Sophie Castille, an enthusiastic and joyous promoter of French comics, died on July 11 at the age of 51.
Castille was the Director of Mediatoon, the rights agent for a number of Franco-Belgian comics publishers, including Dargaud, Dupuis and Le Lombard (see “ICv2 Interviews Mediatoon’s Sophie Castille”). She was also the co-founder and Managing Director of Europe Comics, a public-private initiative of 13 European publishers to promote and support BD sales in the U.S. through digital sales and other means. She was instrumental in efforts to bring the broad tradition of bandes dessinees to American audiences. According to the French comics site ActuaBD, she had previously been with the foreign rights division of Dargaud.
ActuaBD described Castille as “eminently professional and much loved,” and Drawn and Quarterly Tweeted “We are shocked, saddened, & speechless over the passing of our wonderful Mediatoon colleague Sophie Castille.”
A tribute page set up in Castille’s memory is filled with tributes from all over Europe and the U.S.; as critic Paul Gravett wrote, “Sophie loved to bring people together and her memory and example live on through all of us.”
Source: ICv2
