Darkness Visible

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French cartoonist David B. visualizes the invisible. In Epileptic, a moving account of his brother's debilitating illness, he delivers compelling cartoon metaphors for elusive concepts like longing. The result, due out in early January, is a graphic novel that's a worthy successor to Art Spiegelman's Maus.Set in Europe during the late 1960s and early '70s, Epileptic tells the story of David B.'s family members as they struggle to help his brother, trying out "cures" from mediums to exorcisms. A seizure is depicted as his brother twisting in the coils of a giant snake. David B. says, "I didn't want at all to do something realistic. I was not interested in making a reconstruction." By taking us to the most fantastic limits of his imagination, David B. has made his family's struggles palpably, powerfully real. --By Andrew Arnold