By Shaenon K. Garrity
Our columnists are independent writers who choose subjects and write without editorial input from comiXology. The opinions expressed are the columnist's, and do not represent the opinion of comiXology.
Editor's note: For more on Evil Twin Comics, check out our NYCC Special Podcast #11 with Fred van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey.
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.
Reasonably factual text, snarky cartoon commentary: as far as I'm concerned, that's a winning combination. It's doodling in the margins of textbooks disguised as an acceptable adult activity.
Action Philosophers! creators Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey owe a huge debt to Larry Gonick, following his basic formula with more broad comedy and, well, philosophers. Their work doesn't have nearly the visual panache of Gonick's (or, for that matter, the Horrible Histories), and the occasional typos and layout flubs brand it as a small press effort (the publisher, Evil Twin Comics, is Lente's and Dunlavey's own Xeric-funded imprint). But that's okay, because it has a lot of information about philosophers and it's funny, and that's what I came to the dance for.
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.
Eventually, however, each chapter has to get around to discussing the philosopher's ideas, and this is where
Action Philosophers! is usually most impressive, explaining complex, abstract concepts with a light touch and genuinely helpful visuals. Lente and Dunlavey aren't afraid to go for broad gags and pratfalls in the service of philosophy. Sure, it's goofy to depict Manichaeism with pastiches of Jack Kirby's New Gods, but not inaccurate. Elsewhere, Kabbalah is depicted as a machine churning out chunks of reality, while Rene Descartes is an empty panel rationalizing himself into existence. The cartoon visuals aren't just there for comedy purposes, although the comedy is vital, but to make the philosophical concepts easy to visualize and understand.
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.
Notes:
[1]They have. It's called Oishinbo (The Gourmet), by Tetsu Kariya and Akira Hanasaki, soon to be published in English by Viz.
Image credits:
Biology note ©Shaenon K. Garrity. Click image for full note.
Descartes panel from Action Philosophers! Vol. 2, ©2007 Evil Twin Comics
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, 2010
