With some of his peers and personalities committed to the defense of minors, this honor reserved for the greatest does not pass.

In question: several titles that depict minors facing sex, with sometimes incestuous patterns and controversial statements on this subject.

In 2017's "A Sister", a realistic fiction adapted for the screen ("Falcon Lake", now in theaters), a 13-year-old boy has sex, during a seaside vacation, with a 16-year-old girl. year.

Much less realistic, "The Melons of Anger" in 2011, as well as "The Mental Discharge" and "Petit Paul" in 2018 show sexual relations between minors and adults.

Faced with accusations of child pornography, Cultura and Gibert Joseph had stopped selling "Petit Paul".

"As obscene and provocative as it may be considered, this work of fiction is never intended to play down, promote or legitimize the abuse of a minor in any way whatsoever", defended Glénat editions in 2018 .

At 38, Bastien Vivès has practiced the sophisticated graphic novel ("Polina", 2011), the "French manga" ("Lastman", 2013-2019) or the recovery of the character of Corto Maltese ("Black Ocean" , 2021).

Under pseudonym

This star of the 9th art must be honored with the exhibition "In the eyes of Bastien Vivès", planned in Angoulême during the comic book festival, at the end of January.

An online petition, denouncing "the trivialization and glorification of incest and pedocrime" and demanding the deprogramming of the exhibition, had collected 92,000 signatures on Tuesday evening.

It was launched by Arnaud Gallais, founder of the BeBrave France movement which campaigns against incest and sexual violence against children.

"I don't give a shit that this guy has the right to make his filthy comics (I'm not for banning it). Just we can ask that the main comic festival avoid putting it forward", estimated for her part, feminist activist Caroline de Haas.

In addition to certain comics, the detractors of Bastien Vivès have noted old positions.

"Incest excites me to death," he said in an interview with Madmoizelle magazine in 2017. For his defenders, it is obvious that he was joking.

He was not laughing, however, when he violently attacked, hidden behind a pseudonym on Facebook, another comic book author, Emma, ​​revealed in 2017 with the publication of a series of feminist drawings which had popularized the concept of charging. mental.

"Message level 2 years of mental age", "does not know how to draw", and calls for violence on the children of the designer ... Monday, Emma republished these five-year-old messages, and qualified Bastien Vivès as author of several "child pornography comics".

"A lot of threats"

Today, this virulence turned against the author, who explained that he "received a lot of threats on the networks" and filed a handrail.

"I have plenty of room to file a complaint. They encourage me to do so, but I'm not very procedural," he told Le Parisien on Monday, repeating: "No, I'm not a pedophile and no, it's not is not my fantasy. If you want to read my works honestly, you realize that easily".

Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak said on Tuesday that "certain" past remarks by Mr. Vivès "are not acceptable", saying "understand the excitement", in an interview with Le Parisien.

But "it's not the exhibition itself that poses a problem", she underlined, adding that "we cannot reduce this author to two comics and a few sentences said in an interview".

Authors have taken a stand in the debate, some supporting Mr. Vivès like Jean-Marc Rochette (Grand Prix RTL de la BD 2022), believing on Facebook that the latter was nailed "in the pillory without any other form of trial".

© 2022 AFP