Box Office Poison wins at Angoulême

From Sequential Tart's Karon Flage comes the news that Alex Robinson's collected Box Office Poison, published in English by Top Shelf Productions, has won the Best First Comic Book prize at the 32nd annual Festival International de la Bande Dessinée (International Comics Festival) in Angoulême, France. ("De mal en pis" is the French translation of the book's title.)

As Top Shelf says, Alex Robinson's completely natural and inspiring knack for dialogue has made his story of dreary jobs, comic books, love, sex, messy apartments, girlfriends (and the lack thereof), undisclosed pasts, and crusty old [comics] professionals one of the most delightful and whimsical graphic novels to hit the stands in years. (And for once, the hype isn't too exaggerated.)


The Angoulême award for the Best Comic Book went to Poulet aux prunes, written and drawn by Marjane Satrapi, who also created the acclaimed Persepolis and Persepolis 2, about her girlhood first in Iran, then as an Iranian in Europe. From what I can tell (given my pitiful French), it appears that Poulet aux prunes is a story set in Tehran in 1958, about Satrapi's great-uncle, the well-known musician Nasser Ali Khan. The book "recounts the final days of a man who has lost his appetite for life," according to the Belgian comics website BLAM!

Speakers at the ceremony included art spiegelman, who dedicated the awards to the memory of Will Eisner. The photo below shows spiegelman, center, flanked by Jean-Marc Thevenet, directeur général of the Festival, and Françoise Mouly, art director of The New Yorker and spiegelman's wife.


Here's a list of some of the other award-winners:

Artwork Prize
(sponsored by «carte Aurore»):
«Le sommet des dieux» by Jirö Tanigushi - Kana

Scenario Prize
(sponsored by the Centres E.Leclerc) :
«Comme des lapins» by Ralf Köning - Glénat

Comics Heritage Prize
«Le concombre masqué» by Mandryka - Dargaud

Series Prize
«Les formidables aventures de lapinot» by Lewis Trondheim - Dargaud

Those of you who can figure out French can read more about the awards on the Festival's website here.