Isaac the pirate (2003)

2002 winner: Isaac the Pirate, volume 1 (Les Amériques) The first winner of the reunited prize follows a poor young painter who signs on with a captain who turns out to be a pirate, drawn by Christophe Blain in a loose, quick line that makes sea spray and bad weather feel physical. It is adventure comics with a melancholy undertow, and the jury picked the opening album. NBM's first English volume, To Exotic Lands, collects it together with the second, so that is the book to buy.