Saturday, January 06, 2007

Graphic Novel A Day: Action Philosophers Giant Sized Thing Vol 2

Writer: Fred Van Lente
Artist: Ryan Dunlavey
Company: Evil Twin Comics
Price: $8.95 ($8.95 at Amazon)

Action Philosophers is a great comic, combining witty writing and art with actual informational content about philosophy. Their off-kilter sensibilities, which re-envision philosophers through a pop culture lens, results in this volume in the memorable cross of Karl Marx with Rambo, Derrida with the Terminator and Isaac Luria, creator of the Kabbalah, with Doctor Strange. Amidst these pop-culture laden visuals is a very straightforward, heady analysis of these mens' lives and the philosophy they refined and espoused. I'll be honest, this volume gets into existentialism and such a little too heavily for me, and I found my eyes just glazing over at the deeper exploration of more complicated philosophies, as opposed to the first volume, but there's still plenty to keep the mind and funny bone occupied. And their take on Karl Marx was both informative and possibly the funniest of the bunch except for Plato in the original trade. Check them both out, the trades are ridiculously cheap and really good.

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