Henri de Turenne, Annick Cojeanes, Philippe Broussard… The Albert-Londres prizes adapted into comics

The great reports that have marked the history of journalism are given a second life. The work of the winners of the Albert-Londres prize will be adapted into a comic strip, the first of which will be published on Friday October 18. Henri de Turenne, on the Korean front the adaptation of the legendary reports from the Albert-Londres prize in 1951, is the first work in this series published by Aire libre (Dupuis).

In August 1950, 28-year-old journalist Henri de Turenne was sent by Agence France-Presse to cover the conflict that broke out between the two Koreas, the South supported by the West and the North by the USSR and China. He will travel to both sides of the front for eight months. And he won the Albert-Londres prize in May 1951 for his articles in Le Figarowhich publishes Turenne’s reports exclusively. The comic book is written by Stéphane Marchetti for the script and Rafael Ortiz for the drawing. It is accompanied by a historical file on Henri de Turenne, the Korean War and Albert Londres.

The AFP opened its archives for this album and thus revealed a letter from its CEO Maurice Nègre to the young reporter in September 1950. He received congratulations for his reports « very appreciated », in style « alert »but is asked to « treat only one topic in an article ». The Albert-London Prize was created just after the accidental death of this reporter in 1932. Each year it rewards the best reports in French by journalists under 40 years old.

The following volumes will focus on Annick Cojean (1996 prize, on the memory of the Shoah), Doan Bui (2013, on migrants between Turkey and Greece), Sophie Bouillon (2009, on Zimbabwe) and Philippe Broussard (1993, on stowaways of a cargo ship killed by the crew). These last three journalists will be co-authors of the comic strip, unlike Henri de Turenne, who died in 2016.