Epileptic [Paperback]

The first thing that needs to be stated is this is not Epileptic 1. Epileptic 1 gathered the first three English-translated volumes of David B.'s work back in around 2002. What you have both here and in, as far as I know, the soft-cover version is the entire six-volume collection gathered into one English-language graphic novel translated from its original French language. The other reviews here, including those copied by Amazon, were not up to date on this matter.

Despite the English title of this graphic novel, Epileptic is not purely about epilepsy. It is about a family in France dealing with the epileptic fits of one of its members -- its eldest child Jean-Christophe -- and the effect that this has on the family. In many ways, epilepsy itself is made into an invisible hidden monster that forces the family of the author David B. -- formerly known as Pierre-Francois Beauchard -- to seek the often false and "fool's gold" powers of alternative medicine and philosophies such as macrobiotics as well as occultism and spiritualism to not only attempt to end Jean-Christophe's seizures but to also try to heal the pain that his illness and life itself is causing them as well.

As a result of this, David B. creates a very interesting comics landscape in his work. He draws on the power of old dreams, early fantastic story attempts, mystical symbolism, childhood hopes and drawings and combines them into an almost stark yet lush black-and-white glyphic text that ties the pain of his brother to his own pain, dealings with life and creativity. There is so much information crammed into the captions and dialogue of this work that sometimes it can be just as overwhelming as the feelings of thwarted hope and despair over finding a cure for David B.'s older brother that the narrative conveys.

David B. also utilizes meta-narrative devices in which at times he even includes discussions with his parents about the content of this book itself, and the inclusion of his own often silent creative daimons or guides in the form of an Ibis-headed version of his dead grandfather and three dark creative muses. What all of this does is allow David B. to focus on his brother's epilepsy and spread his focus across his own family's history of personal struggle against suffering, and how the collective trauma France's involvement in the two World Wars and the Algerian War affected them. There seems to be this implied undercurrent that ties all of these elements together and the enemy that David B. is fighting seems not to be the just demon of epilepsy or the absence of an older brother in his life, but rather helplessness itself. I think of this book as almost a mythological and alchemical text chronicling his fight against that force.

This was an excellent graphic narrative, however the small cramped nature of the lettering did make it hard to concentrate on the content. Also, sometimes the French to English translation did seem a little awkward: especially with regards to the poetic translations. There were also many references to French fantasy, poetry and literature that I was unfamiliar with and couldn't relate to. But this is David B.'s own story: a story that is his brother's, his family's, his country's, and in some ways all of humanity's story. This work is an immense achievement.

Epileptic relates the real-life story of the author, mostly how his childhood was impacted by the severe epilepsy of his older brother. Through his drawings, the author shares with us his perception as a child of the sickness of his brother. Both the writing and graphic styles are quite moving and often surrealistic. The author is very successful in communicating his feelings, to the point where the experience can sometime be uncomfortable to the reader. The only negative comment I would make is that I found that the story was dragging for the last third of the book (hence the 4 stars), but not to the point to become boring. I highly recommend this graphic novel.

This book is amazingly great! I want the next volume NOW! Order this if you want a really wonderful comic that is a great first exposure to the French expressionist comics movement. This is definitly a must own book. I really admire this guy, David B. Hopefully, my work will be able to match this man's, someday. Everything about this book is wonderful: paper, ink, art, story, etc., etc. An inspiration, scrible it down in your memo pad!