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Le Voeu de Simon is a graphic novel by Nicolas Wild and Lucie Albon, created in 2007. It is a sequel to Le Voeu de Marc, which took place in the same village with a magical genie who grants wishes. We follow the life of Simon, a doctor. He interacts with Séverine, a character from the previous book, now fully crazy and convinced she is a lady bugladybug. She gets mad at him for bugging her too much and exclaims, “Arrête de râler!” (Stop whining). She runs off and he follows her into the sewers, where he meets the genie Marc found in the prequel. When the genie offers Simon one wish, he asks, “Tu es du style à exaucer tou au pied de la letter pour donner des leçons d’humilité?” Simon intelligently gathers that the genie is the type of magical creature who will interpret wishes very literally in order to teach the wisher a valuable lesson. Nonetheless, he is tempted to make the world a better place, and he asks for the ability to heal others and take away their suffering.

"A sequel to Le Voeu de Marc, which took place in the same village with a magical genie who grants wishes."

Back at the clinic, he tends the leg wounds of two boys, one of them Marc. Simon’s fellow doctor calls the boys “nos deux terreurs” (our two terrors), which is funny, because Marc actually did terrorize the village with all his meddlesome wishes. That afternoon, Simon notices that he has developed cuts on his own legs, and he realizes that he now literally has the ability to take on other people’s sicknesses. He later finds that he can return the pain simply by touching the original bearer. Simon tells his colleagues, “Je peux prendre et render la douleur à volonté!” His superpower – taking and giving pain – spurs him to open up his own clinic, titled “Association Qui Soulage – AQS” (The Association That Heals). In the clinic, all the doctors wear masks to preserve their anonymity, though they end up looking like cartoon characters, like Asterix, the Smurfs, or Mickey Mouse. These doctors then give their patients “un calin” (a hug) and take away the pain for one day. Later, the patients return and take back their pain.

When checking in at work, Simon sings to himself, “Fais moi mal, Johnny Johnny,” referencing an intense French song from the 1950s sung by Magali Noël, which speaks about rough relationships and domestic abuse. This might parallel how Simon voluntarily enters into abusive relationships in order to help others. At one point, Simon heals a dancer but she never comes back. She is able to dance professionally again and no longer wishes to be injured. She steals her data from the clinic and Simon is left with her pain.