The acclaimed autobiograhpical graphic novel by David B. (aka Pierre-François Beauchard) gets a belated English-language translation and publication, after originally surfacing in his native France as a six-volume series in the 1990s. The author is a founding member of the French cartoonist group L’Association.
Critic Reviews
|
Outstanding
|
Booklist Gordon Flagg
This powerful graphic novel launches a series that promises to set an ambitious new standard for autobiographical comics. [Jul 2002, p.1812]
|
|
Outstanding
|
Kirkus Reviews
An unromantic, heartrending tale, wrapped in a cloak of nightmares. [1 Dec 2004, p.1117]
|
|
Outstanding
|
Publishers Weekly
This is truly a remarkable and powerful piece of comics narration. [3 Jun 2002, p.67]
|
|
Outstanding
|
San Francisco Chronicle Charles Solomon
"Epileptic" reveals how powerful the graphic novel form can be in the hands of a talented artist.
|
|
Outstanding
|
The New York Times Book Review Rick Moody
In short, ''Epileptic'' constitutes something new: a graphic intellectual history.
|
|
Outstanding
|
Daily Telegraph Helen Brown
A staggeringly original work of real power.
|
|
Outstanding
|
The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Nathalie Atkinson
At times, the translation lacks the finesse of the original French, particularly in awkward passages that fail to capture the poetic lilt or subtle humour of the original idiom. But David B.'s rich visual tapestry, a personal archeology steeped in psychology, philosophy and history, transcends the limitations of language and transforms Epileptic into a masterpiece of the medium. [5 Feb 2005, p.D13]
|
|
Outstanding
|
The Guardian Ian Sansom
As a work of evisceration, as a ripping and widening of the soul, and as an honest appeal to the self and to the great, yawning emptiness that you might call God, or you might call the Other, or you might indeed call the Reader, there shall probably be no more profound a work published this year than David B's Epileptic.
|
|
Outstanding
|
The Spectator Tony Gould
A comic tour de force that is as emotionally gut-wrenching as it is visually stunning.
|
|
Outstanding
|
Houston Chronicle Andrew Dansby
It is a vision fully realized, a story beautifully structured and compellingly human.
|
|
Favorable
|
Washington Post Chris Lehmann
The dark, antic panels of Epileptic render a richly allusive, harrowing and oddly redemptive world.
|
|
Favorable
|
The Independent Charles Shaar Murray
Epileptic is by no means an easy read in any possible sense.
|
|
Favorable
|
The Onion A.V. Club Tasha Robinson
Epileptic somewhat resembles Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis books in style and execution; David B.'s art is far more varied and more sophisticated, but it shares some of Satrapi's dense black-and-white impressionism, and his detailed reportage on his family history, contemporaneous politics, and his internal struggles with anger and helplessness all seem hauntingly familiar.
|
|
Favorable
|
Los Angeles Times Laurel Maury
Like "Maus," "Ghost World" and "Persepolis," "Epileptic" deals honestly with violence, class, racism and sheer cruelty. [2 Jan 2005, p.R6]
|
|
Favorable
|
Entertainment Weekly Marc Bernardin
Epileptic is honest, sometimes to a fault, and perceptive, especially about a kid's view of disease.
|
|
