Comic Review: Action Presidents #1

Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey are like chocolate and peanut butter. On their own, they’re pretty great – Van Lente has done quite a bit of work for Marvel, while Dunlavey was a mainstay at Wizard Magazine for a while and has since done work for publishers large and small. Collaborations between the two are something special, though. Whether it’s a series about history’s greatest thinkers or about the history of American funnybooks, their combined work provides a mixture of intelligence, history, and humor that’s not found anywhere else. With Action Presidents #1, the duo is in fine form yet again.

The first issue of their new series, appropriately, covers the life of the United States’s first president, George Washington. There’s plenty of myth around the founding of the US and Washington in particular, and Van Lente and Dunlavey acknowledge their subject’s mythic status early on, and then ignore it throughout the rest of the issue. The comic focuses on facts of the events of Washington’s life, which sounds like it would be a really dry read, but the way the team tells the story really brings it to life.

Van Lente’s writing, most of which is done in the form of captions with a little dialogue interspersed throughout, is clever and, most importantly, informative without reading like a textbook. The narrative of Washington’s life is compressed down to twenty pages, but it still paints a clear picture of the man as a reluctant, yet capable leader. It also places Washington – and, particularly, his idea of what ‘freedom’ actually meant – in a historical context that adds a lot of depth to him. Artist Dunlavey’s work is as solid as ever. His storytelling abilities are unimpeachable, and much of the humor of the book is achieved through his artwork. It’s a credit to both Dunlavey and Van Lente that they can take a serious subject, express the major points about said subject, but still make it feel light and easy-to-digest.

Action Presidents #1 is an entertaining start to this new series. The strength of the source material certainly helps, but the storytelling by Van Lente and Dunlavey really makes the issue great. It’s currently available via Comixology for $2, or in a ‘dead cherry tree edition’ from publisher Evil Twin Comics for $3. Whatever form you choose to read it in, Action Presidents is a book that certainly won’t disappoint.

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