A Serious Comic, By Vicki Gundrum

A Serious Comic
By Vicki Gundrum (Sep. 2, 2005)

And for your loving-to-read pleasure…the Biblioteca Pública has purchased Epileptic.
The graphic novel Epileptic, by David B., is available on the Biblioteca Pública's "Recent Arrivals" shelf. Epileptic, copyright 2005 by L'Association, Paris, France. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House.

Epileptic is a bold, masterful autobiography of David B.'s life with an epileptic brother. The graphic novel was originally published in French, in six volumes, to international acclaim. This English translation collects all the panels of those six volumes between hard-bound covers.

Named Pierre-François by his parents, David B. tells how he and his older, epileptic brother Jean-Christophe, and their sister Florence, grow up in the family home in Orléans, France. The book introduces the children at ages 5, 7, and 4, and their early years are a happy time. At age 11, Jean-Christophe suffers his first epileptic seizure-changing family life forever.

David B. uses many historical references as he depicts his childhood activities: playing with toy soldiers, drawing battle scenes and listening as his parents read and tell stories. He especially enjoys the Bible stories that involve fighting. The historical references span eons in time and hemispheres in space. It takes only until page three to see and read about Cortéz fighting the Indians in Mexico. David B.'s symbolism, depicted both visually and in words, builds toward a metaphor of battles to relate his epileptic brother's life.

The drawings show wit and verve: When Pierre-François's parents and brother "make the round of doctors" there is a drawing of 18 doctors holding hands and forming a ring, as in the game of Ring Around the Rosy, encircling the patient Jean-Christophe and his parents. The round of doctors-and the concomitant experimental therapies followed by dashed hopes, then anger, and then new hopes with new therapies-make up much of the plot.

Jean-Christophe is drawn in the company of monsters during his younger brother's dreams-both nightmares and daytime fantasies. The epilepsy takes Jean-Christophe away from his brother, and the illness itself appears as a serpent at the family dining table, coupled with these hand-lettered words: "Can we, in fact, get on with our lives? But it's not our choice to make. When the illness took up residence here it didn't seek our permission."

The drawings are fascinating and rich in detail. To rifle through the pages is like watching a slide show too fast, yet catching glimpses of skeletons, goons and soldiers of many lands in intricate armor and costumes. There are Japanese samurai, French legionnaires in the Algerian desert and WWI soldiers in trenches. Also I see mazes, a clown, cryptic and inventive Tarot cards, Anubis, the Egyptian god with a jackal head; a scene like the Magritte painting Empire of Light; and on a single page: "Atlantis, the Knights Templar, extraterrestrials, the secrets of Tibet and Easter Island, the vanished continent of Mu, the Holy Grail, the Cathars and Monségur, Hitler and Vrill Society, the Golden Dawn, the Supérieurs Incommus, the Rosicrucians…".

The stark black-and-white drawings, the grim tale of an unrelenting illness, the phantasmagorical creatures on the page-all crescendo into a powerful experience for the reader/viewer.

The Comics Journal had this to say about the book: "It is rare to encounter a project this honest and forthright about real human emotions. But saying that [Epileptic] is merely confessional conveys nothing of what makes it so special. David B. has created the most innovative comics project of the decade. And probably also the most important."

About the artist and author

The book jacket tells us that "David B. is a founding member of L'Association, a group of French cartoonists who banded together as publishers in 1990 and have revolutionized European comics with their groundbreaking approach to format, subject matter and style. He has received many awards, including the French Alph' Art award for comics' excellence in 2000, and he was cited as European Cartoonist of the Year in 1998 by The Comics Journal. He lives in France."

Other graphic novels

There is also an example of a graphic novel in the Biblioteca Pública's Children's Room: México: historia de un pueblo. It is in fact not a novel but a nonfiction history book about Cinco de Mayo, the battle of 1862-an important time in Mexican history. The book is geared toward children ages 9-12. It is an example of the influence of comics in educational materials, pioneered by the great Mexican political cartoonist Ruis (Eduardo del Rio), whose work led to the factoid cartoon style well known to readers of the "…for Beginners´ books. (Ruis created Marx for Beginners, originally published in 1976 by Pantheon Books.)

