LONE RACER

TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS
CARTOONIST: Nicolas Mahler
ISBN: 978-1-891830-69-3; soft cover; Young Adult (13+)
98 pp., 2-color, 5¾ x 7¼,  $12.95

Once upon a time, Lone Racer was a champion racecar driver.  Now, he's just down and out.  His wife practically lives in a hospital, and a friend wants him to be his accomplice in a bank robbery.  What Lone Racer really wants to do is race, but he has to find a way to stop his life from always going downhill, if he wants to be a champion again?

Lone Racer is new cartoon book (or graphic novel, if you will) from Nicolas Mahler, who splashed on American shores about three years ago with the book Van Helsing's Night Off.  Mahler presents Lone Racer in a quirky and offbeat fashion, with his minimalist art style that would seem more at home in a newspaper or magazine.  At its heart, however, Lone Race is an unfussy tale of unrelenting determination or perhaps, plain and simple stubbornness.

Lone Racer is loyal to friends and loved ones, but he is a racer.  Though the lack of success late in his career makes him a lone wolf - a solitary figure who struggles on his own because no one believes in him.  Still, he will do what he loves - come hell or high water or even long losing streaks.  It's obvious from the beginning that he'll get one more shot at winning, although it isn't obvious that he will necessarily win.  An ode to stalking your goal, Mahler makes this odd trip to self-determination fun.  Lone Racer might be eccentric, but it's also a rousing tale about the can-do spirit.