Fairy Tail Manga Creator Hiro Mashima Wins Angoulême's Special Award In France

French festival hosts exhibit dedicated to his work on January 25-28

The 45th Angoulême International Comics Festival awarded manga creator Hiro Mashima (Fairy Tail, Rave Master) with the Fauve Special Award on Friday.

The festival is hosting an exhibition dedicated to his work. The multi-part Fairy Tail exhibition includes five dedicated rooms, more than 100 drawings, and 50 manuscripts. Visitors can also go to the "Artist Technique" room to try their hand at drawing Fairy Tail with an instructional video. Figures and costumes will be on display and Mashima himself will visit the exhibition to hand out autographs. Fairy Tail has 7.7 million copies in print in France.

This year's Angoulême Festival runs from January 25-28. This year's nominees include Yarō Abe's Shinya Shokudō (The Midnight Diner, La Cantine de Minuit), Nagabe's The Girl From the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún (L'Enfant et le Maudit: Siúil, a Rún), and Keigo Shinzō's Tokyo Alien Bros. manga, among others. Last year's winners include Kazuo Kamimura's Rikon Club manga and the fourth volume of Minetarō Mochizuki's Chiisakobee manga.

The festival launched in 1974 as an event celebrating comics from countries throughout the world.

Mashima was also honored with the first Harvey Awards International Spotlight award at the Harvey Awards last year. The awards were held during New York Comic Con, and Mashima attended the event.

Mashima posted on Twitter on December 31 that he will "work hard [to launch] a new serialization" this year.