While many bibliophiles bemoan the decline of reading as entertainment among the young, please don't blame the graphic novel. School librarians love the form because young boys read the books, and young boys as a whole are not often found in libraries.

In a strange loop comes the news that work by controversial and famed video game designer American McGee (Doom, American McGee's Alice, Scrapland, and the forthcoming Bad Day LA) will be turned into graphic novels by Cellar Door Publishing. And I pray to the god of reading: Is it too much to ask that the violent-video-game-loving boys who get lured back to reading in the form of graphic novels based on such games could one day pick up a traditional novel or a less violent graphic novel?

I encourage you to pick up a graphic novel sometime. Come to the Biblioteca and give Epileptic a look. If you become enamored of the form, then let the staff know you'd like to see more graphic novels on the shelves. The Book Committee, led by Robin Velte-a former States-based public and school librarian-considers patron requests when buying new books. That's how the terrific Epileptic got on the shelf in the first place. (You can make a patron request via the suggestions box by the front entrance of the Biblioteca.)

Sidebar:
Comics & Cartoon Confessions
As a little kid I liked the Sunday paper comic strip Nancy, by Ernie Bushmiller. It was simple and I understood it. Should I be embarrassed that I read it? Many deride it as being "dumbed down." As an adult I still like Nancy: I like the surrealism of the rocks. Somewhere along the way I learned that Bushmiller used to get ideas for the strip by looking in Montgomery Ward catalogs. Weird. And I remember appreciating a Mad Magazine spoof of Nancy in which Aunt Fritzie was a brothel madam, Nancy was a prostitute and Sluggo was her pimp.

I never read the superhero comic books of my youth, the widely popular serials put out by DC Comics and Marvel, but that is typical for girls. Yet while my preteen twin was receiving her first "I'm growing up" subscription to Seventeen Magazine, I was still reading Mad. I especially liked the Spy vs. Spy cartoons in which one black-inked spy and a white spy (pen-outlined, no color- or black-fill) endlessly took turns gaining the upper-hand on the other one. Neither spy ever won in the end.

When young, I liked Astro Boy on the Saturday morning tv cartoon line-up. Astro Boy was based on the Japanese comic Tetsuwan Atom ("Mighty Atom" in English), created by Osamu Tezuka-Japan's most honored anime (animation) and manga (comics) creator. Manga are usually published in black and white and feature "big-eyed, big haired characters" and "mecha" (technology such as robots, spaceships, and weapons). Astro Boy is a little robot boy, built by Minister of Science Dr. Tenma to replace his son who died in an accident. But when Dr. Tenma realizes the robot boy won't grow up, he casts him out. Professor Ochanomizu discovers the robot boy, names him "Astro" and teaches him and guides him through many adventures. (To remember the show now reminds me of the story of Edward Scissorshands, which I also liked a lot.) I think today's Power Puff Girls is the closest descendant of Astro Boy. The PPG show-about three cute, big-eyed, lab accident power-enhanced, crime-fighting girls-is popular among girls in Japan, the United States and in Mexico, where the show is called "Las Chicas Súper Poderosas."

I also liked Johnny Quest. Actually, I had a crush on the character of Johnny Quest, even though he was a cartoon. I wanted him and his life: a professor parent, world travel, an interracial group of friends and acquaintances and a dog. And I know I watched Batman on tv, but after the first Pow! and Blam! I found it boring and had to turn it off. Today, I still enjoy watching The Simpsons on tv with my nephew-and it is funny in book form, too.

And now I read graphic novels. V.G.

Vicki Gundrum reads and edits books in her San Miguel apartment. You can reach her at vicki.gundrum@excite.com