A cult author from a different perspective: the long-overdue recognition of a significant Austrian illustrator. This large-scale and richly illustrated essay takes into account the tragic reception history of the visual artist Herzmanovsky-Orlando, demystifies the previously mystified friendship with colleague Alfred Kubin, analyzes his and his wife Carmen's dogmatic "German religion," portrays him as a hermetic figure at the intersection of eroticism and esotericism, establishes him as a surrealist and postmodernist avant la lettre, and depicts him as a bizarre dreamer in artistic proximity to the illustrator Paul Klee - a great humorist, but certainly not an Austrian joker. The volume is supplemented with additional text contributions and a catalog of drawings in museum collections (selection) along with commentary from the curators responsible for the collections.