Van Helsing's Night Off is a collection of short comics by Austrian artist Nicolas Mahler. Otherwise known by just his last name Mahler, his work has appeared in French, German, and Swiss newspapers. This 2004 collection from Top Shelf Productions is his first American publication.
The book is full of minimalist drawings of Dracula slayer, Van Helsing, along with the Wolf-Man, the Mummy, Frankenstein, and a Zorro-like hero named the Masked Avenger. While I got several chuckles out of this book, some of the jokes were lost on me. But I don't think it's because I don't have a good sense of humor. I think the problem is my being able to interpret Mahler's art.
Like I mentioned earlier, Mahler's style is minimalist. It's to such a degree that his characters don't have eyes, mouths, or in the case of the Masked Avenger, arms. None of the characters speak either, so sometimes when there is a scene with just two characters standing static, I feel like maybe I missed something in the body language that a European audience would get right away.
I found this book at the Dollar Book Exchange a really cool pop-up book sale that occurs one weekend a month in Raleigh, NC. If not for finding it there, I probably would've gone years without knowing who Mahler was. I'm glad I found the book as discovering European comics artist is becoming a side project of my comic book endeavors. It was a neat quick read and while I found it enjoyable, it's not something I'm going to keep in my collection. But that's okay- if you live in the Triangle (NC), you might come across this book again soon at a used bookstore near you.
Worth Consuming
Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.
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