A Brief Look At Epileptic By David B.

Epileptic is a comic series created by David Beauchard or David B. as he signs in his comics. The comic is an autobiographic work and that makes it an autographic work as it consists of autobiography and graphic narration. The original title of the work is L’Ascension du Haut Mal which is French for The Rise of the High Evil. Epileptic is a narration of David Beauchard’s teenage years and it is mostly focused on his relationship with his siblings.

His brother is diagnosed with epilepsy and they begin to seek remedy in various ways. This sickness also rises the thoughts on the title of the work. The Rise of the High Evil might be referred to as epilepsy getting worse as time passes.

The drawing style is similar to Persepolis created by Joe Sacco.

Let's take a closer look at a couple of pages for a better understanding of its unique style. On page 302, we can see the frame of the page is the narrator's brother.

This distinct framing technique helps centralize his brother and it immediately takes the attention of the reader. It creates the feeling of being overwhelmed and stuck. Moreover, by telling the story in this frame, the narrator creates the idea that these are Jean Christophe's thoughts and emotions. In the scenes, we can see a mythical-looking creature is always in the background. It stands for the High Evil or epilepsy. It can be seen throughout the comic when the character's sickness gets worse or when the characters decide to do unethical things. We can see that Jean Christophe gets surrounded by its frame by frame and is left all alone. Jean somewhat becomes possessed by this evil.

On page 303, we can see that this lizard-like thing has completely taken over the page.

This is a clear indicator that Jean's sickness got worse. As the scenes go, we can see Jean falling in each moment. We can see a brief moment of a complete act in each frame. This transition technique is called action-to-action transition as Scott McCloud suggests. In the sixth frame, we can see lines on Jean's face. These lines are not shadowing effects they are contractions caused by the disease.

All in all, Epileptic is a unique work with a unique style and story. What also contributes to its uniqueness is that it tells the story of a minority group through distinct narration