Bryan Talbot wins two French comic awards

By John Freeman on December 17, 2025 • ( 0 )

Congratulations once more to Bryan Talbot, who has won two different French comic awards.

French publisher Delirium‘s new edition of The Tale of One Bad Rat, published in French as L’Histoire d’un vilain rat, won the Prix Claude Vistel des comics de patrimoine, one of the First Print Awards, established in 2024 to recognise the quality of American and English-language comics published in France.

You can read the full announcement in French here.

The Tale of One Bad Rat is the story of one girls survival of childhood sexual abuse: of her living through it and dealing with it and living past it. It is an amazing story… and profoundly affects everyone who reads it. As noted on the official Bryan Talbot website, it is the second most requested graphic novel in US libraries – and an honourable second at that – only Maus beats it.

Les Carnets de Stamford Hawksmoor, published in French before the release of the English language edition, The Casebook of Stamford Hawksmoor from Jonathan Cape, was the winner of the Prix Millepages BD For the best Bande Dessinée of 2025.

With top-hat and cane in hand, Scotland Yard’s DI Stamford Hawksmoor shadows the murky backstreets of London on the hunt for a sadistic serial killer.

In the dying days of the French occupation of Britain, through gaslit, cobbled streets and squalid alleyways, stalks the great eagle Detective Stamford Hawksmoor in search of the homicidal manic whose killing spree claims dozens of seemingly unconnected victims, from random murders to targeted political assassinations.

The deeper he delves, the more he puts himself in mortal danger, pitting himself against unknown antagonists whilst under the scrutiny of the feared anti-terrorist squad, and the more he is forced to resort to working outside the law.

A prequel to Talbot’s pioneering Grandville series, The Casebook of Stamford Hawksmoor is also an intriguing, labyrinthine stand-alone mystery graphic novel set in a world of hansom cabs and pea-souper fogs, where explosive violence can erupt at any second – and does!

• L’Histoire d’un vilain is available here from Delerium rat

• Les Carnets de Stamford Hawksmoor is available here from Delerium | ISBN: 978-2493428592 | AmazonUK Affiliate Link

• Read Graham Baines review of The Casebook of Stamford Hawksmoor

The Casebook of Stamford Hawksmoor is available for all good bookshops and comic shops from 6th November 2025 | ISBN: 978-1787335516 | AmazonUK Affiliate Link | UKBookshop.org Affiliate Link

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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.