For more than 50 years, several actions in favor of comics and images have been taken place in Angoulême, the most popular city in France for comics, hosting the International Festival of Comics, which makes each year the city of Valois the world capital of the 9th Art for four days at the end of the month of january.

The Cité de la bande dessinée holds together a museum which presents several temporary exhibitions, a heritage library, a specialized public library, an international artists' residence (the Maison des auteurs), a reference bookstore, a documentation centre and an arthouse cinema. It welcomes more than 250,000 visitors every year.

Distributed in three majestic buildings bordering the river the Charente or overlooking it, it is located in the heart of the  pole of the image that has developed in Charente, the "Pôle Image Magelis", a must visit hub for animation creation, contributing to the national and international reputation of the city of Angoulême.

The missions of heritage and conservation of comics are the founding missions of the institution. All steps of creation of a comic are represented and preserved: from the original sheet to the album, from the sketch to the finished object. 

Whether you are a specialist or a novice, discover with our team one of the biggest comics bookstore, at the entrance of our museum. You can also rest and have the choice to read among our 55700 comic books of our library. Want to watch a movie? Our cinéma de la Cité, arthouse cinéma, programs a great diversity for all publics of high quality movies. And for families and young publics, workshops and visits are proposed all year long. You can also explore the city of Angoulême and its 38 painted walls. 

The Maison des auteurs is one of the departments of the Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l'image. It provides concrete support to comic authors living in Angoulême or wishing to come in residence. This international residency welcomes comic book authors, illustrators, animation directors... for periods that last from three months to two years. Since its opening in July 2002, the Maison des auteurs has welcomed more than 400 artists in residence and about 50 local authors benefit from its many services. Visit our website for more informations or contact us. 

The Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l'image, the French reference for comics, welcomes authors, researchers and amateurs from all over the world, and exports its know-how. International residencies, exhibitions outside the walls, remote and interactive visits and training, discover all our actions internationally. In 2024, 45% of authors in residencies came from worldwide. Many partnerships and cross-residencies exist: with Mexico, Québec, Taïwan, Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Poland, Serbia... In 2021, la Cité contributes to the opening in the city of Zapopan, located in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, of the ‘La Casa del Autor en Zapopan’ (CAZ, program  established with the aim of supporting artists, city of Zapopan and GrandAngoulême.  The CAZ program is a public support initiative inspired by ‘La Maison des auteurs’'. This program aims to support artists, writers and creators by providing them with a residency space and other resources to devote themselves to their creative activities for a specified period of time. It also aims to encourage the emergence and independence of new artists. Workshops and conferences open to the general public are also regularly organised, thus contributing to the training of new artists.

Cité also launched in 2023, EU.Webtoons, supported by the Europe creative program, with three european partners, the Polskie Stowarzyszenie Komiksowe, Luccas Crea srl ans the Suomen Sarjakuvaseura Ry. This projects aims at promoting European Webtoon creation, by rewarding ten european creators. 

Cité develops many partnerships with the French Institutes, the UNESCO creative literature cities and many essential international cultural institutions in the world of art and comics. 

More than 50 fifty years of history have led to what the Cité internationale de la bande dessinée is today in the field of worldwide comics.