Evil Twin Comics
Script: Fred Van Lente
Artist: Ryan Dunlavey
The Jung/Freud crossover is such a continuity driven mess that I’m not sure anyone who hasn’t followed the events in this universe for the last 100 years will have any idea what’s going on in issue number three of ACTION PHILOSOPHERS!
Not really.
Remember that elective course you took in college, “Intro to Philosophy” or “Philosophy 101”? You know, the one that was only offered at 7:10AM and you figured, “Perfect, I’m going to be asleep anyway…” But there was that one guy at the front of the class furiously scribbling notes, with his buddy sitting next to him just doodling away. Those guys were Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey. And if you’d only known they would go on to produce this great comic book, well, you’d have skipped the class altogether, because who would need it?
Van Lente and Dunlavey have put together one of the more entertaining, and dare I say it, educational comics I’ve read. We’re not talking Classics Illustrated here. This book is fun, accessible and somehow manages to faithfully represent both the source material and the real life figures behind it, while never taking itself too seriously. Dunlavey holds up his end of the deal as well. The art is “cartoony” but in a very smart and appropriate way. (Although the cover takes a bit of an odd pot shot at the standard, comic book collector stereotype.)
ACTION PHILOSOPHERS!, as well as another book I’m currently reading, BONE SHARPS, COWBOYS AND THUNDER LIZARDS by Jim Ottaviani and Big Time Attic, are great examples of how comic books can both entertain and educate. In fact, ACTION PHILOSOPHERS! is reminiscent of Ottaviani’s earlier work, TWO-FISTED SCIENCE. Although both of the current books have better narratives and are more entertaining. My wife says they're comics for the History Channel set, and I think she's probably right.
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