In the Association's magazine Lapin, he published series like 'Le Prophète Voilé', 'Le Jardin Armé' and 'Le Voyage de l'Est'. As powerful as his dream imagery is in itself, it is amplified by his masterful use of black and white drawings. and specialized in short black-and-white stories, detailing nightmarish dreams, collected in the album 'Le Cheval Blême' in 1992.

As a scenarist, he cooperated with Olivier Legan on 'Pas de Samba pour Capitaine Tonnerre', an album published by Glénat in 1985.Īfter he co-founded L'Association in 1990, he began using the pseudonym David B.

Among his early creations are 'Le Timbre Maudit', a story published in Okapi, and 'the mini-series 'Zèbre' in Chic. had his first publications in magazines such as Chic, Circus, Okapi and A Suivre. Pierre-François Beauchard, who uses the pen name David B., was one of the initiators of the French alternative editorial house L'Association, and is now well-known among the French comics audience. Illustrated with beautiful and striking black-and-white images, Epileptic is as astonishing, intimate, and heartbreaking as the best literary memoir. We follow Pierre-François through his childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, all the while charting his complicated relationship with his brother and Jean-Christophe”s losing battle with epilepsy. Through flashbacks, we are introduced to the stories of Pierre-François’s grandparents and we relive his grandfathers’ experiences in both World Wars. An honest and horrifying portrait of the disease and of the pain and fear it sowed in the family, Epileptic is also a moving depiction of one family’s intricate history. But every new cure ended in disappointment as Jean-Christophe, after brief periods of remission, would only get worse.Īngry at his brother for abandoning him and at all the quacks who offered them false hope, Pierre-François learned to cope by drawing fantastically elaborate battle scenes, creating images that provide a fascinating window into his interior life.

In search of a cure, their parents dragged the family to acupuncturists and magnetic therapists, to mediums and macrobiotic communes. But their lives changed abruptly when Jean-Christophe was struck with epilepsy at age eleven. He spent an idyllic early childhood playing with the neighborhood kids and, along with his older brother, Jean-Christophe, ganging up on his little sister, Florence. was born Pierre-François Beauchard in a small town near Orléans, France. Epileptic gathers together and makes available in English for the first time all six volumes of the internationally acclaimed graphic work.ĭavid B. has created a masterpiece in Epileptic, his stunning and emotionally resonant autobiography about growing up with an epileptic brother. Hailed by The Comics Journal as one of Europe’s most important and innovative comics artists, David B.

Epileptic by David B.