France’s top comic strip artist has accused the government of the “worst censorship in publishing history” after it cancelled a 900,000 issue order of his modern-day take on Beauty and the Beast.

Jul, whose real name is Julien Berjeaut, accused the education ministry in a Right-wing dominated government of taking umbrage at him depicting Belle, the story’s protagonist, as a swarthy Mediterranean with curly hair.

The comic book order was cancelled at the last minute on grounds it was “inappropriate” for 10-year-olds.

The education ministry had tasked Jul, a household name in France for his Stone Age-set Silex and the City series, to come up with a contemporary version of the beloved 1740 French fairy tale by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, with the best-known written version published by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756. 

It has been turned into various cartoons and feature films, including a 1991 Disney animation and its 2017 live-action version, as well as a 1994 Broadway stage show and pantomimes in the UK.

The order was part of a government drive called “A book for the holidays” in which children were encouraged to read a classic work of French literature in the summer before they start secondary school.

In Jul’s illustrated modern version, Belle’s merchant father arrives from Algeria, the protagonist has long black hair and the Beast is a shaggy ball of hair with big teeth who resembles Barbouille, the son of the pink shape-changing children’s character Barbapapa.