The complaint targets old comics by the designer to whom the Angoulême festival wanted to pay tribute in January, before giving up.
Since the Angoulême Festival announced an exhibition dedicated to the designer, the name of Bastien Vivès has been stirring up social networks. The 38-year-old designer is accused of disseminating child pornography. While on December 14, the festival chose to cancel the exhibition “In the eyes of Bastien Vivès”, due to threats made against him, the tension does not seem to calm down.
Read alsoHow the Bastien Vivès affair ruins the fiftieth anniversary of the Angoulême Festival
According to France Info and RMC, a child protection association filed a complaint on December 19 against Bastien Vivès. Innocence in danger accuses the author of “dissemination of child pornography images”, of “incitement to the commission of sexual assaults on minors” and of “dissemination to a minor of violent messages”. The complaint would also target Glénat and Les Requins Marteaux, publishers of the designer.
In its complaint, the association relies on three works published years ago: Melons of Wrath (2011), Little Paul (2018) and The Mental Dump (2018). Each of these books, explicitly presented as pornographic comics, is accompanied by a warning from the publisher and a statement prohibiting sale to minors. According to the terms of the complaint, these albums represent minors “both in the context of sexual activities with adults and showing their private parts”. The output of Little Paul, in particular, had already caused controversy in 2018. Another association had then made a report, without going so far as to file a complaint. The report had been dismissed for “lack of offense” in February 2019, according to the Nanterre prosecutor’s office with AFP.
After his deprogramming of the Angoulême festival, Bastien Vivès spoke on his Instagram account. In a post published on December 15, he assured “condemn child crime, as well as its apology and trivialization”. The designer apologized at the same time to the people he would have hit and reminded that his books should not be read “under the prism of complacency towards these crimes”.
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