
Nicolas Mahler
- Austria
Nicolas Mahler was born in Vienna in 1969 and has made a name for himself as teh creator of satirical comics and cartoons, and as an illustrator. Since the late 1990s he has produced around 30 books in German, which have also been published in France, North America, among other countries. His comic strips appear in daily newspapers such as the »Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He has also created a number of animations partly based on his comic figures. Mahler’s style, at times referred to as »Minimahlismus« (tr. Minimal-painting-ism; which is also a play on his name, which translates as »painter«), is characterized by graphic reduction, caricaturing penmanship and dark, often self-ironic humor with a hint of melancholy. The subtle wit in Mahler’s work often arises from combining eccentric characters and absurd situations; his comics strips can be seen as both elevated nonsense and philosophically influenced meditations on human existence. »Like all true humorists, Nicolas Mahler is, in fact, also a tragedian busily engaged with nothing less than the ›conditio humana‹«, wrote Christian Gasser in the »NZZ«. »The thing is – his pessimism would be almost unbearable if it weren’t masked by humor.«
Among his most important works is the comic strip »Flaschko. Der Mann in der Heizdecke« (2002, tr. Flaschko. The man in the electric blanket) in which Mahler develops strikingly profound mini-dramas based on the relationship between a man – vegetating in his electric blanket – and his mother. »Flaschko« was adapted for the radio and for the puppet theater, as was »Kratchovil« (2002). For the short story collection »Dick Boss« (2010), Mahler collaborated with a dozen authors who worked his images into various stories, which they developed further. »Spam« (2009) was inspired by absurd marketing emails, »Engelmann« (2010) is a pastiche of superhero comics. »Alte Meister« (2012; tr. »Old Masters«) is based on the eponymous novel of the same by Thomas Bernhard, and »Alice in Sussex« (2013) is informed by the stories of Lewis Carroll and H. C. Artmann. In 2013 he reworked Robert Musil’s modernist novel »Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften« (Eng. »The Man without Qualities«), in 2014, Frank Wedekind’s »Lulu«, and in 2017 Marcel Proust’s »Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Zeit« (Eng. »In Search of Lost Time«) into graphic novels. In »Dachbodenfund« (2015; tr. Attic finds) he combines small illustrations with fragments of text found in auction catalogues. In his most recent work titled »In der Isolierzelle« (2017; tr. In the isolation cell) he employs design principles used in hobby and trade magazines published between 1920 and 1960.
Nicolas Mahler is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Max-und Moritz-Preis in 2006, 2008 and 2010, and the Preis der Literaturhäuser in 2015. He lives in Vienna.
Das Unbehagen
Edition Moderne
Zürich, 2005
Kunsttheorie versus Frau Goldgruber
Reprodukt
Berlin, 2006
Die Zumutungen der Moderne
Reprodukt
Berlin, 2007
Die Herrenwitz-Variationen
Edition Moderne
Zürich, 2008
Molch
[Mit Heinz Wolf]
Luftschacht
Wien, 2008
Spam
Reprodukt
Berlin, 2009
Engelmann
Carlsen
Hamburg, 2010
Pornografie und Selbstmord
Reprodukt
Berlin, 2010
Alte Meister
Suhrkamp
Berlin, 2012
Alice in Sussex
Suhrkamp
Berlin, 2013
Mein Therapeut ist ein Psycho
Edition Modern
Zürich, 2013
Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften
Nach Robert Musil
Suhrkamp
Berlin, 2013
Lulu und das schwarze Quadrat
Nach Frank Wedekind
Suhrkamp
Berlin, 2013
Der Urknall
Edition Moderne
Zürich, 2015
Dachbodenfund
Luftschacht
Wien, 2015
In der Isolierzelle
Luftschacht
Wien, 2017
Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Zeit
Nach Marcel Proust
Suhrkamp
Berlin, 2017