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Van Helsing's Night Off
Silent and sophisticated, whimsical and funny, short comics involving mummies, vampires, the wolfman, and Frankenstein. Austrian cartoonist Nicholas Mahler is famous for his silent and sophisticated comics. His short stories are intriguing, humorous and incredibly illustrated in a whimsical, yet weighted, sketchy style. Characters in this volume include the classic archetypes: mummy, vampire, wolfman, Frankenstein, et al. This first American compilation will be sure to create an instant fan base his for work.
112 pages, Paperback
First published April 20, 2004
3 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
About the author
Nicolas Mahler
95 books32 followersAustrian author and illustrator Nicolas Mahler has illustrated numerous school books and worked on several animated films, shown at festivals throughout Europe. Known for his striking minimalist drawing style and sardonic deadpan wit, Mahler's graphic novels have been published in France, Spain, the Czech Republic, Poland, Canada, and the United States as well as his native Austria. He has published over 20 books and created drawings for international magazines, newspapers, and anthologies.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
March 3, 2016
The single-minded characters, the running gags, the humanism, the minimalist yet elegant style: Mahler's short stories appear to have more in common with early newspaper strips (such as George Herriman's Krazy Kat) than with contemporary mainstream comic books - which may have contributed to their rather lukewarm reception here at GR. Not all stories collected in Van Helsing's Night Off hit the mark, but the ones that do manage to twist your relationship to archetypal horror characters such as the Mummy or the Wolf Man... to absurdly funny effect!
August 21, 2018
The artwork is very, very minimal, so it's going to be a coin toss whether a reader likes it or not. The humor is a bit hit and miss, but the Masked Avenger comics are really funny.
February 25, 2013
Nicolas Mahler draws a series of short comic strips featuring some of the famous monsters of literature, Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, the Wolfman, the Mummy, and the vampire hunter Van Helsing. Each of the strips are wordless and the characters are drawn in strange, unrecognisable shapes for example the Mummy is shaped like the letter “L” while Frankenstein’s Monster is a round stubby thing with enormous shoes clomping around everywhere.
The comics are funny though with the Invisible Man going to a bar for a beer, the Vampire going out drinking and hooking up, the Wolf M’am and her husband, and Van Helsing going hat shopping.
The book can be “read” in no time as the newspaper-type strips are drawn in such a way that they seem like animation stills so you read through it quickly as if you’re watching a cartoon. And that’s probably it’s downfall is its too brief a book to really get much out of it.
Entertaining and funny, but over all too soon, “Van Helsing’s Night Off” is a quirky little book taking an ironic look at some of literature’s famous horror characters that will appeal to most comics readers so long as you note that it’s a very brief book.
The comics are funny though with the Invisible Man going to a bar for a beer, the Vampire going out drinking and hooking up, the Wolf M’am and her husband, and Van Helsing going hat shopping.
The book can be “read” in no time as the newspaper-type strips are drawn in such a way that they seem like animation stills so you read through it quickly as if you’re watching a cartoon. And that’s probably it’s downfall is its too brief a book to really get much out of it.
Entertaining and funny, but over all too soon, “Van Helsing’s Night Off” is a quirky little book taking an ironic look at some of literature’s famous horror characters that will appeal to most comics readers so long as you note that it’s a very brief book.
October 28, 2021
Buna tam olaraq komiks demək nə dərəcədə mümkündür, onu belə bilmirəm. Texniki olaraq komiksdir, amma daha çox babamın kitabxanasındakı Sovet karikaturalarına oxşatdım.
1-2 maraqlı məqam olsa da, ümumən bəyənmədim. 1 ulduz tam haqqıdır!
1-2 maraqlı məqam olsa da, ümumən bəyənmədim. 1 ulduz tam haqqıdır!
September 5, 2019
2.5 rounded up- few were funny most were stupid and some were too hard to properly understand.
It's wordless but I've shelved as "translated" since it's NOT a work of English*
It's wordless but I've shelved as "translated" since it's NOT a work of English*
February 17, 2013
I cant believe somebody would publish this! This is like a messy child's drawing. Its beyond crude! I really didn't think it funny.
June 3, 2017
These books from Mahler are not exactly my type of humor even though I love how he draws
December 25, 2020
Mildly amusing. It's like the New Yorker cartoons crossed with the tiny drawings MAD magazine would sometimes put in-between panels. It's very droll, so depending on your tastes you might get a chuckle or not especially funny (and you may find yourself alternating between the two while reading it). The art style is very simplistic, so much so that I sometimes had to re-read the previous page or few panels once I realized what a particular object was supposed to be. Overall, not bad, but probably not something most people would go out of their way to read.
June 19, 2017
Fun
Funny comic with no words. See what you can see. I would love to see more by this author. So fun.
Funny comic with no words. See what you can see. I would love to see more by this author. So fun.
