Book tips

Nicolas Mahler: Längen und Kürzen (i.e. The Long and the Short of It)
Luftschacht Verlag, Wien 2009; 128 pages, 15,90 Euro, ISBN 978-3-902-373472

Nicolas Mahler has mastered the art of saying a great deal with only a few strokes. His booklet, Längen und Kürzen is a cynical reckoning with the literary scene. The hero, a skinny stick figure with a long nose, presents a portly publisher with a book. “Oh no!“ cries the latter, “Poems!” Of course, all attempts by the author to please the publisher fail. Self-pity, rage and despair follow. In his book, Mahler combines drawn sequences with letters, postcards and poems, enabling the reader to view the literary scene from different perspectives.

Kratochvil
Wien: Edition Selene, 2004. 112 S.
ISBN 3-85266-232-X

Kratochvil first appeared as a daily comic strip in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). A little man devoid of expression, a passive office worker, is suddenly uprooted from his familiar world and left absolutely to his own devices. And that in nature, in the middle of nowhere. Apart from him there is nothing but trees and the NASA suitcase …

Flaschko, der Mann in der Heizdecke
Zürich: Edition Moderne, 2002. 48 S.
ISBN 3-907055-63-2

‘A man, his blanket and his mother. 132 seated melodramas’ the jacket copy promises. Out of this unusual constellation and through his spare illustrations Mahler creates laconic, almost philosophical dialogues.

Overview of the book tips (PDF file, 25 KB)