David B.David B.

David B. was born in N—mes on February 9, 1959. He both designs and writes comic books. After completing his studies in the Applied Arts at Duperré, he published his first comic book, Le Timbre maudit, in 1986 with Bayard. At the same time, he began to work regularly for Okapi, Chic and Tintin Reporter magazines. A story in five installations, "Zèbre," was also published in À Suivre between 1985 and 1990.

In 1990, he founded L'Association with J-C. Menu, Stanislas, Mattt Konture, Killoffer, and Lewis Trondheim. In 1991, L'Association published the "Bombe" series in the collection Patte de Mouche.

In 1992, he published Le Cheval blême-notes on the author's dreams, over a dozen years, that he and transformed into comic books-as the first book in the collection Ciboulette. It was nominated for Alph'Art's "Coup de coeur" award at the 1993 Angoulême Festival. His work is regularly published in Lapin, the magazine put out by L'Association.

From May 1993 to October 1994, Cornélius published David B.'s five-volume comic, Le Nain Jaune. Automne 67 edited, in 1994, a limited edition collection of his designs, Le Livre somnambule.

Les Incidents de la nuit was published without authorization by Le Cheval, and edited by L'Association between 1999 and 2002.

Between 1996 and 2004, David B. created his masterful L'Ascension du Haut Mal. Over six volumes, he told the story of his epileptic brother (epilepsy was considered the "high misfortune" in old French), and put in place a veritable family memoir. This comic book is often considered one of the greatest works of modern comic book design, as demonstrated by the multiple nominations it garnered at the Angoulême Festival. In 2000, Volume 4 was awarded "Best Scenario"; in 1998 and 2004, Volumes 2 and 4 were nominated for "Best Comic Book."

Since 1997, he has published work with other editors of L'Association, and worked with a number of different authors, such as Joann Sfar, Christophe Blain, and Emmanuel Guibert.

In 2005, L'Ascension du Haut Mal was translated by Panthéon Books, which also published the American version of Persepolis.

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The winner of the John Dryden Translation prize, Edward Gauvin (edwardgauvin.com/blog) has received fellowships and residencies from the NEA, the Fulbright Foundation, the Centre National du Livre, and the American Literary Translators' Association. His volume of Georges-Olivier Chāteaureynaud’s selected stories, A Life on Paper (Small Beer, 2010), won the Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Award and was shortlisted for the Best Translated Book Award. Other publications have appeared in Tin House, Subtropics, The Harvard Review, The Southern Review, AGNI Online, and PEN America. He translates comics for Top Shelf, Archaia, and Lerner.

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