Two Belgians win French comic strip prize

08/02/2023

Sabien Clement and Mieke Versyp – illustrator and author respectively – have won the René Goscinny Prize for best young script writers at the most important comic strip festival of Europe.

Clement and Versyp won the prize for the francophone version of their comic strip Vel (“Skin”), about a female drawer who starts a relationship with a model after they meet at a drawing workshop. This relationship centres around vulnerability and physicality.

Winners of the award, which was launched in 1988 as a tribute to the late René Goscinny, the artist behind Asterix & Obelix, receive a statuette and €2,500.

Versyp and Clement have also won the Henry van de Velde award in the graphics category for their comic book.

Did you know that Belgium counts more than 700 comic strip authors? The little blue, white-hatted Smurfs are probably Belgium’s most famous cartoon characters, but there are plenty of other fascinating Belgian comic strips to discover, like Blake & Mortimer or Gaston Lagaffe.

If you’re looking to discover more about Belgian comic strips, why not spend an afternoon at the Belgian Comic Strip Centre, which has been going for almost 75 years.