Action Philosophers!: The Lives and Thoughts of History's A-List Brain Trust: The More-Than-Complete Edition [Paperback]

Philosophers as comic book characters. This book is great! You can get the whole Action Philosopher! series now in 1 book.

The pictures and writing are hilarious. You'll be impressed at just how well a mere comic book can illuminate complex ideas. Credit is to be given to writer Fred Van Lente and illustrator Ryan Dunlavey. And their series has been widely praised. One suspects they took a look at previous series like "For Beginners" or "Introducing" which use illustrations to communicate philosophy to students and said "we can do this way better". And also take it to the next level by making original stories with the philosophers as comical (anti-)heroes and do it in a hip, tongue-in-cheek and savvy fashion. Nobody could come up with more imaginative ways to bring philosophy to life and the eccentric characters that shaped "the great conversation of mankind" through this medium.

A couple examples: Picture a beady-eyed, walrus mustachioed Nietzsche reading his philosophy to two innocent young lads for their bed time story. The overjoyed expressions on their beaming, bright eyed little faces in eager anticipation of being read a story by Uncle Fritz. I also got a kick out of Karl Marx: "I kick a$$ for the proles!" He takes one perhaps not-so-lucky boy on a tour of the "splendiferous world of commodities" and demonstrates for us first hand real Communists mean business! Action philosopher indeed. (None of this academic lefty identity politics nonsense for Mr. Marx! is the message of this tale). Oh and Derrida as "The Deconstructor". You get the idea. This is all up there with the legendary Monty Python football match with German philosophers vs. the Greeks. The accurate depiction of Plato's (insane, totalitarian) "utopia" shows that these world historical ideas have often arguably been as crazy and dangerous as any diabolical plans concocted by Marvel Comics villains (tho in fairness to Plato his thought experiment was written for a recently defeated Athens about 2,500 yrs ago). Did you know Plato was a wrestler and he was nicknamed "plato" which means "broad", like as in broad-shouldered?

Indeed our Action Philosophers aren't always depicted as heroic in their epic intellectual achievements so much as fallible, eccentric oddballs. All the greats are given the treatment from the elemental Pre-Socratics to celebrities of the "postmodern", including some mild surprises like Ayn Rand and Joseph Campbell. The piece on Campbell was excellent (and he actually comes across as kinda normal). Freud has his say and we meet non-westerners too like Bodhidharma. But every one of them--and all the greats are treated here--were drawn fairly and not a word was put in a comic book bubble that didn't seem true to their character or inappropriate to their philosophy.

Highly recommended to people that like to laugh and have an interest in philosophy and to those that just like a good comic. But casual readers might very well have an interest in picking up a book by one of these crazy characters after seeing them in action here and who can argue with that?

In order to enjoy this book at its utmost, i would say that you must first have some background knowledge on the major philosophers, not too much but a simple comprehension. This book is very fun in its depiction of the philosophers, and most philosophy majors will appreciate its humor. Overall, it is a joy to read. If you do not have a background in philosophy this is still an enjoyable read but I believe it can be appreciated more when accompanied by some background knowledge.

As a philosophy major who just recently became captivated by comic books (after reading "Blankets"), Action Philosophers(!) seemed like the perfect fit. After receiving and reading it, it's definitely not the masterpiece I had secretly hoped for. However, it is still an excellent book that I would recommend to anybody who wants to know more about philosophy but has trouble grasping the often complicated texts.

The format of Action Philosophers is as such: Each chapter is devoted to a different philosopher, with a narrator explaining the philosopher's thoughts as the panels depict visual aid, either in a picture of the philosophy or a picture of the philosopher demonstrating this concepts. The philosophers displayed are given appearances that parody either their philosophies or their personal lives (for instance, Plato is drawn as a pro wrestle and talks like an unintelligent brute, while the earliest greek philosophers are drawn with traits of the elements they believed formed the universe). While some of the chapters are written as literal biographies, others depict fictional events, either to display the philosophy better (Kant is depicted as a lawyer defending God) or simply add humor (Mill's chapter is a Charlie Brown parody.)

Of the visual aids.. I often found them amusing but otherwise uninformative. Very often a panel that could really help explain things feels rushed, and on more than one occasion a "humorous" picture is given far too much priority on a page. For instance, in Craig Thompson's "Blankets," Craig tells of Plato's "cave" analogy, using excellent images to depict what can be difficult to imagine while also comparing it to a situation the reader can better relate to. In Action Philosophers, the cave scene is depicted as a group of shackled people watching a movie. But the cave analogy represented how our senses made us believe things were real when they weren't, and displayed the illusions as being a part of the truth. The movie analogy may be more contemporary and funnier, but it avoids some of the key points of Plato's philosophy.

The "contemporary" issue is probably the biggest error Action Philosophers makes. On literally the first chapter of the book, the narrator states of Thales "You'd think his mad mental skills would have won Thales some props from his peeps. You'd be wrong..." Certainly this quote was intended as a joke. However, the "joke" continues on for much of the comic. It feels childish, and for a while I took this feel to mean the book was intended for children (until the sexual references convinced me otherwise). After a while you begin to feel like you're being talked down to by the writers. Comic book readers can be mature, and I was hoping this book would better understand that.

On the other hand, while the art serves only to keep you amused, the text provides some excellently comprehensible summaries on the philosophical teachings. Nietzsche was profoundly understandable regardless of his normally complicated teachings, for instance. And while the art style does not show nearly as much effort and style as I would have liked, it certainly isn't bad.

Overall, if you're into philosophy and comics I recommend you look into this book, as it is actually a very accessible way to learn some elementary philosophy before going into the heavier texts. However, if you're a comic book fan hoping to use this book to get into philosophy, or a philosophy fan attempting to get into comic books, this is not your entry level material. While certainly interesting, it does not satisfy as a great comic book nor a great philosophical text, rather falling under "better than average" in both.