October 23, 2020
Silly, minimalist comic riffs on classic monsters. Perfect dumb fun for an October evening.
September 6, 2022
Any value in the plotting is lost behind the art that is so stylized as to be a chore to even look at.
February 22, 2023
This book of newspaper-style comic strips featuring the horror world's most famous heroes is funny, especially if you get the references. What I enjoyed most was how these characters were brought together in different strips and stitched the narrative in pieces.
February 29, 2016
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.
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.
June 18, 2016
(Re-read)
An amusing picture book for grown-ups with a different take on the things that go bump in the night.
It's funny how drawings can tell stories without words, if they're executed properly. They don't even really have to look that realistic, either. If you're drawing Dracula, the wolf man, the mummy, and other assorted night critters, that's probably for the best. Mahler sets the adult tone right off the bat with a hilarious story about Dracula hitting the bar and getting so wasted he can't figure out which tomb is his when he gets back to the cemetery. Monsters drink quite a bit, as it turns out, and they get laid far more often than you'd figure. Unless you're Mahler, who has clearly thought about this quite a lot. Because of the drawing style, you need to "read" a few of the sequences carefully to figure out what the heck is going on at first. All becomes clear when the punch line panels kick in, though. A quick, fun read for adults who still read the funny papers, especially if they liked "Lio," or are fannish on horror tropes in general.
An amusing picture book for grown-ups with a different take on the things that go bump in the night.
It's funny how drawings can tell stories without words, if they're executed properly. They don't even really have to look that realistic, either. If you're drawing Dracula, the wolf man, the mummy, and other assorted night critters, that's probably for the best. Mahler sets the adult tone right off the bat with a hilarious story about Dracula hitting the bar and getting so wasted he can't figure out which tomb is his when he gets back to the cemetery. Monsters drink quite a bit, as it turns out, and they get laid far more often than you'd figure. Unless you're Mahler, who has clearly thought about this quite a lot. Because of the drawing style, you need to "read" a few of the sequences carefully to figure out what the heck is going on at first. All becomes clear when the punch line panels kick in, though. A quick, fun read for adults who still read the funny papers, especially if they liked "Lio," or are fannish on horror tropes in general.
March 8, 2017
Itävaltalaisen Nicholas Mahlerin lupaavasti nimetyssä mykkäsarjakuvassa "Van Helsing's Night Off" (Top Shelf, 2004) kauhugenren kuuluisimmat hahmot esiintyvät humoristisissa lyhyttarinoissa. Lopputulos on aika vaisu: sarjakuvataiteilijan ideat eivät ole muutamaa poikkeusta lukuunottamatta kovin kummoisia, ja persoonallinen ja karun pelkistetty piirrosjälki enemmänkin syö juttujen tehoa kuin tuo siihen mitään lisäarvoa.
November 25, 2007
You'll sit down with this book, then put it down a few minutes later, having read the whole thing, and chuckled warmly throughout. A series of brief, cute comics depicting the classic Universal Monsters and their hilarious tormentor, Abraham Van Helsing, in a series of quietly amusing, delightfully original punchlines.
October 20, 2014
This was a fun, quick little read. Mahler delivers a series of silent strips that parody classic monsters and give them a humorous twist. The art is very European, and I found myself having to work on some panels to pull out the meaning. Once accomplished, the punchlines range from laugh-out-loud to simple grins. This little book would make a great coffee table item.
April 1, 2017
A wordless comic that tells a short stories with illustration alone. There were some mildly amusing moments, like the mummy in bed with a woman and his bandages strewn about the room, or The Masked Avenger getting out of the tub fully dressed (and forgetting his sword in the tub) - but overall this was pretty dry and not my cup of tea.
Read
July 10, 2014I'll have to reread this soon.
REREAD, about two-and-a-half years later. Took about ten minutes. Still a three, but I appreciated it more, being older/wiser. Very clever, adorable. Very Far Side.
REREAD, about two-and-a-half years later. Took about ten minutes. Still a three, but I appreciated it more, being older/wiser. Very clever, adorable. Very Far Side.
October 4, 2010
I bought this on a whim because it was on sale. It's really, really funny.
August 9, 2011
I enjoyed the witty, silent-film-style gags throughout this comic, but the doodle-like illustrations are quite poor.
November 27, 2012
Quite fun! I couldn't always follow the vignettes but I really liked the bits I could. Fun art and humorous scenarios.
December 20, 2012
Funny!
November 29, 2013
Some funny bits, but overall, there's really nothing new here. Jokes about monsters, and not much more.
October 26, 2014
A lot can be conveyed with just a few lines.
June 25, 2015
So funny!! The art is basic but it conveys the humor in each strip. Love the ones where different monsters meet each other. A very clever book!
October 9, 2017
Random comic book Tuesday . so funny
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews