French cartoonist investigated over child porn complaint

French prosecutors are investigating a cartoonist after a complaint he was distributing child pornography through his sexually explicit work.

Published: 6 January 2023 17:01 CET

French cartoonist investigated over child porn complaint

French comics' author Bastien Vives (Photo by JOEL SAGET / AFP)

Bastien Vives, 38, has long been a star of France’s much-loved graphic novel scene and was due to be honoured at the Angouleme International Comics Festival later this month.

But protests and online outrage led the festival to drop him, saying there had been threats of violence against Vives and its staff.

Vives has been praised for books such as “A Sister” and “The Blouse” that included erotic elements, but were widely considered moving and sophisticated.

But other works include highly graphic scenes of sex involving children, which, despite absurdist storylines, have been accused of promoting or normalising paedophilia.

The authorities have opened cases against Vives and two publishing houses following complaints from a pair of NGOs, the Foundation for Childhood and Innocence in Danger, prosecutors said Friday.

These cartoons “show children represented in sexually explicit scenes that undoubtedly have a pornographic character,” said one of the complaints.

It will now fall to prosecutors in Nanterre to decide where the line is drawn between art and illegal pornography.

Vives denies any pornographic intent in his work, saying they are part of a “burlesque, humouristic genre”.

“At no time did I want to hurt victims of sexual crimes or abuse,” he said in an apology posted on Instagram after he was dropped from the festival.

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The French Jewish community, the third largest in the world, has for months been on edge in the face of a growing number of attacks and desecrations of memorials.

“National police in Rouen neutralised early this morning an armed individual who clearly wanted to set fire to the city’s synagogue,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Police responded at 6.45 am to reports of “fire near the synagogue”, a police source said.

A source close to the case told AFP the man “was armed with a knife and an iron bar, he approached police, who fired. The individual died”.

“It is not only the Jewish community that is affected. It is the entire city of Rouen that is bruised and in shock,” Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol wrote on X.

He made clear there were no other victims other than the attacker.

Two separate investigations have been opened, one into the fire at the synagogue and another into the circumstances of the death of the individual killed by the police, Rouen prosecutors said.

Such an investigation by France’s police inspectorate general is automatic whenever an individual is killed by the police.

The man threatened a police officer with a knife and the latter used his service weapon, said the Rouen prosecutor.

The dead man was not immediately identified, a police source said.

Asked by AFP, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said that it is currently assessing whether it will take up the case.

France has the largest Jewish community of any country after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s largest Muslim community.

There have been tensions in France in the wake of the October 7th attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel, followed by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Red hand graffiti was painted onto France’s Holocaust Memorial earlier this week, prompted anger including from President Emmanuel Macron who condemned “odious anti-Semitism”.

“Attempting to burn a synagogue is an attempt to intimidate all Jews. Once again, there is an attempt to impose a climate of terror on the Jews of our country. Combating anti-Semitism means defending the Republic,” Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF). wrote on X.

France was hit from 2015 by a spate of Islamist attacks that also hit Jewish targets. There have been isolated attacks in recent months and France’s security alert remains at its highest level.