Congratulations are deservedly due to comic creator Bryan Talbot, who has just won the 2025 Prix Graphique at Le Prix ActuSF de l’Uchronie for his brilliant Grandville series, awarded the “Prix Graphique“.
This French literary award celebrates the very best in alternative history and speculative fiction. The prize will be presented at the Hypermonde Festival in Mérignac later this year.
Grandville, published in the UK by Jonathan Cape, is an acclaimed steampunk series by Bryan, exploring an alternate art-nouveau world populated by intelligent animals, a human underclass, and wondrous technology. A prequel to the saga, The Casebook of Stamford Hawksmoor, will be published later this year.
“I’m delighted to be chosen for this award,” Bryan told downthetubes, “especially as I’m being acknowledged in France, the home of many of the Bandes Dessinées that I’ve enjoyed over the years. I’ll be there to collect it in September!”
Massive congratulations to Bryan — an incredible creator, the first British creator to create comics in “graphic novel” for with The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, also known for his work for 2000AD, and much more.
You can explore his work here on his official website at bryan-talbot.com
2025 Prix ActuSF de l’Uchronie – Winners
Prix Littéraire (Literary Prize)
Kid Wolf et Kraken Boy by Sam J. Miller, translated by Michel Pagel (published by Le Bélial – Une Heure-Lumière) – available digitally in English here (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
Prix Graphique (Graphic Prize)
Bryan Talbot’s Grandville series (Delirium)
Prix Spécial (Special Prize)
The Hervé Chopin editions of 14 volumes of Jodi Taylor’s Chronicles of St Mary (as Chroniques de St Mary, translated by Cindy Colin Kapen) – available here in English (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
Honorary Award of the 15th edition
Didier Graffet for his steampunk graphic work
Didier Graffet has been exploring retrofuturistic worlds for nearly three decades with striking technical precision and visual richness. With this Honorary Award, the jury recognises an iconic work and artist who have shaped the aesthetic representations of steampunk
• Read the announcement in French here on the ActuSF website
Grandville and More
• You can explore Bryan Talbot’s work here on his official website at bryan-talbot.com
• Grandville L’Intégrale (Bookshop.org Affiliate Link)
Beware the Badger! The acclaimed steampunk series from graphic-novel pioneer Bryan Talbot explores an alternate art-nouveau world populated by intelligent animals, a human underclass, and wondrous technology. Within this rich fantastical milieu, the relentless Detective-Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard pursues shadowy death squads, psychotic killers, dark political conspiracies, ruthless crime lords, and bloodthirsty cults through the streets of London and the centre of the greatest empire on Earth, the Belle Epoque Paris known as Grandville.
Grandville L’Intégrale collects all five Grandville novels in one deluxe hardcover volume accompanied by voluminous author notes never before in print.
• The Casebook of Stamford Hawksmoor (Bookshop.org Affiliate Link) will be published in the UK by Jonathan Cape in November
With top-hat and cane in hand, Detective Inspector 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 maniac 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.
The Casebook of Stamford Hawksmoor is an intriguing, labyrinthine stand-alone mystery set in a world of hansom cabs and pea-souper fogs, where explosive violence can erupt at any second – and does!
- About the Author
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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.
Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Current British Publishers, British Comics - Graphic Novels, Comics, downthetubes News, Events
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