Von Herling, Vampire Hunter is a 2014 graphic novel of Gothic horror by Max West.Set in the fictitous town of Richten in Eastern Tennessee and starring an all anthropomorphic animal cast, August Von Herling arrives in town on business. He is in search of a vampire that he's tracked all the way from Romania. Von Herling though quickly sticks out as a new arrival due to his formal dress and vocabulary.
Von Herling meets two young ladies at a dinner party soon after - Brittany Parsons and her shy friend, Peggy Jo Warner. He also meets Vlad Magnus, another newcomer...who happens to be the vampire Von Herling has been tracking. When people start disappearing and Brittany becomes ill from a sudden blood loss, it's up to Von Herling to stop Vlad Magnus before it's too late.
This work contains examples of the following tropes:
- Adventurer Outfit: Von Herling wears the archaeologist outfit, complete with a hat, a jacket and pants with many pockets and a satchel for various vampire fighting tools (garlic, holy wafers, etc).
- Arbitrary Skepticism: The standard reaction of characters other than Von Herling when vampires are mentioned.
- Badass Bookworm: Von Herling
- Bigger on the Inside: Von Herling and Peggy Jo delve into the family mausoleum where Brittany has been interred. It looks considerably bigger as the two pass many vaults where Brittany's ancestors lay.
- Breaking and Bloodsucking: Vlad does this to Brittany.
- Classical Movie Vampire: Vlad Magnus
- The Deep South
- Epigraph: Opens up with two quotes, one from Isaac Asimov and the other from Benjamin Franklin
- Expy: A number of the characters resemble those from Dracula:
- August Von Herling is Van Helsing.
- Vlad Magnus is Dracula.
- Brittany Parsons is Lucy.
- Peggy Jo Warner is Mina.
- Defiant Captive: Peggy Jo in the leadup to the final confrontation between Von Herling and Vlad Magnus.
- Glamour Failure: How Von Herling confirms Vlad Magnus is his man...er, vampire.
- Haunted Castle: Darkland Abbey, a tower just outside of town.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: Brittany Parsons. She's even has her own Girl Posse, but cares about Peggy Jo and goes as far to tell her posse to stop insulting Peggy.
- Protagonist Title
- Security Cling: Peggy Jo latches onto Von Herling as the two explore the family tomb of Brittany.
- Shout-Out:
- In a nod to the various Dracula movies made over the years, Vlad Magnus actually declines an offer of wine during his initial appearance by saying he never drinks wine.
- The town is named as a nod to Rudolph Van Richten from Ravenloft.
- The graphic novel opens up with a closeup of a stone eagle statue on nearby Darkland Abbey, much like the opening credits from Horror of Dracula.
- Southern Belle: Peggy Jo
- Southern Gothic: The Gothic Horror theme combined with being set in the Southern US state of Tennessee
- Überwald: Richten, Tennessee
- Vampires Hate Garlic: Played straight as Von Herling uses garlic to prevent a vampire attack and again during the final confrontation with Vlad Magnus.
- Vampire Hunter: Well, who do you think?
- Virus-Victim Symptoms: Brittany shows them as she's sick, weak and has puncture wounds on the neck that haven't healed. The doctor treating Brittany is unable to diagnose her exact condition, but the Genre Savvy Von Herling knows that a vampire is biting her nightly.
- The Von Trope Family: August Von Herling
- Weaksauce Weakness: Discussed; Von Herling mentions many of the standard weapons against vampires do work such as sunlight, garlic, holy water, crosses, and so on.
