Line #7 ComicBook/ActionPhilosophers


1	[[quoteright:327:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/action_philosophers.jpg]]
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3	''Action Philosophers!'' is a comic book series by artist Ryan Dunlavey and writer Creator/FredVanLente, it follows the cartoon adventures of caricatures of history's most famous philosophers. Possessing broad humor and making the often complex and metaphorical ideas of philosophy more easily understood than a traditional text would, the comic won the Xeric Grant award in late 2004. The comic concluded with its ninth issue in September 2007.
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6	!!Philosophers featured in this comic, in order of appearance:
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8	* Creator/{{Plato}}
9	* Creator/FriedrichNietzsche
10	* [[{{UsefulNotes/Buddhism}} Bodhidharma]]
11	* UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson
12	* St. Augustine of Hippo
13	* Creator/AynRand
14	* UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud
15	* {{UsefulNotes/Carl Jung}}
16	* Joseph Campbell
17	* Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli
18	* {{Creator/Karl Marx}}
19	* The {{UsefulNotes/Kabbalah}}
20	* Rene Descartes
21	* Creator/JeanPaulSartre
22	* Creator/JacquesDerrida
23	* Søren Kirkegaard
24	* St. Thomas Aquinas
25	* Ludwig Wittgenstein
26	* The Pre-Socratics
27	* Creator/{{Aristotle}}
28	* Epictetus
29	* Immanuel Kant
30	* Arthur Schopenhauer
31	* Georg Hegel
32	* John Stuart Mill
33	* Diogenes the Cynic
34	* [[Creator/{{Laozi}} Lao Tzu]]
35	* {{UsefulNotes/Michel Foucault}}
36	* David Hume
37	* Confucious
38	* George Berkeley
39	* Francis Bacon
40	* Jean-Jacques Rousseau
41	* Thomas Hobbes
42	* Mary Wallstonecraft
43	* Benedict Spinoza
44	* Gottfried Leibniz
45	* Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī
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48	!!''Action Philosophers!'' provides examples of:
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50	* AdaptationDistillation: People can spend years interpreting philosophical texts, but these comics make them intelligible to the average person. Most people who take the time to read the original texts would know, however, that they're vastly simplified.
51	* AllMonksKnowKungFu: Bodhidharma is apparently the person who [[UrExample started it all]].
52	* ArtisticLicenseReligion: The comic portrays Mithras as a [[ThePowerOfTheSun solar]] and FertilityGod with parallels to UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} such as having a birthday on December 25th. However, most of what has been discovered about the Mithras [[MysteryCult Mystery Cults]] doesn't support such a claim. For example, Mithras probably wasn't a solar deity since Mithraism already had a sun god in the form of Sol Invictus. In addition, the Mithraists celebrated ''Sol Invictus'''s birthday on December 25th not Mithras'.
53	* BookEnds: Used in some of the Philosophers' comics, notably [[spoiler:Marx and Machiavelli]].
54	* CorruptChurch: This is Søren Kierkegaard's view on the Church of Denmark, which informs his views and philosophy.
55	* FatBastard: This trope is used several times as visual aid such as depicting the corruption of the Church of Denmark. This is notably [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with Thomas Aquinas, who is depicted as fat but not particularly evil or jerkish.
56	* GameShowHost: William James, in his segment, hosts a game show called ''The Pragmatism Show'', where George Berkley, John Stuart Mill and August Comte judge the philosophies presented by the contestants.
57	* HobbesWasRight: Well, he's featured, but it's neutral.
58	* HulkSpeak: Plato. Referring to the fact that he'd been a wrestler in his younger days[[note]]he'd had a very complete classical education, and wrestling was part of Phys Ed class; and he'd competed in the Isthmian Games before failing to qualify for the UsefulNotes/OlympicGames[[/note]], the illustrations show him with a Lucha Libre type mask, yelling "PLATO SMASH!"
59	* Main/{{Hypocrite}}: Thomas Jefferson claimed to oppose slavery while being a slave owner himself.
