On the hunt for Madness – David B. L'Ascension du Haut Mal

Back for some more information about inspiration. Today we are diving deep into the dark pond of epilepsy and personal tragedy.

Back in times when I was still schoolkid, freshly after my introduction into the world of not-Polish comic books, I had a short list of comics which I wanted to get. Of course there was Maus, Killing Joke, Watchmen etc. but thanks to the specific television show this list was a little bit longer – David B. L'Ascension du Haut Mal was published as a whole for the first time in Poland. Few months later I got copy for myself.

L'Ascension du Haut Mal (or “Rycerze Świętego Wita”) was a special case for me – it was not only done with my favorite style (black&white, ink only) but also was promising sneak peek into the life of people from this other Europe, Western one. David B. decided to write and illustrate story of his life which was terribly affected by crippling epilepsy of his brother. It was a large part of problems within his family and for many years he, his sister and their parents had to cope with strange case of Jean-Christophe. Even though epilepsy is not strictly mental illness, it did shape and twist life of his brother, which made an interesting story for someone like me, who always is on the hunt for extraordinary stories and people. Later on there are other elements which appear in the life of David B. – sex, illness, relationship and tiresome life in Paris as an artist.

I will not present you whole outline of the story as it is quite personal and it is better for you to read it without any expectations. However I can still speak about artistic side of L'Ascension du Haut Mal which – if you look closely – had more than great impact on my own artistic development. David B. is a surrealist artist, his people are simplistic, their faces are often presented from the profile side yet every person in this story has a distinctive and original look. It goes even weirder when our hero – David B. himself – starts using his imagination, creating twisted and deformed creatures of his mind, hybrids of animal and man, demons and ancient warriors. With the development of the story whole family is presented to the strange world of metaphysics, divination and horoscopes. As young David take all of this mysticism seriously, his art and his world shakes and erupts with new, crazy visualizations of mind.

I appreciate this story for honest representation of family struggling with unavoidable problem, how they reacted to epileptically unstable son and changes in French society, but even more I like it for its artistic side. These crazy swirls, deep black indian ink, original monstrosities, dark but beautiful world where lines and words live in perfect harmony, giving way for emotions to approach you while you’re reading that story. It’s one of the most sensual story I had the pleasure to read. I wish I could find more of David B. creations.