Jérémie Moreau, the author of “La saga de Grimr”, is the president of the jury for the 2019/2020 edition of the Angoulême school comic book competition, fifteen years after having himself won this competition.
“It’s not necessarily my thing about presidencies, but it’s the only one I wanted to accept “. At 32, Jérémie Moreau goes on the other side of the scene. This designer and screenwriter, author of the Fauve d’or 2018 album The Grimr saga, presides this year the Angoulême school comic book competition. A competition open to all comic book apprentices, from the large kindergarten to the final section, who must participate via their educational establishments. “Each participant (individual or collective work) must present a comic strip (boards, strips …) of a minimum board “, recalls the rules.
This competition honored big names in current comics such as Pénélope Bagieu, Catherine Meurisse, Arthur de Pins… and Jérémie Moreau. “25 years ago, I was scratching my first board and it was for the school comics contest “, traces the author. At the age of 8, Jérémie Moreau participated for the first time in this competition. But the glory is long overdue: this attempt does not allow it to be awarded. Year after year, the young cartoonist continues to send his work, hoping to win the grail. “I knew soon enough that I wanted to become a cartoonist, so it became obvious that I do my board every year “. In parallel, the festival becomes an unmissable event: “it was Disneyland Paris “, he remembers. “I expected more to go to Angoulême than Christmas. “
For the comic strip competition, the eighth time is the right one. We are in 2005, the designer is 16 years old. “I was a bit like Iznogoud who wants to become a caliph instead of the caliph. I was wondering if I was going to win this prize one day and it finally happened one of the last years I could participate “, explains the one who says he started to imitate his big brother. He describes these years of participation as formators. “Today, I tell myself that without this competition, I would surely not have become an author “, notes Jérémie Moreau.
Jérémie Moreau tells us about the boards that enabled him to win the comic book competition in 2005.
Angoulême continues to see it grow. After the comic strip competition, Jérémie Moreau studies animation at the Gobelins school and embarks on the following stage: the Young Talents competition, addressed to comic book artists never published. He obtained sesame on the third try, in 2012. A few months later, he co-signed with Wilfrid Lupano his first album at Delcourt, Hartlepool’s Monkey.
In 2018, back on the podiums of Angoulême. The Grimr saga obtains the Fauve d’or, the festival’s supreme award for the best album released of the year. “It was a huge surprise. After all these competitions, it was the absolute grail to obtain this prize. I never hoped to have it before I turned 50 “, exclaims Jérémie Moreau, 30 years old that year. And now ? In addition to his role as president for the school comic book competition, the comic artist says he has a saga project in mind: “the title of chairman of the jury sounds like a retirement position, and it can be scary “, he confides. “Now I’d like to renew myself, try more innovative things and reach a wider audience. ” For children wishing to become future comic strip stars, the deadline for submitting work for the school comic book competition is March 3, 2020.
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