60	* KingKongCopy: ''Confucius'' of all people is depicted this way, based on his Chinese name Kongzi, translated as Master Kong.
61	* LittleJimmy: One issue features Karl Marx giving an explanation of communism, as he originally interpreted it, to a Little Jimmy character.
62	* MachiavelliWasWrong: Apparently, he was ''right''. Too bad no one listened.
63	* MaskedLuchador: Creator/{{Plato}} is depicted as this because he was a wrestler at one point in his life.
64	* TheManIsStickingItToTheMan: Major critique of Karl Marx's towards "capitalist" acceptance of minority rights, LGBTQ+, and feminism was not of benevolence, but for the sake of [[PragmaticVillainy perpetuating its flawed system by appeasing the reformers]].
65	* MisaimedFandom: The comic points out how UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and Leopold and Loeb [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint miss the point]] of Creator/{{Friedrich Nietzsche}}'s philosophy. In fact, the comic depicts Nietzsche coming back to life to beat them up.
66	* ReCut: One of the trade paperbacks, ''The MORE Than COMPLETE Action Philosophers!'', rearranges the order of the segments so they occur in chronological order to when the philosophers lived. So where as the original comic starts with Nietzsche, the ''The MORE Than COMPLETE Action Philosophers!'' starts with the Pre-Socratic Philosophers.
67	* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: A major motto of Karl Marx, who believed that overthrowing Capitalist system required the support of the masses with the comic showing a group of child laborers toppling a consumerist city. Furthermore, Karl Marx himself participated in the revolt to an extent (shooting up a corporate office and a [[BourgeoisBohemian teacher who is teaching Marxist interpretation of movies much to Marx's chagrin]]) and desensitized towards a firing squad who also killed his would-be-sidekick's mother.
68	* SinisterMinister: In the story about Saint Augustine , Bishop Faustus of the Manichean faith is portrayed as a JerkAss who admits his religion doesn't make sense but tells Augustine to keep quiet since [[BeliefMakesYouStupid the other followers are too stupid]] to realize the holes in religion. Augustine was so demoralized by his encounter with Faustus that [[HeroicBSOD he nearly gave up on religion all together]].
69	* StrawNihilist: The first issue [[LampshadeHanging points out]] that Nietzsche probably [[MisaimedFandom would not approve (putting it mildly) of some of the people who claim to emulate him]].
70	* PragmaticAdaptation: As mentioned above, it simplifies the ideas of the world's greatest thinkers into a comic book.
71	* ShownTheirWork: A few comics really prove that the authors have done so, giving [[GeniusBonus bonuses]] and {{Easter Egg}}s to people who have actually read the works of these Philosophers. For example, in the Decartes issue, when Descartes explains the three kinds of thoughts, the artists drew a Chimera, which was an actual example Descartes used in the original text. The best part? [[ViewersAreGeniuses This isn't mentioned at all]].
72	* ThePhilosopher: The comic ''subverts'' this trope by making the characters ACTION PHILOSOPHERS.
73	* TookALevelInBadass: Some of the comics manage to upgrade the Philosophers into total Badasses. Notably [[spoiler: Karl Marx, who wages war on the elite in favor of the masses as a OneManArmy]].
74	* TruthInTelevision: Everything in the comics is true, except for what is obviously fictional. Actual quotes of these Philosophers are even highlighted and noted, and many of them are hilarious.
75	* RousseauWasRight: The comic points out that he was actually probably ''wrong''.
76	* {{Ubermensch}}: Part of an ongoing joke with Nietzsche.
77	* ViewersAreMorons: {{Lampshaded}} by the Authors as the reason for the creation of these comics. A TruthInTelevision example is mentioned in the recommended books of the Freud-Jung-Campbell issue where it turns out that [[spoiler:Jung wrote a book for his students, simplifying his ideas, because he wanted them to actually understand what he was teaching]].
78	* VisualPun: Campbell is seen in one panel stirring the world's religions and mythologies into a cooking pot. It's Campbell's Soup!

Context ComicBook / ActionPhilosophers