This prize, awarded each year on the sidelines of the International Comics Festival, distinguishes for its 2023 edition the Russian exile Victoria Lomasko, critic of power in Russia.
The Russian cartoonist in exile Victoria Lomasko won the prize for artistic courage on Saturday, awarded each year on the sidelines of the International Comics Festival which is held from January 26 to 29 in Angoulême (south-west of France).
This 44-year-old comic book author is known for her critical view of society and power in Russia and other former Soviet republics, exposed in reports published by several foreign media.
She publishes in French in February The Last Soviet Artista comic book that reports on the totalitarian vestiges that remain of the USSR, 30 years after its break-up.
An anti-censorship award
Victoria Lomasko left Russia in March 2022, just after the outbreak of the invasion of Ukraine. She now lives in Germany, the award jury said in a statement.
The prize was created in 2016 by the promoters of the “Off of Off” of Angoulême, under the name of “balls in the ass prize for artistic courage”, in order to reward an author defying censorship. It rewarded authors from Tunisia, Turkey, Iran, Equatorial Guinea, Algeria and Morocco.
