Brain Drain – Pierre-Henry Gomont

It’s not a glamorous profession at the best of times, but when the spotlight falls unexpectedly on pathologist Thomas Stolz of the Princeton hospital, you have to wonder whether he is up to the task. The corpse that has been put before him is none other than Professor Albert Einstein and everyone wants to know the cause of death of one of the greatest minds of our time. Stolz is also interested in that great mind and while carrying out the autopsy he has a sudden crazy notion to steal the brain of Albert Einstein.

Despite Einstein’s express wishes not to leave his body to science, much less his brain, Stolz believes it’s his duty as a scientist to continue the search for.the advancement of human and scientific knowledge, or maybe his own career and fame. Probably mostly the latter. So he takes some work home with him, not telling anyone that the contents of the box he has brought down to his basement workshop contains probably the most famous brain in the world. Imagine if a second autopsy discovered that Einstein didn’t even have a brain. That would be a shock to the world.

It’s not as big a shock as Stolz gets when, whether through stress, guilt or anxiety, he finds a brainless Albert Einstein catching up with him. But since others can also see him, it’s clearly not imaginary. Professor Albert is happy for Stolz to coordinate the study of this unprecedented opportunity to examine a brain and it’s definitely not just any brain. The only problem is that as a pathologist, Stolz is more qualified at cutting up bodies than studying brains, and in some places he’s even seen as a bit of a dunce. A rather more immediate problem, since you can’t expect to just walk out of a hospital with the brain of Albert Einstein, is that they are being pursued across the country by the FBI.

For a madcap adventure like this, you would hope that the artwork is up to it, and it really is wonderful. Pierre-Henry Gomont’s is from the Will Eisner school, lovely expressive fluid lines with a slight European edge of Blutch-like shaky scratchiness and angular dynamic. It’s more than just the style that counts here, the page layouts are fluid and inventive and full of impact, beautifully coloured. As well as just flowing from frame to frame to capture a sense of movement, there are also imaginative flights into the manic thought processes of Stolz and his encounters with a famous physicist with no brain. Indeed it mirrors Einstein’s own way of conducting “thought experiments” through the use of mental imagery.

As you can imagine, Brain Drain diverts somewhat for the real truth about Professor Albert’s brain – which was indeed in real life removed by Professor Thomas Stoltz Harvey during an autopsy – but although it might seem like an opportunity for silly situations, chases and a bit of romance, Gomont also uses the story as a way to examine other themes. It looks at the nature of science, fame, as well indeed as the mysterious nature of the brain, its power and its unfortunate condition to degenerate. As such, it has the ability also to be thoughtful and reflective, and for all its madcap chases and flights of fantasy, it manages to touch on the emotional side of the brain as well as the intellect.

Brain Drain by Pierre-Henry Gomont is published in English in eBook format only by Europe Comics. It’s divided into two parts Part 1 (82 pages) and Part 2 (110 pages) which are available from the Europe Comics site or Amazon Kindle & ComiXology.