French graphic novelist Christophe Chaboutet has won the 2025 Prix Landerneau for his latest work, “Plus loin qu’ailleurs” (“Further than any other place”). He will receive 6,000 euros (approximately $7,000) and his book will be heavily promoted in 233 E. Leclerc Espace Culturale retail stores across France.
The Landerneau Prize is a literary award created by French entrepreneur and businessman Michel-Edouard Leclerc. Launched in 2008, it is currently divided into four categories: novels, children’s books, crime/thrillers (Polars), and comics (Bande Dessinée, BD). This manga award was introduced in 2012. Last year’s winner was Ulysse and Cyrano, written by Antoine Christeau and Xavier Delison and illustrated by Stéphane Servain. Published by Casterman.
The Manga Award, known as the Prix Landerneau BD, is chosen by a jury of 11 E. Leclerc booksellers from across France, chaired by a renowned cartoonist. The BD Chair for the 2025 Landernau Prize was Cattell Müller, an artist best known (along with author José-Louis Boke) for his graphic biographies of women such as Kiki de Montparnasse, Josephine Baker, and Alice Guy (all available in English from SelfMadeHero).
Founded in 1948, E. Leclerc is one of France’s leading supermarket/hypermarket retail chains in terms of both market share and sales. With more than 700 stores, the largest stores (233 stores) have spaces dedicated to multimedia entertainment – Espaces Culturels – with a focus on books and comics. As France is Europe’s largest book market and Bande Dessinée is the second largest in the book retail sector, the level of promotion guaranteed by this award should result in a significant increase in sales.
Chaboutet, who has already won multiple awards in France, has won a number of prestigious titles in English for his fiction, including The Bench in the Park and Alone. to adaptations of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Jack London’s To Build A Fire, and Benoît Cohen’s Yellow Cab. As described by the French literary site Actualitté, his work “explores stories centered around solitary life, inner journeys, and fleeting moments.”
© Chabte, Van Duest
Further Than Elsewhere, published by France’s Vents d’Ouest, is another meditative work that focuses on the men who remained in Alaska. Actualitté says (translated via DeepL):
“He dreamed of leaving, but he was forced to stay…so he left by staying.” This idea frames the entire book, offering an examination of how familiar landscapes can become objects of personal exploration. Repeated gestures, minute observations, and shifts in light become the driving force for small-scale stories.
“By focusing on seemingly secondary elements, this book invites us to see familiar places differently. It takes a slow, meditative approach that centers on wonder at what usually escapes the eye. This approach reflects Chaboutte’s recurring concerns about blank spaces, solitude, and small events.”
The last time Chaboutte’s work received translation treatment was Yellow Cab, published by IDW in 2022. Benoît Cohen’s adaptation was first published in French in Van Dueest in 2021. Father Than Elsewhere is Chabutet’s second book, following Musée (“Museum”) in 2023. I hope that at least one of these interesting works will be released in English soon.
Something like this:
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