Action Philosophers!
Action Philosophers! was a self-published comic book series by artist Ryan Dunlavey and writer Fred Van Lente, which was awarded a Xeric Grant in 2004, leading to Action Philosophers! # 1's publication in April 2005.
The series focused on a concise biography of some of the most notable philosophers and their ideas. To quote the book's homepage:
ACTION PHILOSOPHERS! is a comic book series detailing the lives and thoughts of history's A-list brain trust in a hip and humorous way that proves that philosophy is not just the province of boring tweed-enveloped college professors.
The series concluded with issue # 9, published in September 2007. The series was also collected into various self-published paperback collections. Dark Horse Comics published a deluxe hardcover collection of the series with new material in October, 2014.
Reception
The American Library Association included Action Philosophers vol. 1 in its 2007 Great Graphic Novels for Teens booklist. The series was nominated for a 2007 Ignatz Outstanding Debut Award and received a positive review from Philosophy Now.Issue summary
- : - Nietzsche, Bodhidharma, & Plato: "Wrestling Superstar of Ancient Greece!", featuring one of the series' most famous lines, "PLATO SMASH!"
- : - The "All Sex Special", featuring Ayn Rand, Thomas Jefferson, & Saint Augustine.
- : - "Self Help for Stupid Ugly Losers" featuring Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, & Joseph Campbell.
- : - "World Domination Handbook" featuring Karl Marx, Niccolò Machiavelli, & The Kabbalah.
- : - "Hate the French" featuring René Descartes, Jean-Paul Sartre, & Jacques Derrida.
- : - "The People's Choice" featuring Soren Kierkegaard, St. Thomas Aquinas, & Ludwig Wittgenstein.
- : - "It's all Greek to you" featuring The Pre-Socratics, Aristotle, & Epictetus.
- : - "Senseless Violence Special" featuring Kant, Schopenhauer, Hegel, & John Stuart Mill.
- : - "The Lightning Round", the final issue featuring Diogenes the Cynic, Lao Tzu, Michel Foucault, David Hume, Confucius, George Berkeley, Francis Bacon, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes, Mary Wollstonecraft, Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz.
Collected editions
| Title | Material collected | ISBN |
| Action Philosophers! Giant-size Thing 1 | Action Philosophers #1-3 | |
| Action Philosophers! Giant-size Thing 2 | Action Philosophers #4-6 | |
| Action Philosophers! Giant-size Thing 3 | Action Philosophers #7-9 | |
| The More Than Complete Action Philosophers! | Action Philosophers #1-9, plus new content | |
| Action Philosophers! | Published by Dark Horse Comics, reprints "More Than Complete…", with a new story and historical material, hardcover format |