Teasers Released for Animated Adaptation of David B.’s ‘Epileptic’

The autobiographical graphic novel L’Ascension du Haut Mal, (released in English as Epileptic), is being adapted into an animated feature in France. The critically acclaimed series by David Beauchard (aka David B.) focuses on the creative fantasies of the artist as a child as his family unsuccessfully attempts to cure his brother’s advancing epilepsy through alternative medical treatments like magnetism and macrobiotics.

Originally published by L’Association, the French comics publisher of which Beauchard was a founder, the six-part L’Ascension du Haut Mal has been widely celebrated in both Europe and the United States, winning numerous prizes at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, and helping Beauchard win an Ignatz Award for Outstanding Artist in 2005.

Filmmaker and architect Christophe Gérard will direct the film, which is being animated by the French studio Tchack and produced by Atopic. The filmmakers recently posted two teasers on the film’s official website. No release date has been set at this time.