Bastien Vivès targeted by an investigation for dissemination of child pornographic images

Two publishing houses of the author of comics, Glénat and the hammer sharks, are also targeted.

MO12345LEMONDE With AFP

A survey for the broadcasting of child pornographic images was opened this week against the author of Bands Bastien Vivès and two publishing houses having published some of his works, said the prosecution on Friday, January 6 de Nanterre, requested by the France-Presse agency (AFP).

This preliminary survey, entrusted to the miners’ protection brigade, aims for the 38 -year -old author, figure of 9 e art, as well as Glénat publishing houses and hammer sharks that published three of his works in 2011 and 2018, said the Nanterre prosecutor’s office and a source close to the file. Contacted, the Glénat publishing house was not reachable in the immediate future.

“under the pretext of humor”

The survey was opened after the filing of a complaint at the end of December 2022 by the Foundation for Childhood association. This complaint, whose elements had been revealed by Franceinfo , targets three comics Who “deliver representations of minors, in sexually explicit situations, undoubtedly presenting a pornographic character”. These three comics are called Petit Paul (Glénat, 2018), the mental discharge (Les Sharins Marteaux, 2018) and the melons of anger (Les sharquins hammer, 2011).

In this last work, “Bastien Vivès stages Magalie, a minor young girl who undergoes sexual assault and repeated rape”, describes the Foundation for Childhood, cited by Franceinfo. “Incestuous relationships are also staged between Magalie and her brother, Petit Paul”, whose “lack of consent” is “presented as obvious”, continues the association.

Another association, innocence in danger, also filed a complaint with the Paris prosecutor’s office at the end of December against Mr. Vivès and the same publishing houses, believing that these three comics were the dissemination of child pornographic images, but also “incitement to the committee of sexual assault on minors” and “dissemination to a minor of violent messages”.

At this stage, the complaint filed in Paris was not attached to the nanterre investigations. However, the lawyer for innocence in danger, Delphine Girard, rejoiced at the opening of the investigation in Nanterre, hoping that “effective prosecution is followed by and that children’s rights be respected”. “It is not bearable that one can affect the representation of minors, and that images of sexual abuse, under the pretext of humor, can be disseminated,” said M on Friday > GIRARD at AFP.

report without follow -up in 2019

These complaints relaunched the controversy around the works of Mr. Vivès, presented by his readers as simple gravelly tales or parodies. The interested party had made it known in December, on Instagram, that he had “at any time wanted to injure victims of sexual crimes and abuse”. He also said “condemn pedocrime, as well as his apology and trivialization”.

In December, an online petition demanding the deprogramming of the exhibition “In the eyes of Bastien Vivès”, scheduled for the Angoulême Festival at the end of January, collected 92,000 signatures. The festival management has announced the cancellation of the exhibition, invoking “threats” against the author and the organizers.

In 2018, already, after the publication of Petit Paul who stages a child with disproportionate penis having sex with adult women, Glénat editions had affirmed that “as obscene and provocative that we can consider it , this work of fiction is never intended to play down, promote or legitimize the abuse of minor in any way “. A report, sent at the time by the association facing incest, requesting the withdrawal of this comic strip had been classified without follow -up by the Nanterre prosecution for “absence of offense” in February 2019.

/Media reports cited above.