Comic of the month - May
Subtitle By Didier Kassai
About the author:
Born in 1974 in Sibut (Central African Republic), Didier Kassaï is a self-taught illustrator, cartoonist and watercolourist. From 1994 to 1997, he drew for the Christian media of Baptist Mid-mission and in the satirical newspaper “Le Perroquet”, in which he published several cartoons on the political situation in CAR. From 1998, he took part in several comic internships and participated in a dozen festivals, residencies and exhibitions in Africa, Europe, Japan and the United States.
Co-author (with Olivier Bombasaro) of the Adventures of Gipépé le pygmée and Aventures en Centrafrique, he has also collaborated on several collective albums including À l’ombre du Baobab (2001), Africa comics (2003 and 2006), Une journée dans la vie d’un Africain d’Afrique (2007) and Vies Volées (2007).
In 2006, he won the African and Mediterranean prize at the Bologna Festival with Azinda et le mariage forcé, and the pan-African Vues d’Afrique prize with Bangui la coquette at the Angoulême festival. In 2009, he was awarded the Prize for Best Project for an unfinished comic with Pousse-pousse at the Algiers Festival and then at the Tétouan Festival with Tempête sur Bangui, in 2015.
His first invidvidual album, L’Odyssée de Mongou, was released in 2014 by Harmattan BD. Terreur en Centrafrique (a journalistic comic) was published online by La Revue Dessinée in 2014. In 2015, he released the first of the 4-volume series Tempête sur Bangui with publisher La Boite à Bulles. In 2018, his graphic novel Maison sans fenêtres and the second volume of Tempête sur Bangui were also published by La Boite à Bulles.
Didier Kassaï is also known for his humoristic watercolours of daily life in the Central African Republic and his illustrated columns for Arte reportage (Moukhaïam la petite Palestine and Chroniques de Bangui).
Didier Kassaï received the Gold Medal for Best Report at the UNCA Awards in 2018, in New York. He was also named a ‘Knight of the Arts and Letters’ in 2016 by the French Ministry of Culture and a ‘Knight of National Merit’ for the Vue d’Afrique prize in 2006.
Re-discover the comics of the previous months!
In April, Barly Baruti (Dominican Republic of Congo)
In March, Elyon's (Cameroon)
In February, Shennawy (Egypt)
In January, Ayodele Elegba (Nigeria)
In December, Reine Dibussi (Cameroon)
