoned to appear on the 18th of March, had stated it was unaware of the suit.
Previously, Franck Bondeaux had said, “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 previously 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.” While the Association of FIBD said that this was “gross subterfuge” and that they had been “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.”
Next month, the courts will begin to make their decision as to what will happen to the third biggest – and possibly the most important – comic book convention or festival in the world.
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