The Ministry of Culture this month is sending Taiwanese comic artists, including the cofounder of an independent comic magazine, to the Angouleme International Comics Festival in France for the ninth consecutive year.

The artists to be featured at Taiwan’s pavilion this year include Monday Recover, Animo Chen, Gao Yan, Wu Yu-shi, Penpoint, Nin (the pen name for Li Yu-ning, and Stellina Chen, the ministry said.

Liu Chien-fan and Jelly Bug, selected as finalists in the festival’s Young Talents and Draw Me Comics contests respectively, would also join them, it said.

The ministry has run a pavilion at the festival since 2012, it said, adding that the 47th edition of the festival runs from Jan. 30 to Feb. 2.

Curated by Locus Publishing chairman Rex How, Taiwan’s pavilion would be titled “Passion of Taiwan Comics,” the ministry said.

The pavilion would include three major sections: one focused on the participating artists, a second that highlights publishers and recommended titles, and a third that looks back on Taiwan’s pavilions in previous years, it said.

Liu, who created the independent quarterly magazine Bo_ing Comix in 2018 with fellow artist Elainee Fang, said she and Fang met at a previous edition of the Angouleme International Comics Festival.

They plan to bring the magazine, published in Chinese and English, to this year’s festival, Liu said.

Over the past two years, the ministry has invested considerable resources in the comic scene, Department of Humanities and Publications Director Chen Ying-fang said at Taipei’s Taiwan Comic Base, which this month is celebrating its one-year anniversary.

“We no longer only have Japanese comics,” she said, while acknowledging the “important influence” they have had on Taiwanese culture.

The ministry plans to host an exhibition from Feb. 17 to March 17 at Taiwan Comic Base showcasing the works featured at the Taiwan pavilion, she said.