Discover the SNCF Voyageurs Fauve Polar Prize selection

Inheriting a partnership of nearly 20 years, SNCF Voyageurs is committed to promoting the 9th art in all its diversity (thrillers, manga, comics, etc.) as part of the Angoulême International Comics Festival.

This partnership is also in line with our desire to support regional cultural life, while promoting reading as a leisure activity for our travelers who love comics, making every journey even more rewarding!

As part of its partnership with SNCF Voyageurs, the Fauve Polar Prize is awarded to a comic strip thriller, whether an original creation or an adaptation of a pre-existing literary or cinematographic work.

Discover the seven works selected.

One night, Dom, a truck driver traveling across the United States, meets a young woman, Birdie, at the scene of an accident. Her fiancé's car has crashed into an object on the road. By touching the statue, Dom opens a door to another world. It's the start of a frantic race for him and Birdie. A race to the truth and, if they're lucky, to survival.

Phantom Road Volume 1, Jeff Lemire and Gabriel H. Walta, Image Comics editions

The Good Asian is a crime thriller set in San Francisco's Chinatown in 1936. The story revolves around a Chinese-American detective investigating a mysterious killer. The story evokes the first generation of Chinese Americans to come of age in the context of the Chinese immigration ban, as they confront rampant murder, abusive police and a world that never seems to change.

The Good Asian, Pichetshote and Tefenkgi, with Loughridge and Powell, Komics initiative editions

Yuan is a Chinese truck driver, transporting coal to clandestine open-pit mines. He then travels many kilometers to deliver his coal, hoping each time to get the best price for his cargo. Yuan works with Wei, his "fixer", who haggles over prices with potential buyers. But one day, Wei decides to kill Yuan and steal his truck... Yuan has only one goal: to get his truck back... whatever the cost!

Les âmes noires, by Fred Druart and Aurélien Ducoudray, éditions Dupuis.

Little murders between friends... It's been decades since Stéphane left his native region for the warmth of the Sud of France. When some childhood friends, who haven't moved from the north of France, invite him to spend a few days with them, he happily accepts. Time has passed, and yet Stéphane finds that nothing has changed. Despite his eternal sense of humor, which he uses to defuse uncomfortable situations, Stéphane soon becomes disillusioned and is unable to shake off the inexplicable anxiety that has gripped him since his arrival in his childhood home. As the weekend progresses, a climate of tension and mistrust sets in, and Stéphane wonders whether he knows his friends as well as he thought he did...

Autreville, David de Thuin, éditions Sarbacane

Somewhere deep in California at the beginning of the 20th century, Cole Hupp lives apart from the world, waiting for the end. But it's Vivienne, a librarian curious about the reality of the Wild West, who knocks on his door. She knows his real name: Red Dust, a legend inscribed in the dust and blood of Wyoming. Vivienne is the bearer of disturbing news.
The Triple 6 Ranch, the site of Red's feats of arms, has gone quiet. The old cowboy has no choice but to return to his past. A journey backwards, strewn with ghosts and regrets, at the end of which he hopes to see again the woman he's never been able to forget, Comanche.

Revoir Comanche, Romain Renard, éditions Lombard

Milan suburbs, 1960s. Alberta, a young saleswoman, is found dead. At the same time, on his release from prison, Duca Lamberti is forced to take the first job he's offered: convicted of euthanizing a terminally ill woman, this former doctor is called in by a wealthy industrialist to detoxify his alcoholic son. The two events soon become intertwined when Lamberti discovers that the young man has taken to drinking because he believes himself guilty of the girl's death...

Vénus privée, Giorgio Scerbanenco, Laurent Lombard, Paolo Bacilieri, Editions Ici Même

A mother's perilous journey through a drug-ridden housing estate.
Nourrice: (police slang) A person who hides drugs in their home, in exchange for payment. Fatoumata, a housekeeper raising her three daughters alone, should never have accepted the deal from the housing estate's drug dealers. Nothing goes according to plan, and she finds herself at the heart of a war that is beyond her control... A war from which she will have to extricate herself, once again, on her own.

À mourir entre les bras de ma nourrice, Mark Eacersall, Henri Scala, Raphaël Pavard, éditions Glénat