Richard Corben, veteran of “Heavy Metal” magazine, has been awarded the Grand Prix de la ville d’Angoulême, the lifetime achievement award handed out every year at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, the third largest comics festival in the world. This award is considered the highest honor in the world of French and Belgian comics and is globally prestigious. With the grand prize this year also comes the mantle of festival president for the following year, during which he will head the prize jury, illustrate the new festival poster, and exhibit his work.
🌟 Et le Grand Prix du Festival d'Angoulême 2018 est Richard Corben !
Le Prix, décerné par l'ensemble des auteurs et des autrices, remis par #Cosey, Grand Prix 2017, aujourd'hui.
En savoir plus sur #RichardCorben : https://t.co/HR83rpNSiX#FIBD2018 #partageonslaBD pic.twitter.com/DpSoRNry7R— Festival d'Angoulême (@bdangouleme) January 24, 2018
Corben joins the ranks of Will Eisner, Art Spiegelman, and Bill Watterson as one of the few Americans ever to win the prize in its forty-three year history, beating out this year’s other nominees, Emmanuel Guibert (“Ariol,” “Sardine”) and Chris Ware (“Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth,” “Floyd Farland: Citizen of the Future”). Though in 1976, Corben was awarded the Prix du dessinateur étranger – best foreign artist – at the third annual festival at Angoulême, and was already gaining a name for his work in “Metal Hurlant,” the French magazine and parent of the American “Heavy Metal.”
Corben has been a cult legend since the seventies. He started his career as an animator and cameraman before pursuing comics full time, and has since worked primarily in the fields of horror and sci-fi. His art has a psychedelic and fantastical bent with a penchant for dramatic, and often hyper-sexual, expression. His lush and heavily saturated style found a home in the Warren Publishing’s magazines “Creepy,” “Eerie,” and “Vampirella” and eventually with his long-running and provocative “Den” comics, featured in “Heavy Metal.” He has also adapted stories of Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft into comics. In addition to being an underground icon, he has illustrated various one-shots and mini-series for “Hellboy,” collaborated with Brian Azzarello on “Cage,” “Banner,” and “Hellblazer,” and much more. Corben continues to make comics, having just wrapped “Shadows on the Grave” with Dark Horse in late 2017.
Stay tuned for our coverage of the festival this weekend.
