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One of the world's leading comics festivals opened in France under tight security as the event was dedicated to the murdered cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo.
The festival in the southwestern town of Angouleme also created a first on Thursday when it gave its coveted Grand Prix lifetime achievement award to a manga artist, with Japan's Katsuhiro Otomo scooping the prize.
This year's guests - including some of the world's biggest names in comics and graphic novels - were under unprecedented protection after the attacks on the satirical magazine in Paris on January 7 that killed 12.
"The 2015 festival will be a time for remembering but we also want to show that life goes on," festival director Franck Bondoux said.
Graphic novel writers, press cartoonists and animators were among the stars in attendance at the festival, which this year features special displays on Asian cartoons and Jack Kirby, creator of Captain America, Hulk and the X-Men.
Comic books are hugely popular in France, with 35 million sold in the country last year.
But three weeks on from the attacks in Paris, it was "the spirit of Charlie" that weighed heaviest on this 42nd festival edition.
A number of special commemorations were planned, including the inauguration of a new "Charlie Award for Freedom of Expression".
The prize will this year goes to the cartoonists killed in the assault on the magazine, whose caricatures of Prophet Mohammed have sparked controversy and were cited by the attackers as the reason for their killing spree.
In the future, the prize will be awarded to artists fighting for free speech around the world.
The festival organisers also collected over a thousand contributions from artists in homage to Charlie Hebdo and a special album entitled Comics are Charlie was being prepared with the help of 173 well-known cartoonists.
Past front pages from the magazine were plastered all over the town in the style of an electoral campaign.
And an exhibition gathering together documents and drawings by Charlie Hebdo's cartoonists - dead and alive - attracted the crowds.
Priests, rabbis, the pope, imams, presidents, left-wing and right-wing politicians; everyone was a target for satire in cartoons that denounced issues as serious as homophobia, paedophilia or racism.
"Their death had an awful impact on the world of cartoonists. Some called me in tears. For many, they were role models," Jean-Pierre Mercier, one of the managers of the exhibition, said.
On Thursday, Japan's Otomo, creator of the cult manga series Akira, received the Grand Prix, which went to Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson last year.
Set in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo built on the ashes of a city destroyed by a blast that triggered a third world war, the Akira series are known the world over.
The awarding of the prize to Otomo highlights the importance of mangas in France, where they represent a quarter of all comic book sales.
The festival also awarded a special Grand Prix to the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists killed in the attack - Cabu, Wolinski, Charb, Tignous and Honore.


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Charlie Hebdo attack

French comics festival pays tribute to ‘Charlie Hebdo’ under tight security

Issues of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, 12 of whose artist were killed in a Paris attack, on display at the festival.Photo: AFP

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World

Cartoon celebration opens despite tragic events at magazine's Paris offices


One of the world's leading comics festivals opened in France under tight security as the event was dedicated to the murdered cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo.
