Van Von Hunter

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A mighty wanderer and hunter of evil stuff, Van Von Hunter wanders around with his Sidekick and fights evil. Or at least as much evil as friendly vampires and The Flaming Prince can summon.

Basically a comedic fantasy, Van Von Hunter pokes fun at many fantasy elements, especially the questing aspects and the kind of people who make those requests. Its sense of humor is its strong point.

It started in 2002, but started suffering from Schedule Slip sometime after the author got a book deal from Tokyo Pop. Three volumes were published in all, forming a complete story arc taking place ten thousand three years after the end of the story begun in the webcomic. It also made a surprising jump to newspaper syndication, thanks to a six-month deal through Universal Press Syndicate. The webcomic has recently started up again... Sort of.

Has also been turned into a movie, which...diverges from the source material (as an example, the movie starts with Van having vanquished all the evil in his homeland, causing him to go look for work in Hollywood, and ends with Van having solved pretty much all of the problems in the world and blasting off into space to meet some aliens).

Tropes used in Van Von Hunter include:
  • Adaptational Badass:
    • Van Von Hunter himself in the manga volume. He actually manages to fight the Flaming Prince's army in book one to rescue Sidekick. Volume three opens up with the Flaming Prince and his assistant in jail, bewildered that this actually happened.
    • Sidekick, thanks to some power-ups that she receives in volume one, actually throws down with the Flaming Prince and his assistant. She comports herself quite well. Book two goes further by showing her face zombie hordes, and bite them when they steal her brownies.
  • Amplifier Artifact: The Ebon Eye in the books. Or, as the Flaming Prince would have it, the "blarble".
  • Awesome McCoolname: Van Von Hunter.
  • Ax Crazy: Van's maid, Miriam. She cleans Van's mansion with a knife.
  • Beard of Evil: Van draws a goatee on his evil twin so that they can be told apart.
  • Big No: Parodied in the second book when Van sacrifices his sidekick's brownie hoard to dispel the zombies.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Van's sidekick complains to the audience upon the first mention that she has no actual name.
  • Breast Plate: Adonette, in the second book. Lampshaded.
  • Child Mage: Ariana Rael
  • Disproportionate Retribution: The life's work of Vengeance Joe. He's on a quest to slay Von Hunter for not properly introducing himself.
  • Drop the Hammer: Van's primary weapon is a battle hammer.
  • Easy Amnesia: The given reason that nobody knows the name of Van's sidekick. She's annoyed to find out in the manga trilogy that it's happened to her quite a few times.
  • Embarrassing First Name: The Flaming Prince's first name is Lesley. Though that's probably less embarrassing than his title.
  • Epic Fail: In volume one, Lesley the Flaming Prince has the Ebon Eye MacGuffin, and is at a stalemate with Van Von Hunter and Sidekick. He gets it in his mind to demonstrate how he will crush them...just like how he will crush the "blarble". Everyone is in Stunned Silence, including himself, as he realizes he just destroyed an artifact that would have turned the tide of battle.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Van's sidekick has never been given a name. Handwaved by claiming that she is suffering from several overlapping cases of amnesia. This also applies to the Flaming Prince's assistant, though with less lampshading.
    • Van's sidekick is first introduced in the webcomic as a "Damsel In Distress," being held captive by one Count Disdain (a Vampire). After the Counts inevitable slaying, she gets dragged into Vans quest to defeat evil, and never actually properly introduces herself before she is given amnesia, which actually happens quite awhile after she meets Van. Since the only one who might have known her name (Or at least had a clue to it) was Count Disdain, they never do find out what her name is.
  • Evil Tower of Ominousness: Count Disdain's castle ("The ominous fortress on the mountaintop")
  • Fail O'Suckyname: The Flaming Prince
  • Flaming Sword: Van usually uses a battle hammer, but occasionally uses a magic sword in the books.
  • Funetik Aksent: Miriam. "Roight. Keep it ter yorself then, love."
  • General Failure: The Flaming Prince
