What do we know about big American comic cons? We know they are held in convention centers, deafening places filled with bright lights and berber carpeting. We know they are dominated by huge media companies. We know they are filled with socially awkward fanboys.
Well, Angouleme International Comics Festival, the largest comics con in the Western hemisphere and the crown jewel of the French bandes-dessines scene, is nothing like that at all.
Picture if you will a charming medevial town, filled with cheese, fine wines and sexy fire-eaters. In this town there are a number of comic-filled tents. And the comics they showcase are the most experimental, badass, lavishly printed, dirty, existentially questioning, silly and odd comics in the world. Except for one tent filled with superheros, which is tiny and sort of shoved into the corner. That’s what Angouleme is like.
