The authors and screenwriters intend to take advantage of the announcement of the prize list, which must be delivered on Friday, January 29, to make themselves heard.

The Auteurs et Autrices en Action (AAA) collective is demanding a larger share of comic book turnover and calls for a boycott of the ceremony of the 48th Angoulême International Comics Festival, which must take place behind closed doors.

It also plans to continue its action during the second part of this festival, when comic book fans will go to Angoulême at the end of June if the health situation allows it.

For Cyril Pedrosa, who co-writes and co-designs with Loïc Sécheresse "Carnets de manifs" published by Le Seuil, "we have to establish a real review of the entire chain of the book so that the authors are no longer systematically weakened and that they do not not suffer at their expense a system which otherwise works rather well, he explains on France 24. Because we have seen for ten years that the situation of the author is deteriorating more and more. "

>> To see: "While waiting for Angoulême, eroticism and yellow vests in comics"

"Is closing the Festival the solution?"

Some 700 authors, some of whom are in the official selection for the awards given on Friday, like Zanzim ("Peau d'homme") or Maurane Mazars ("Tanz"), have therefore signed a forum to draw up the list of their grievances.

The collective is ready for a "total boycott of the public side of the Angoulême Festival, next June, if no real and concrete act is taken by then, with regard to our professional status, our representation and a fair rebalancing of the book chain ".

The Lisa Mandel copy supports AAA ❤️ https://t.co/DUeISrpGwi

- AAA Autrices Authors in Action (@AaaAuteur) January 28, 2021

In an open letter, the management regretted this boycott because the Festival was forced "to invest, to commit (...) budgets that it does not have, in a word to go into debt" for lack of recipes to ensure exposure to comic book authors.

If the latter could not be remunerated, "must we for all that turn our backs on this space of debate and questioning that is the Angoulême Festival? Is not this event, objectively, a place of democratic expression? Is closing it the solution? "wrote the delegate general, Franck Bondoux.

A year ago, while visiting the 47th Angoulême International Comics Festival (FIBD), Emmanuel Macron for his part promised not to let comic book authors down.

"We want to protect the authors more. (...) The role of the State is to give them more peace of mind. We will have strong initiatives in the matter in the coming months", assured the Head of State at the theater of 'Angoulême.

The most precarious hit by the crisis

But since then, it seems that nothing has been done or too little, say the authors.

A report on "The author and the act of creation", written by Bruno Racine, former president of the Center Pompidou and the National Library of France, published during the Festival d'Angoulême 2020, had nevertheless raised a lot of hope.

The document listed a series of 23 measures to improve the living conditions of the authors.

One of them, the transfer of social protection for authors from the Agessa organization to the Limousin Urssaf has been applied.

But the others remained in the form of proposals.

However, a report dating from 2017 and established by the Estates General of the Comic Strip reveals that the vast majority of screenwriters and designers live in precariousness.

Half of them earn less than the minimum wage, and a third live below the poverty line.

And the health crisis has not helped their affairs.

The closing of bookstores slowed down sales, exhibitions and meetings with readers were postponed and album releases were postponed by publishers, further weakening their situation.

9% growth

Paradoxically, the comic book sector is doing well.

Despite weeks of bookstore closures, 53.1 million copies were sold in France during the year, an increase of 9%.

One in six books bought today is a comic.

The big winners of this craze have been stars like Lucky Luke, best seller of the year with "Un cow-boy dans le coton" (nearly 272,000 copies in just over two months), or Riad Sattouf, with his fifth volume of "The Arab of the Future".

They are not in the official Angoulême selection this year, the Festival seeking to promote talents who deserve to be better known.

The genre suffers not from the erosion of sales, noticeable in other sectors of the book, but from the very low remuneration for authors, except for the most famous authors.

And this gap is widening.

According to the GfK institute, the comic book saw "a significant refocusing of sales around bestsellers in 2020. Their weight has been reinforced throughout the year."

It is therefore in a climate of weariness and anger that the Angoulême International Comics Festival will be held.

Of the 12 awards distributed, called Fauves d'Angoulême, the most coveted is the Fauve d'or, the award for "best album of the year, regardless of genre, style or geographical origin".

The event will be broadcast on the website of France Inter, partner of the event.

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