How do we know what we know? What is the nature of the universe? What is our purpose? What is good? These are all questions that philosophy has concerned itself with as soon as we looked up at the stars, as well as into ourselves. Philosophers have pondered and pored over these matters for centuries, attempting to answer those Big Questions.

Writer Fred Van Lente and artist Ryan Dunlavey have that same love of wisdom, which is evident in their book series Action Philosophers, in which they use the comics medium to distill concepts that the great thinkers, past and present, have tackled through the ages and made them accessible in a fun and digestible way. Recently, the duo launched a Kickstarter through Rocketship Entertainment for the new installment in the series: Action Philosophers: Modernity Bites, which throws the spotlight on such philosophical giants as Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, Hannah Arendt, Karl Marx, and so many more!

Mr. Van Lente spoke with me recently about the conceit of Action Philosophers: Modernity Bites, who we meet in the volume, the Kickstarter itself, and a look back at working on the entire Action Philosophers series. As a philosophy minor in college and all around philosophy nerd, I can give my full-chested endorsement of Misters Van Lente and Dunlavey’s Action Philosophers series. Their previous installments are wildly entertaining and informative and this volume looks to be no different.

 

 

FreakSugar: For folks who might not be familiar with the Action Philosophers books, what can you tell us about the series?

Fred Van Lente: Action Philosophers is the lives and thoughts of history’s A-list brain trust told in a hip and humorous comic-book fashion. Ryan and I have been doing this series on and off since about 2003? So if it was a person it’d be well into graduate school now, which only seems appropriate?

FS: What can you tell us about this next book, Action Philosophers: Modernity Bites?

FVL: This is the third and likely final volume of the volumes published by Rocketship Entertainment, and they’ve done a fantastic job, Originally in the comic these stories were presented randomly, but for the Rocketship editions we’ve put them all in chronological order. The first volume, “Hooked on Classics,” covered the Classical and Medieval period; “Omnipotence for Dummies” brought us up to about 1850; and Modernity Bites brings us all the way to Jacques Derrida, who died in 2002. (A year before we started working on this series: Coincidence?!)

And of course this is the first time most of these stories have been in FULL-COLOR, courtesy of master hue-smith Adam Guzowski.

FS: Every edition has a wide range of philosophical minds getting their due. Who are some of the lovers of wisdom who get the spotlight in Modernity Bites?

FVL: We’ve got a lot of great thinkers here: Karl Marx, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Jean-Paul Sartre, Sigmund Freud, Ayn Rand, and of course the Übermensch himself, Friedrich Nietzsche. Some real heavy hitters here.

FS: Following up on that, why did you choose the philosophers that you did? I feel like every era or school has a wide range of philosophers at your fingertips.

FVL: Honestly, we did pretty much everyone of importance in the history of the field. It wasn’t accidental. I bought a 1980s Philosophy college textbook from a used bookstore in Florida and that was my guide. We also talked to experts who were fan of the series, and during the run of the comics in the aughts we polled the readers to see who they would want us to feature.

 

From Action Philosophers: Modernity Bites

 

FS: Do you have a favorite philosopher to work on from Modernity Bites?

FVL: I always like new things, so working on the new story for this volume, featuring Hannah Arendt, the great critic of totalitarianism, focusing on her reporting at the trial of Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem, was particularly fascinating—and, considering the world we live in in 2026, sadly apropos.

FS: I have referenced your books in some of the high school social sciences classes I teach. To your knowledge, have you had any schools use your books in the classroom? If so, what kind of feedback have you gotten?

FVL: That’s awesome! No, I actually don’t teach philosophy, I teach comics writing. I did a book with Greg Pak and Colleen Coover I use for that, Write Comics Like the Pros, and that always goes swimmingly.

FS: I minored in philosophy in college, so these books are up my alley. What is the research process like on the book? What has surprised you most in the course of that research?

FVL: I read a lot. Like, a lot. Just to give you an example, for Hannah Arendt I read all three volumes of the Origins of Totalitarianism, and her last book, Life of the Mind, which is massive, as well as a graphic novel about her called The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt and a book about her called Hannah Arendt and America. And of course, I had to read Eichmann in Jerusalem closely as it provides the framework for the story.

So I started reading Thanksgiving weekend 2024 for a story being Kickstarted in March 2026. It takes a while!

 

From Action Philosophers: Modernity Bites

 

FS: How has the concept evolved over the years? Has it taken you places you didn’t expect?

FVL: Because we had multiple stories per issue, we changed up the formula a lot. One of my favorites in experimentation is in Modernity Bites, “You’re a Good Man, John Stuart Mill” which has little vignettes about the philosopher drawn in the style of Charles Schulz. Ryan is such a good mimic cartoonist, and he did it for so long at Wizard, it’d be shame to not make use of his skills.

FS: Following up on that, how has your collaboration evolved throughout the years? Are you developing a short hand with one another?

FVL: Yeah, pretty much. We’re lucky we still enjoy working together. We have very similar senses of humor which I think helps, and our wives are pals, which never hurts.

FS: On to the Kickstarter itself, what can you tell us about the campaign?

FVL: It’s, you know, a pretty straightforward campaign. Give us money and you get the book in different versions depending on how much you pledge, and even cooler you can also get Vols 1 and 2 to round out your collection.

FS: What are some rewards backers can expect to find?

FVL: I must say, the slipcase with all three books together is pretty gorgeous and something I can’t wait to get into my own hands.

FS: You’ve worked with Rocketship a few times at this point. What makes working with the publisher as good a fit as it seems to be?

FVL: They care about quality first, and everything else after. Tom and his team are my kind of people.

FS: You both have many irons in the creative fire. What does working on the Action Philosophers series give you creatively that some of your other projects don’t?

FVL: Well, you know, I’ve been doing it for so long it’s kind of like slipping on a favorite old shoe when I work on the rare new story—I haven’t done any other series for over two decades, so it’s really unique in that sense!

FS: If you had a final pitch for the Kickstarter, what would it be?

FVL: These stories haven’t really been out of print since they first came out 20 years ago, and now they’re IN COLOR for the first time. I feel like we must be doing something right!