The winners of Brussels’ Atomium Prizes have been honoured on the opening day of the city’s popular annual Comic Strip Festival.
For the past ten years, the festival has been recognising comic strip writers and artists.
This year, no less than €85,000 will be distributed among the eight winners.
Brussels is seen as a true creative hub for comic strip creation, as evidenced by the significant presence of the industry in the city, as well as the numerous exhibitions, murals, bookstores, and activities centred around the ninth art.
To support writers and artists, the Brussels authorities have been awarding the Atomium Comic Strip Prizes for the past nine years as part of the BD Comic Strip Festival.
The majority of these prizes are awarded in cash to help the winners finance their work,said a spokesman.
The awards were presented on Saturday at La Bourse in the heart of Brussels.
They include the Raymond Leblanc Atomium Prize, launched by the Raymond Leblanc non-profit association.
Its goal is to publicise, collect and preserve all the cultural heritage created by Raymond Leblanc, founder of the “Tintin magazine”, Éditions du Lombard, the advertising agency Publiart and the animation studios Belvision, among other things.
Its goal is to reward the work of a young author that has not published more than two comic strips.
The winner was Adele Rhoads and the jury said: “This project captivates from the outset through the power of its fantasia, both visually and narratively.
“It’s a genuinely artistic and ambitious work, driven by a distinctive creative voice and an exceptional command of graphic storytelling.”
The Atomium Prize for Graphic Design, meantime, recognises a work of outstanding visual and graphic excellence.
The winners were Désirée and Alain Frappier and the jury said: “The jury members were deeply moved by the strength of a restrained visual approach that remains profoundly consistent with the narrative.”
Meanwhile, the Le Soir Atomium Prize for News Report Comic Strips has always been the newspaper of choice when it comes to comic strips.
Itt recognises the strip that has stood out by examining the world around us in the form of a news report comic strip.
The winners were Charles Berberian and Michèle Standjofski.
