visit.brussels, in close collaboration with its partners, wants to show its support for comic strip creation and bring together existing initiatives by awarding 8 Atomium Comic Strip prizes, most of which are awarded in cash to enable the winners to finance their work.
The winners of the Atomium prizes will be revealed on Saturday 19 September.
Subject: The Raymond Leblanc Prize was launched 13 years ago by the Raymond Leblanc non-profit association, whose goal is to publicise, collect and preserve all the cultural heritage created by Raymond Leblanc, founder of the "Tintin magazine", Éditions du Lombard, the advertising agency Publiart and the animation studios Belvision, among other things. Its goal is to reward the work of a young author that has not published more than two comic books.
Partners: Association Raymond Leblanc, Editions du Lombard, Editions Futuropolis and Editions Casterman.
Subject: The prize is awarded, first and foremost, to a comic book artist for his or her past artistic achievements, and is intended as an encouragement to continue. The prize does not necessarily depend on the winning author's current publishing activity.
Partners: Ms Elisabeth DEGRYSE, Minister-President of the Government of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation responsible for Budget, Higher Education, Culture, International and Intra-Francophone Relations.
Subject: This prize recognises work that honours and supports efforts to preserve and promote European comic strip heritage. This new prize is part of an ambitious, long-term initiative to protect the best of the ninth art, highlighting exceptional projects. It rewards efforts focused on promoting historical works, preserving archives and reissuing and distributing heritage comic strips, thereby fostering the transmission of this cultural heritage to future generations.
The shortlisted works will be announced on 19 September 2026 in Brussels, as part of the Comic Strip Festival. The Prize will be awarded in early December 2026, in association with the SoBD Festival in Paris.
Partners: Catherine Schoemann Projects, Point of View
Subject: This prize recognises a work of outstanding visual and graphic excellence. Factors taken into consideration include the quality of the artwork, layout, typography and overall design, as well as the way in which these visual qualities transcend and enhance the narrative.
Partners: the Atomium, the Design Museum Brussels, Librairie Brüsel and visit.brussels
Subject: This prize is presented by the editorial team of Galaxies BD, the only radio programme in Belgium entirely dedicated to comics (every Saturday from 17:00 to 18:00 on La Première). The editorial team collectively selects the Album of the Year from among the titles presented during the previous season (from September to June) by the seven Galaxies BD reviewers, as well as the titles featured by the programme's host, Thierry Bellefroid, including both the albums he recommended and those whose creators were invited onto the programme.
Partner: RTBF
Subject: The Cognito Historical Comic Strip Prize is awarded by the Cognito Foundation to the best historical comic strip. This private foundation aims to help people discover or rediscover history through comic strips.
Partner: Cognito Foundation.
Subject: The Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir has always been the reference newspaper in terms of comic strips. With this prize, it recognises the book that has stood out in examining the world around us in the form of a news report comic strip.
Partner: Le Soir
Subject: It's all about humour! This year, Spirou magazine is celebrating young talents who excel in the three-panel comic strip format. How do you develop a coherent storyline, a universe, a gag and writing that appeals to all readers, young and old, in just a few panels? Each participant may submit a maximum of four three-panel comic strips.
Partner: Journal Spirou.
With the kind permission of the asbl Atomium.
