Fred Van Lente is the New York Times bestselling author of Incredible Hercules
(with Greg Pak) and three entries in the Marvel Zombies series, as well as the American Library Association award-winning Action Philosophers. His original graphic novel Cowboys & Aliens (co-written with Andrew Foley) is being adapted into motion picture form by Dreamworks and Universal, starring Daniel Craig. Van Lente’s other comics include Comic Book Comics, MODOK’s 11, X Men Noir and Amazing Spider-Man. Wizard magazine nominated him for 2008 Breakout Talent (Writer). Comics Should Be Good named Fred one of the 365 Reasons to Love Comics. He’s been called “one of the most idiosyncratic and insightful new voices in comics.”

With the release of the even bigger (4 superheroes added and the original heroes now arranged in chronological order), The More Than Complete Action Philosophers by Fred and his partner-in-crime, illustrator Ryan Dunlavey, from his very own imprint, Evil Twin Comics, back in November, I went back and re-read the Philosophers’ stories I’d reviewed about a year ago.  Being a Philosopher, myself, and therefore the very curious type, and always looking for new ways to connect with my undergrads, I sat down, keyboard-to-keyboard, and had a chat with Fred about this latest incarnation of his intrepid endeavor.

ComicMix: To start off with the basics and the obvious but perhaps not-so-obvious, why Philosophy in Comics?
Fred Van Lente: They used to do an anthology every year for the Small Press Expo (SPX) in Bethesda, Maryland, which Ryan Dunlavey and I go to a lot. One year the book’s theme was biographies. Ryan wanted to submit a story, and I volunteered — well, more like bullied my way into writing it, because Ryan originally asked my wife, Crystal Skillman, who’s a playwright.

I had been reading a lot of Nietzsche, just for fun (because that’s how I roll), and it occurred to me a funny, short comics bio of Nietzsche would be just in the wheelhouse for Ryan’s style. 

CM: So then that begs the question, with your inspiration being the very cerebral Nietzsche, why “Action” Philosophers?
FVL: For the past couple SPX’s, I’d been writing little mini-comics for us to sell out our table with my buddy, Harvey Award-winning artist Steve Ellis.

They were satires of different kinds of comics; for example, we did a strip called “Rightwing,” about a conservative superhero published by the Republican Party: http://www.fredvanlente.com/rightwing.html

And the following year, we made fun of Jack Chick, the famous religious tract publisher, by doing an evangelist strip for HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu (this one’s become pretty big on the Internet): http://www.fredvanlente.com/cthulhutract/

To continue the trend, I thought it’d be funny to pretend there were action figures of philosophers (interviewer’s note: there are!), and so we did the Nietzsche strip in the style of a little comic you’d get bundled in with your Nietzsche action figure. Hence the title, “Action” Philosophers.

The punch line is we got rejected from the anthology but found we enjoyed doing philosophy comics. We did a couple more for a start-up magazine that never started up, and eventually we got a grant from the Xeric Foundation to self-publish our own AP comic … and here we are today.

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Warner Bros. Digital Distribution continues celebrating DC Comics’ 75th Anniversary, and has announced the release of Superman: Doomsday on iTunes with Extras.  This additional bonus content is available for the first time to download customers. For some time now, people have continued to buy DVDs because they like the extra content, which has previously not been available online. That seems to be changing, at least with Warner Bros. properties which we think is a boon to the consumer.

To celebrate this and DC’s anniversary we’re holding a Trivia Tuesday. The first person to ask a Superman and/or Doomsday related trivia question that can stump me, co-author of the forthcoming The Essential Superman Encyclopedia
will win a free digital download courtesy of our friends at WBDD.

In addition to the DC Animation feature, Superman: Doosmday, you will also be receiving the Extras, including: The Making of Superman Doomsday, The Clash of the Juggernauts, and Behind the Voice.

Good luck!

Attention all you Left Coast comic fans, with a love for the ladies! At the upcoming Long Beach Comic Con, you can attend the 2010 LuLu Awards. Brought to you by the recently reinvigorated Friends Of Lulu, the LuLu’s celebrate female creators in comics, and gives them a boost within the community in hopes to not only recognize the good work contributed by women in the field, but to also extend the readership of the comic reading community at large. Let’s face face it guys… a few extra ladies coming out to the shop on Wednesday’s would sure help us earn some cred with those snobby LARPers, right?

This year, fans can lend their voices to the LuLu’s, as they’ve made it open season for nomination. Fans can suggest their favorite XX chromosomed creator for such awards as the Kim Yale Award for Best New Talent, LuLu of the Year, Woman of Distinction, the Leah Adezio Award for Best Kid-Friendly Work, Female Comic Creator’s Hall of Fame (this year’s winner joins one of my personal favorite creators, Gail Simone!), and Best Female Character.

So, ready to vote? We knew you were! Visit the Comics Are For Everyone Blog to vote for this year’s favorites. When you’re done voting, pour yourself a cosmo, flip on a solid episode of Buffy, and visit the Long Beach Comic Con’s site so you can score yourself some tickets to see the very awards you just voted for!