Winner of the Revelation Prize, Liberation Readers’ Prize, and Poland Prize from the Angoulême International Comics Festival and named one of FNAC’s “Top 10 Graphic Novels About Illness”!

From the publisher (Top Shelf):

A triumph of graphic memoir, Parenthesis narrates the author’s experience with tumor-related epilepsy–losing herself, and finding herself again.

Judith is barely out of her teens when a tumor begins pressing on her brain, ushering in a new world of seizures, memory gaps, and loss of self. Suddenly, the sentence of her normal life has been interrupted by the opening of a parenthesis that may never close.

Based on the real experiences of cartoonist Élodie Durand, Parenthesis is a gripping testament of struggle, fragility, acceptance, and transformation which was deservedly awarded the Revelation Prize of the Angoulême International Comics Festival. — a 224-page, B&W graphic novel with French flaps (6″ x 9″).

My Review

Parenthesis is a powerful, intimate glimpse into the creator’s experience with illness and recovery and the effects of such on the lives of her friends and family. The writing is direct and easy to follow and the artwork does a fantastic job in demonstrating Durand’s mental and emotional states as she navigates the confusion and exhaustion that accompany her illness.

In reading Parenthesis, I couldn’t help thinking of David B’s stunning graphic memoir Epileptic, which recounts growing up with his brother, Jean-Christophe, who suffered from epileptic seizures and the many medicines, diets, treatments, and other cares explored by his parents and attending physicians. Definitely worth checking out if you enjoyed Parenthesis, graphic memoirs, or the graphic potentials inherent in the comics form.

For tips on making your own graphic novel, check out my 7-part series on How To Make a Graphic Novel.

If you’re interesting in learning how to write and draw your own comics, check out my book Let’s Make Comics! An Activity Book to Create, Write, and Draw Your Own Cartoons.

A light-hearted interactive guide to comics and cartoon-making that uses an activity book format and creatively stimulating prompts to teach the fundamentals of cartooning in a fun and easy-to-follow fashion.

From a working cartoonist and comic book making instructor, this all-ages activity book uses humorous and informative one-page comics and exercise prompts to guide young readers (and readers who are young at heart) through easy-to-master lessons on the skills needed to make comics. The activities cover a range of essential comics-making tasks from creating expressions for characters to filling in blank panels to creating original characters and placing them in adventures of their own. Each exercise can stand on its own or work together with others in the book to stimulate creativity via the comics medium. In the end, readers who complete the activities inside the book itself will have created several comics of their own, and will have generated many ideas for more sequential art creations.

If you’d like to read my next graphic novel for FREE and before it’s published, sign up for my First Readers Club here.