''L'Ascension du haut mal'' ("The Rise of the High Evil"), published in English as ''Epileptic'', is an

autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

David Beauchard Pierre-François "David" Beauchard (; born 9 February 1959), also known by the pen name David B., is a French comic book artist and writer, and one of the founders of . Biography After studying advertising at the Duperré School of Applied Arts i ...

(more commonly known as David B.).

Publication history

It was originally published in French by

L'Association L'Association is a French publishing house located in Paris which publishes comic books. It was founded in May 1990 by Jean-Christophe Menu, Lewis Trondheim, David B., Mattt Konture, Patrice Killoffer, Stanislas, and Mokeït. L'Association i ...

in six volumes from 1996 to 2003: # 1996 () # 1997 () # 1998 () # 1999 () # 2000 () # 2003 () The first half of the series was published in English by

Fantagraphics Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and the erotic Eros Comix imprint. History Founding Fantagraphics was found ...

in one volume in 2002 (); a complete edition was released by

Pantheon Pantheon may refer to: * Pantheon (religion), a set of gods belonging to a particular religion or tradition, and a temple or sacred building Arts and entertainment Comics *Pantheon (Marvel Comics), a fictional organization * ''Pantheon'' (Lone S ...

in 2005.

Plot

The book tells the story of the author's early childhood and adolescence, focusing on his relationship with his older brother and younger sister. His brother develops severe and intractable

epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrical ...

, causing the family to seek a variety of solutions from

alternative medicine Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alt ...

, most dramatically by moving to a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

based on

macrobiotic A macrobiotic diet (or macrobiotics) is a fad diet based on ideas about types of food drawn from Zen Buddhism. The diet tries to balance the supposed yin and yang elements of food and cookware. Major principles of macrobiotic diets are to reduce ...

principles. As the epileptic brother loses control of his own life, the artist develops solitary obsessions with cartoons, mythology and war. The book's graphic style becomes increasingly elaborate as the children's fantasy life takes over, with their dreams and fears (including epilepsy itself) appearing as living creatures. In brief interludes, the children appear as adults when the artist begins the process of writing the story.

Translation

The French title proved difficult to translate, as it contains several meanings: ''haut mal'' is an archaic term for epilepsy meaning literally "high evil" or "great sickness" (formerly used as a medical term in English, now replaced by ''grand mal''), and ''ascension'' can mean either rise or climbing, as seen in a recurring image of the family climbing a steep slope into unknown terrain.

Reception

The English translation of the book received very good reviews from critics. The review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

reported the book had an average score of 92 out of 100, based on 15 reviews. ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

'' has called it "one of the greatest graphic novels ever published."

Awards

The fourth volume won the 2000

Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize for Scenario This Prize for Scenario is awarded to comics authors at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. In the following list, the winner of the award is listed first, followed by the nominees. 1990s * 1993: ''Saigon-Hanoï'' by Cosey, Dupuis * 199 ...

. David B. won the 2005

Ignatz Award The Ignatz Awards recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. They have been awarded each year at the Small Press Expo since 1997, only skipping a ...

for Outstanding Artist for his work on the series.

Notes

References

''L'Ascension du haut mal''
at Bedetheque

External links

*Pasquier, Renaud

in ''Labyrinthe'' #25 "La bande dessinée : ce qu'elle dit, ce qu'elle montre", 2006
Epileptic Is Schizophrenic -- But Interestingly So
{{Pantheon Comics 1996 comics debuts 1996 graphic novels 2002 graphic novels 2005 graphic novels Autobiographical graphic novels Fantagraphics titles French graphic novels Pantheon Books graphic novels Diseases and disorders in comics