Anna Sommer Wins the 2026 Grand Prix Töpffer
Anna Sommer Wins the 2026 Grand Prix Töpffer
The Swiss artist receives Geneva’s Grand Prix Töpffer for a career spanning more than three decades, as her first major solo exhibition at a French institution opens in Strasbourg.
Swiss comics artist and illustrator Anna Sommer has been awarded the 2026 Grand Prix Töpffer, one of Switzerland’s major distinctions for comics. Announced in Geneva on September 22, the award recognises Sommer’s body of work and her contribution to contemporary Swiss comics.
Sommer has worked across comics and illustration for more than three decades, moving between drawing, collage and cut paper. Born in Staffelbach in 1968 and based in Zurich, she trained as a graphic designer before emerging from the independent comics scene in the mid-1990s.
Her early book Remue-Ménage brought her wider attention in France and was nominated for the Prix Coup de cœur at the Angoulême festival in 1997. Her books have since appeared with publishers including L’Association, Les Cahiers dessinés and Actes Sud, while her illustrations have appeared in publications in both the French- and German-speaking worlds.
Three Decades Between Comics and Illustration
The Grand Prix Töpffer is awarded by the Canton and City of Geneva in honour of Rodolphe Töpffer, the Geneva artist and writer widely regarded as a pioneer of the modern comic strip. The 2026 Grand Prix carries a prize of CHF 10,000.
In announcing this year’s recipient, the jury pointed to Sommer’s role as an ambassador for Swiss comics and to the international reach of a career that has developed on both sides of the country’s linguistic divide.
Sommer received the Max und Moritz Prize in 2024, one of the leading distinctions in German-language comics. That same year her work was included in exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Anna Sommer in Strasbourg
À tire-d’aile
The Musée Tomi Ungerer – Centre international de l’Illustration is presenting Sommer’s first solo exhibition at a French institution. Rather than functioning as a conventional retrospective, the exhibition gives Sommer a carte blanche to place her own work in conversation with the museum’s collections.
Alongside works by Tomi Ungerer, Sommer selected drawings by artists including Borislav Sajtinac, Marcelle Cahn, Käthe Kollwitz, Toshusai Sharaku and Kitagawa Utamaro. The exhibition also marks the addition of works by Sommer to the Musée Tomi Ungerer collection through a donation by the artist and an acquisition by the museum.
Musée Tomi Ungerer · Strasbourg
The timing gives the Grand Prix a wider context. Sommer is being recognised in Geneva at the same moment that a French museum is placing her work within a broader history of drawing and illustration.
The 2026 Töpffer Awards
Alongside the Grand Prix announcement, Geneva also revealed the shortlisted artists for its two other Töpffer awards. The winners will be announced during a public ceremony at HEAD – Genève on November 26, accompanied by an exhibition of work by the nominated artists.
2026 Nominees
- Jehan Khodl — Liibaan
- Alex Baladi — Décris-Ravage
- Helge Reumann — Chöd#0
- Aliya Ivana Gbedegnon — Midnight Run
- Chloé Giromini — Orties
- Colin Heiniger — L’Encarne
Sommer will be in Geneva ahead of the ceremony, where she is scheduled to lead a workshop for students from HEAD – Genève and ESBDI. The November programme will provide the next chapter of this year’s Töpffer awards, when the Geneva and young comics prizes are decided.
