178 EPILEPTIC
Preacher) and his ongoing series Th e Boys (2006–). Hitman features ex-marine turned
contract killer Tommy Monaghan, who after gaining x-ray vision and light telepathy
decides only to accept contracts to kill super-powered individuals or supernatural
creatures. Th e series crosses over into many major DC titles like Superman and Batman.
Th e Boys began its run in 2006 under Wildstorm, but was cancelled after six issues,
and is now published by Dynamite Entertainment. Th e Boys follows the exploits of a
group of CIA agents assigned to monitor and, if necessary, kill or intimidate superhu-
man beings. Hitman and Th e Boys continue the tradition of earlier landmarks like Allan
Moore’s Watchmen and Frank Miller’s Th e Dark Knight Returns, which consistently
undermine popular notions of superheroes and heroism.
Ennis’s work has earned him several awards, most notably Eisner Awards in 1998
for Hitman, Preacher, Unknown Soldier, and Blood Mary: Lady Liberty, and again for
Preacher in 2001. He was also nominated twice for an Eisner Award in 1993 and 1994
for his work on Hellblazer. Ennis won the Comics Buyer’s Guide Award for “Favorite
Writer” fi ve years running, from 1997–2001. Preacher was also nominated for a host of
Eagle Awards in 1999, and won for “Favourite Colour Comic Book.”
Grant Bain
EPILEPTIC. Epileptic was originally published serially in six volumes from 1996 to 2003
as L’Ascension de Haut Mal at French creator-owned publishing house L’Association.
In the series, comics artist David B. (born as Pierre-François Beauchard) depicts
the autobiographical story of his family’s constant struggle with his brother’s illness,
epilepsy. In contrast to the straight-forward title of the English publication Epileptic, the
original title L’Ascension de Haut Mal not only refers to the described illness, but has a
more ambiguous tone when translated literally as “the rise of the great evil.”
Author and artist David B. studied applied art in Duperré, France, has produced
comics since 1986 at various French publishing houses, and has received several awards
for Epileptic (Pantheon Books), including the French Alph’ Art Award for comics excel-
lence in 2000, and the Max-and-Moritz-Preis for the best international publication in
- He was also cited as European Cartoonist of the Year in 1998 by Th e Comics
Journal.
Th e story of Epileptic spans from the author’s childhood (as a fi ve-year-old) through
his adolescence and adulthood. When his brother Jean-Christophe has his fi rst epileptic
seizure at the age of seven, the whole family embarks on a troublesome journey from
Western medicine to macrobiotic communities, to acupuncturists, to diff erent gurus
back into the secluded heart of the family seeking to cure, or at least cope with, the
illness. In a struggle to represent this story in retrospective, David B. adds fl ashbacks
from his grandparents and great-grandparents to his personal experience of these events
in order to paint a more accurate picture of his family’s psychology. Historic events, such
as World War II, and accounts of recent conversations between David B. and his parents
are equally woven into the fabric of Epileptic and create a narrative that is based solely on
the artist’s subjective understanding of the events. Th e author constructs a meta-narrative
