VAN VON HUNTER (VOLUMES 1

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VAN VON HUNTER (VOLUMES 1 – 3)

July 3rd 2010 21:49

Category: Graphic Novels/Comics

Publisher: Tokyopop
Created by: Ron Kaulfersch & Mike Schwark
Production Artists: James Dashiell, James Lee, Joe Macasocol, Jason Milligan & Jennifer Carbajal
Cover Artists: Ron Kaulfersch & Mike Schwark
Cover Design: Raymond Makowski
Cost: AU$3.50/US$9.99

If someone was to ever ask me what would be the hardest genre to come to grips with in terms of artistic enterprise be it a movie, an anime, a manga etc I would have to say it would be comedy. Comedy in my mind is one of the hardest, if not the hardest, genre to work in because even though you may find a particular gag or joke absolutely full on knee slapping hilarious, your audience may not have the same feeling. In fact your great super gag/joke may just fall faster than a Led Zeppelin and the audience may start questioning your taste if not your sanity or qualification to be delving into the realm of comedy. Terry Pratchett, the genius behind the Discworld series, has been quoted as saying that when he wrote something particularly funny he then knew he had to take a good step back and let someone else have a look at it as it might not be as funny as he’d initially thought. Jokes and gags need to be honed, like the finest piece of steel, so that their appeal will be broad and the audience will give the required response rather than stony silence or bemused head scratching.

Van Von Hunter is a comedy that makes a good attempt to parody the whole sword and sorcery genre including various manga and role playing games. Let’s face it, I’m a fan of the whole fantasy/sword and sorcery genre but it does leave itself very much open for someone with a even the barest modicum of talent to send up, the question is whether they can do it well or on a truly brilliant level. Van Von Hunter apparently began life as a web comic, being posted regularly at its website; www.vanvonhunter.com until its two creators decided to go hardcopy on the audience via the medium of the Tokyopop publishing house. Billed as winners of the Rising Stars of Manga competition the two creators have managed to create an enjoyable work, but even though I enjoyed reading it there is a flaw within the work but I’ll get to that later.

So just what is going on this series? What makes it all tick? Essentially the ingredients are the same as what you would find in any standard work of sword and sorcery fiction lining the shelves of your local book and comic stores, hero goes around the countryside of some pseudo European or Tolkienesque fantasy realm dealing out righteous smack down to all manner of assorted villains from renegade nobles to ancient evil undead shamans. Said hero is accompanied on said escapades by a sidekick or sidekicks and when the dust finally settles on their adventurers they either ride off into the sunset or head off to their local to enjoy some flagons of fine ale. It’s not rocket science and much of the genre has become somewhat formulaic over the years.
Van Von Hunter takes this and effectively parodies it to the utmost, this is not an attempt as far as I can tell, to create a work of high comedic literature it’s a pure and simple effort to take the Michael out of the genre as a whole and it skilfully employs all the conventions to maximum effect. What makes it refreshing is that it does in certain areas move into somewhat subversive territory with certain plot elements, rather than just slavishly following genre conventions. Van Von Hunter is the primary protagonist in the series, the title character as it were, and even though he is someone who enjoys belting up the bad guys as much as the next hero or sword swinging mercenary he’s not about exterminating everyone who is evil – after all he needs to think about job security as much as anyone else in these current precarious economic times.
The hero of ancient legend who managed to defeat the evil prince, slaughter the demon horde seeking to invade the world and vanquish the wicked sorceress Van Von Hunter has retired into a life of semi indolence as their seems to be no significant evil roaming around to fight. Three years or ten thousand years depending on your particular perspective, he managed to rid the Kingdom of Dikay of all the major menaces. Leaving him without any real work to do as a result, never a good thing when you’re a vanquisher of catastrophic evil; still that’s life on the hero circuit, if you don’t deal with the bad guys your allies might have something to say. Things all change for the courageous hero when a flyer is slipped under the doorway of his mansion… (Cue drum roll)
Yes a mysterious flyer, kind of like those ones that exhort you to talk to Jesus after talking to some religious organisation or for really strange sounding pizzas made from ingredients that man was not meant to know of, is the impetus that gets the title character back into the metaphorical saddle as it were. Of course as Van’s memory challenged nameless sidekick tells him, surely you can’t seriously believe this? Still seeing an opportunity for action, adventure and acclaim he ignores his sidekicks question and leaps into territory where angels frankly would not so much fear to tread as to serious efforts to avoid like the plague. Discretion some may claim could be seen as the better part of valour in Van Von Hunter’s worldview that is for wusses.
If there is anything wrong with this series is that its appeal might be somewhat limited to those who are fans of the genre and role playing games rather than a broad and deep audience. Others may just find the whole thing rather obscure and somewhat bizarre; not having any real idea on what the heck is going on. Van Von Hunter is to my mind a work very much for the fans of what it’s parodying as well as the initial web comic that spawned it. Do what I did, pick up at a bargain basement sale, and thus if you don’t like it it hasn’t been such a drain on your resources.

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