The Illustrated PEN is a weekly online series that aspires to be at the intersection of literature, journalism, and visual storytelling, where images and words come together in an ever-emerging and essential creative form. We’ll feature fiction and nonfiction graphic narratives, comics journalism and illustrated reportage, stories of social justice and personal stories that can’t be told through words alone.

This week, we feature a piece from our archives by Ludovic Debeurme, a 2011 PEN World Voices Festival participant. The following is an excerpt from Lucille, winner of the Rene Goscinny Prize. With Lucille, Debeurme takes on the difficult world of adolescence, following the life of a young anorexic woman and the difficult relationships she has with others, who have significant problems of their own. Influenced by psychoanalysis and the exploration of dreams, Debeurme depicts life and fantasies with elegant, clean graphics.