  • Hey, It's That Guy! / Hey, It's That Voice!: Van is played by well-known voice actor Yuri Lowenthal in the movie, which is live-action. Yuri really flaunts his fluency in Japanese in the latter parts of the movie.
  • I'm Thinking It Over: Van and his sidekick escape their first adventure after having been sentenced to death. When confronted by the choice of accompanying Van or returning to face certain death, the sidekick says she'll have to think about it. Even after their foes launch a B-2 bomber at them out of a catapult she still isn't certain.
  • Impossibly Cool Clothes: Van, as well as Ari, The Flaming Prince, and Adonette
  • Impossibly Low Neckline: Omake strip spoofing Lulu's outfit.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Amanda Beaumont has mastered the use of broken swords.
  • Joker Jury: Van Von Hunter begins with Van on trial for the crime of "re-murder", i.e. the "murder" of an undead vampire. The event took place in a land seemingly populated entirely by the undead, so the judge, jury, and lawyers are all undead.
  • Kangaroo Court
  • Kick the Dog: What convinced Van that his counterpart was evil is when he literally kicked a puppy.
  • Lampshade Hanging: "The laws of the land strictly forbid the use of flashbacks within flashbacks!"
  • Load-Bearing Boss: Subverted. Van warns everyone to leave Kulaats' tower before it collapses, but it's still standing later on.
  • Meaningful Name: Van changed his name to Von Hunter to reflect his chosen profession. His real name is Vaughn. His real surname, that is. Von Vaughn. His given name was always Van, though originally also pronounced "vawn".
  • No Ending: While the main manga series had an ending, the webcomic series seemed to end with Van Von Hunter's Evil Twin getting caught in a Death Trap before resetting to the beginning. It ended shortly after the characters made a potshot at Tokyopop for making an inaccurate adaptation of their content.
  • No Name Given: As mentioned above, with Van's sidekick.
  • Other Me Annoys Me: The Flaming Price's eviler, gay version from an Alternate Universe.
  • Quest Giver: One bit character is officially named "Quest Giver Guy".
  • Repetitive Name: See "Meaningful Name".
  • Running Gag: "I will crush you like... like... this X!"
  • Selective Obliviousness: Van pretends not to notice that Ari is entirely evil so that he doesn't have to fight her.
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: An "SAT prep" version of the first book was released, with various words replaced with fancier synonyms. "Clever" became "perspicacious" for example.
  • Shirtless Scene: Van, in the first book.
  • Shout-Out: The Technolich is eventually brought back to life by being hit with a pillow stuffed with Pheonix Down. The books also include more, including references to Dragon Ball and Fullmetal Alchemist, and a minor character named Hans Gruber. Ariana's Warthog's School of Magical Science arc, complete with character's such as "Hairy", as well as some more Fullmetal Alchemist references. Also present (although subtler) is one of the swords on the wall in this strip.
  • Sinister Shades: The Flaming Prince's assistant.
  • Super Strength: Subverted. The magic gauntlets acquired by Van's sidekick let her lift very heavy things, but not throw them, push them, or manipulate them in any other way, with one exception: She can drop stuff.
  • Stripperific: Adonette
  • Time Skip: Between the web comic and the books, amounting either to three years or ten thousand years, depending on who you ask.
  • Time Travel: The comic's resurrection involves this.
  • Tricking the Shapeshifter: As it turns out, vampires can switch between human and monstrous form, and "A beautiful woman is so much more intimidating than a vampire." Two panels later, "They are easier to stake, though."
  • The Villain Must Be Punished: Before its Tokyopop incarnation, it had the title character mow down anything that seemed remotely evil. Even the vampire lawyer defending him and Sidekick when they were tried for Van Helsing Hate Crimes. He insists it's because it's what he swore to do, to wipe out "evil stuff". Ari was the exception, but that's because Van Von Hunter will not hurt a little girl, especially one that saved him and Sidekick.
  • The Von Trope Family: Right there in the title.
  • Wouldn't Hurt a Child: This is why Van Von Hunter refuses to view Ari as evil. He doesn't hurt kids. When she talks about wanting to wipe people out, providing clear evidence, he runs for it.
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