Taiwan is the only Asian country to send an official delegation to participate in this year's Angoulême International Comics Festival being held from March 17-20 in Angoulême, France, according to event organizers.
The Angouleme event, which was first held in 1974, is the third largest comic book festival in the world after Lucca Comics & Games in Italy and Comiket in Japan. More than 200,000 visitors come to the fair every year although the 2021 edition was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Taiwan booth opened on March 17 and was visited by Fausto Fasulo, deputy artistic director of the festival, noted Laotian-born French comic story writer Loo Hui Phang, and a number of representatives from the publishing industry in France, Italy and Spain.
In an interview with CNA, Nicholas Galiano, head of French publishing house ChattoChatto, talked about the characteristics and unique charm of Taiwan comic books.
Galiano said that Japan dominated the Asian comic book market in France more than 10 years ago, but he first noticed the talent of Taiwan's young comic book writers and artists a long time ago.
At that time, he sought to introduce Taiwanese comics into France to give local readers a fresh and unconventional comic book reading experience, the publisher said.
To introduce Taiwanese comics to France, the publishing house adopted a strategy of not highlighting the nationality of the authors in the hope that readers would instead focus on exploring the stories and drawing styles, according to Galiano.
As a result, French readers started to notice Taiwan's comic books, he said.
The plots of Taiwanese comic book stories are rarely seen in France and are popular with French readers, according to Galiano.
For instance, the first edition of Taiwanese artist Wu Yu-shi's (???) comic book "Ocean-Colored Polari" has sold out, he said.
According to feedback from readers, ChattoChatto found that the diverse storytelling in Taiwan's comic books differed from Japanese comic book styles that feature simple and coherent narratives, Galiano said.
"You can browse ordinary comic books quickly and not read them again but it takes more time to read Taiwanese comic books." In addition, you want to read them again and discover something new," Galiano said.
Meanwhile, Pam Pam Liu, a Taiwan-based freelance illustrator and comic book artist who was an Angouleme artist-in-residency winner in 2019, told CNA that Taiwanese comic books are quite popular at the fair as seen by the fact: "My French comic book on the display shelf was stolen on the first day of the show. Somebody must like it that much."
More and more French people are interested in Taiwanese comic books, she said, noting that many publishing houses had asked her whether there are any comics suitable for publication in France. "Future cooperation is highly likely."
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel