Anouk Ricard illustrates the 12th edition of our Advent calendar !
The comic book author and artist has exceptionally stepped out of her speech bubbles to share her vision of a funny and lively Christmas. For this year, a delightful, richly detailed menagerie visits the miniature reproduction of the historic shop.
“Decorating the Advent calendar of the oldest chocolate shop in Paris is no small feat! I admire the illustrators who came before me. I hope my universe will inspire others to discover these culinary delights and that the calendar will amuse children. It would be a wonderful Christmas gift to me if I had succeeded in this challenge!” — Anouk Ricard.
A real buzz emanates from the À la Mère de Famille Advent calendar and sets the joyful tone characteristic of this holiday season! Anouk Ricard presents a fantastically rich universe here, teeming with scenes of everyday life, orchestrated by her inimitable graphic style, with extensive use of bright colors, creating a shimmering and playfully naive world.
For over twenty years, Anouk Ricard has brought a comic menagerie to life, with wit unlike any other. Thus, young and old alike will rediscover with undisguised joy familiar characters such as Froga the Frog, René the Cat, Bubu the Dog, and Christophe the earthworm, accompanied on this occasion by their crazy band of friends.
Their clumsiness, enthusiasm, and impatience seem palpable and cheerfully accompany the excitement of the curious who eagerly await each day to open the corresponding window of the calendar, containing an assortment of the Maison's iconic chocolates and confectionery.
About Anouk Ricard
This year, Paris's oldest chocolate shop is delighted to have collaborated with Anouk Ricard, as discreet as she is talented, born in 1970 in the South of France.
Anouk Ricard ©Tim Douet
Graduated from the École des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg in 1995, she began her career publishing in the youth press. It was in 2004 that she truly launched into the world of comics with Anna and Froga, a humorous youth series project intended for Capsule Cosmique magazine, which has since been adapted into the animated series Anna and Her Friends. At the same time, she works as an illustrator for the press and youth publishing, as well as for painting/drawing exhibitions and micro-publishing journals.
In 2012, she won the Libération readers' comic book award and the Angoulême International Comics Festival's award for the best French-language comic book for her album Coucous Bouzon. In 2023, she received the Angoulême International Comics Festival's special jury award for her album Animan, freely inspired by the 1980s American TV series Manimal, featuring Francis, aka Animan, and his frog wife Fabienne.
Anouk Ricard excels brilliantly in these multiple genres and shows through her inimitable bold style that one can make children's books that appeal to adults, as well as adult books that resemble children's tales.
In this way, she transcends genres, making absurd humor and extravagant, even wacky, situations the guiding thread of these creations.
