‘Action Philosophers’ Returns With New Stories Through Kickstarter

Plato Smash! The Action Philosophers are back with more non-fiction adventures featuring the likes of Bodhidharma, Aristotle, Lao Tzu, St. Thomas Aquinas, Confucius, St. Augustine, and more. Writer Fred Van Lente and artist Ryan Dunlavey have hit Kickstarter for Action Philosophers: Volume One – Hooked on Classes, the first of three 128-page color trade paperbacks.

That’s right, folks. Action Philosophers will be in color for the first time as the team has brought on Adam Guzowski to bring the entire series to life in multichromatic wonder.

The comic won a Xeric Grant in 2004 and debuted in single issue format the following year, running for nine issues. It’s lived on in a few trade paperback collections and even an hardcover “uber” edition from Dark Horse in 2014. This book through Kickstarter will include new back matter and a brand-new story about Hypatia, the most famous female mathematician, scientist, and philosopher of the ancient world.

“One of the great things about bringing Action Philosophers back is that we’re able to include all the weird odds and ends Ryan and I have collected over the years,” Van Lente said. “That ‘Hypatia’ story I had written for a proposed Action Scientists series with another publisher that never materialized. Ryan found the script and decided to finish it, and we’re including it in this volume. It’s cool to get everything we’ve ever done for the series over the years into these really smart-looking collections.”

“We’re pretty optimistic we’ll do well with the Kickstarter,” said series artist and beard enthusiast Ryan Dunlavey, “and assuming we’re right in that, we’ll follow up with comics retailers about options for getting the book in your local shop.”

Rewards for the Kickstarter campaign include digital and physical copies of the book itself, process PDFs, and original art. The campaign runs through April 22nd, 2021.