Man, I'm digging Action Philosophers! I like educational comics. Larry Gonick's Cartoon History of the Universe is one of my all-time favorite comics, and I've used his other Cartoon Guides to brush up on everything from American history to DNA replication. In high school, I footnoted all my science notes with Gonick-inspired cartoon commentary. By college, my science notes had a running cast of about two dozen characters and intricate storylines that had nothing to do with whatever I was supposed to be studying, which was probably a sign that I was more cut out to be a cartoonist than a scientist.
Studying abroad in Ireland, I came across the Horrible Histories, a British series of children's books that pair entertaining and/or disgusting historical factoids with cartoon illustrations commenting on the text. I loaded up on titles like The Rotten Romans and The Frightful First World War and sent them home to all the kids I knew. Incidentally, genius Fred the Clown creator Roger Langridge has done some Horrible Histories illustrations, so you know they've got that going for them.
Philosophy is a somewhat more challenging subject for nonfiction comics than history or science because it's less visual. Action Philosophers! skirts the problem by devoting roughly half of each philosopher's chapter to history and biography, which are easier to illustrate. Their best gags are both irreverent and faithful, in their own way, to the historical material: Plato actually was a wrestler in his youth, so Dunlavey draws him as a masked pro wrestler. Karl Marx appears in bandolier and machine gun, shouting "I kick ass for the proles!" while gunning down a boardroom full of cartoon capitalists.
There are times when the humor gets a little too broad, when it gets away from the philosophy for the sake of a gag. And, although Lente's scripts make every effort to present both the positive and negative elements of each philosophy and philosopher, I can't help noticing that geek hero Joseph Campbell gets perhaps the most glowing treatment in the series. (Honestly, what comic-book writer doesn't like Joseph Campbell?) But overall, these are some good philosophy comics. Now that I know my philosophers, if someone will just do a Cartoon Guide to Getting Your Corn and Broccoli Pudding from the Micronutrient Cookbook to Set, Already[1], I'll have everything I need to be a complete human being.Shaenon K. Garrity is a manga editor at Viz Media and is best known for her webcomics Narbonic and Skin Horse.
All the Comics in the World is © Shaenon K. Garrity, 2008
