The 40th annual Angoulême International Comics Festival, which will take place January 31 to February 3, 2013 in France, announced the 59 nominees for four categories: Best Comic, Best Heritage Comic, Best Youth Comic, and Best Crime Comic. The Best Comic list includes three manga titles: Mari Yamazaki's Thermae Romae , Atsushi Kaneko's SOIL , and Kengo Hanazawa's I Am a Hero . SOIL was nominated last year in the Crime category.

Kanata Konami's Chi's Sweet Home is on the list of Youth nominees for its second year in a row, while Yukinobu Hoshino's 2001 Nights and George Akiyama's Anjin San were nominated for the Heritage award. The Youth Comic category is for comics aimed at young readers ages 7 through 12, and the Heritage Award recognizes reissues of previously published material.

Kaoru Mori's A Bride's Story won the Prix Intergénérations (Intergenerational Award) at the festival last year, and Yoshihiro Tatsumi's A Drifting Life won the Prix Regards sur le monde (World Outlook Award). Hikaru Nakamura's Saint Young Men, Susumu Higa's Suna no Tsurugi , Issei Eifuku and Taiyo Matsumoto's Takemitsuzamurai, Osamu Tezuka's Kūki no Soko , and Shotaro Ishinomori's Kyū Tō Ryū (Nine Dragons) and Ryū no Michi (Ryū's Path) were also nominated last year.

Source: BoDoi via Catsuka