A week ago [1], Martine, enchantress of Camaromance and marvelous editor here at Lazy@Work sent me a picture through my FaceBook account, no doubt did she want to send me a smile, a nudge, just a quirky image made to brighten my day but in no way could it have been foreseen that I would take the image so seriously. The image is the following:

And it made me realize that I could name four Italian renaissance painters, without my knowledge of knowing so. Like Jason Bourne when his reflexes kick-in in Paris, I felt as I had fallen into the Arcade of Academia (picture it…for fun) Now, two weeks later (so if you’ve been following, I’ve been writing bits and pieces of this post for the last month or so), I sit back and look at this little JPEG and realize that it summarizes all my education. From Bill and Ted to Ninja Turtles…dear lord, I’ve been tricked into education! And most of it was done with comics. So follow me through the green pastures of occulted education, today I share with you all how Comics make better “knowers” (or philosophers, you know Philo- Sophia and all that jazz.)

Trotsky: Rick Geary seems to be the go-to guy when it comes to biographical comics. That dude from Kansas already has a book on Lincoln, Hoover and a book on the grimmest subject imaginable: The Lindberg Baby. For those of you who really enjoy historical biographies this one is a good one, it has a very subtle manner of tethering over two genres, the book easily reads as a small (illustrated) historical novel while dropping into pure comic book narrative at certain occasions. Trotsky feels more like a novel than Louis Riel (which is 100% comic and 100% genius, if you haven’t read it, go for Louis Riel first, then come back for Trotsky…I’m serious, repeat after me : gotta read Louis Riel by Chester Brown) and more of a comic than say, My Life. All in all, I wasn’t too familiar with Mr. Trotsky’s work and this book made me enjoy reading about his exploits. Books like these really shine for me the moment I realize that I can name most of Trotsky’s exiles in a single breath. The knowledge they convey kinda creep up on you in the weirdest occasions.

Action Philosophers !: Now this one is for the books, Action Philosophers! part of a balanced breakfast. This book (now available in single format, three trades or one complete volume) is the love child of two truly imaginative artists: Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey. Although it might be hard to be witty about something that has hogged all the wit in the world, this book might be considered the most academic comic book ever, hence why it should appear on my list of treacherous teaching traps. Ranging from Saint Augustus to Spinoza, from Jung to John Stuart Hill every chapter of this book blends comic book narrative with high “scholarleries”. From a masked Plato (did you know he used to be a wrestler?) to a Arnold Schwarzenegger-ed Derrida (the Deconstructunator!) every biography reads like a personalized version of Monty Python’s Philosopher song (haven’t heard it…watch it here). It made me laugh! It made me cry (not really, well maybe from all the laughing) It made me rationalize my position in the universe! I have to utmost respect for what has been accomplished by these two (and am currently enjoying the tar out of Van Lente’s take on Marvel’s Hercules) and would recommend this volume to anyone and everyone living in the realm of ideas…or even the realms of things.

Uncle Sam[2]:  Unable to distinguish between past and present and fantasy and reality, Uncle Sam roams the street of modern America… See that’s really something I want to read, especially since the protagonist in question is a superhero version of our good ol’ I WANT YOU man. There’s actually a lot of humor to be done with such a premise but to make sure I don’t lead anyone astray, this book can be described in no less words than saying that it’s a poem to modern America. It’s a powerful rendition of subversion and beauty of the American way. Published before it’s time in 1997, the book is nothing less than a visionary masterpiece. Written like a sampling of the most important texts in the United-States history and beautifully illustrated by the very-talented but sometimes hard-to-get-along-with Alex Ross (each panel of this historic book is painted on canvas) US is the modern equivalent to Dante’s Divine Comedy and as I was saying earlier, a “history of the US” course in itself. The newest edition also includes a compendium discussing the symbolism behind the character of Uncle Sam. I might as well go on all night about comics that have tricked me into learning (see it’s 4 A.M. now and I promised this column to be done by the end of January and dammit I will keep my word!) these titles are simply a very very very short list of what’s out there (way out there[3]) in terms of smart books dealing with intelligentsia matters. The comic’s medium has been blessed with some really big brains during their tenure and it’s bled through in the pages, enough to make an ordinary guy like fall in love with classical culture, even when there aren’t any capes involved, even though, in my regards, capes make everything better.

Bloviate!

Gentleman Jim

http://www.postemoderne.ca/

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[1] Now two weeks later

[2] This is the first thing I wrote, so think about it as being like the blog-column equivalent of a 50 year wine, it’s been thought over and over until perfected.

[3] Rex Libris, The Unwritten, India Authentic, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen…to name only a few.