Following their Ignatz-nominated series Action Philosophers, a hilarious—and factual—overview of notable philosophers throughout history, the creative team of writer Fred Van Lente and artist Ryan Dunlavey are ready to bring their style of edifying humor to a much more familiar subject. In their new series, Comic Books Comics, Van Lente and Dunlavey embark on an attempt to tell the complete history of the comic book industry in the comics medium itself. The first issue of the self-published series is slated for release on March 5from Van Lente and Dunlavey’s Evil Twin Comics.

PW Comics Week: Was it a conscious decision to give the series a name that would be totally infuriating to anyone using a search engine to find it?

Fred Van Lente: Yeah... I know. (laughs) I found that out the hard way the other day. But I liked the "meta"-ness of the title, you know? I refuse to allow Google to control our naming decisions! And besides, who needs Google when our URL is as insultingly easy as Comicbookcomics.com?

Ryan Dunlavey: At one point, I tried to convince Fred we should call the series Comic Book History so that all our press releases would say "Van Lente and Dunlavey make Comic Book History,” but I got so confused trying to explain it to him that I passed out.

PWCW: How did you two get together as collaborators?

FVL: Ryan and I both went to Syracuse University, where we were both members of the, yes, comic book club. Then, after we all graduated, he and I and a couple other friends from that same club all moved to Brooklyn together. We worked on a couple group projects, but hadn't actually collaborated just with each other until we started doing Action Philosophers as just a series of strips in, geez, I guess it'd be around 2002.

RD: All lies. Three words: scrapbooking chat room (laughs).

PWCW: Why did you decide to tackle the history of the comic book industry? Is this something you've had in mind for a while?

FVL: Since about halfway through Action Philosophers. We knew we would run out of thinkers to profile eventually, but we wanted to continue with the whole nonfiction humor thing since we were pretty successful at it. The history of comic books is still similar to Action Philosophers in the sense it's still part of the humanities, but different enough that it's a nice change of pace for us. And strangely (to me, at least), I'm not sure it's ever been attempted before—a comprehensive history of the medium in the form of the medium.

Also, I thought it would expand our audience beyond that of Action Philosophers, since the one thing we can be sure all comics fans like are comics (laughs), and so far leading indicators are good that we'll achieve that.

RD: There are only so many ways to draw an old white guy in a suit, which Action Philosophers was chock-full of. I begged Fred that our next project would be as far removed from that as possible, so now with Comic Book Comics I'm drawing lots of old white guys in T-shirts—hooray!

PWCW: What kind of a response did you get to your earlier collaboration, Action Philosophers? Did that affect your approach to CBC?

FVL: It's been the most gratifying response I've ever gotten in my professional career, and thus far my most rewarding experience in comics. It's great to get e-mails from professors using your comics as teaching tools, from people who have been introduced to the medium through your comic and from people who write your work has literally changed their lives. It's definitely made me want to keep doing this kind of work—the humorous nonfiction—until they cart me off to the funeral home.

PWCW: How many issues are you planning?

FVL: Like Action Philosophers, Comic Book Comics tackles a finite topic, but I can't really tell you how long it'll be. As long as it takes to tell the full story! We started out Action Philosophers projecting five issues, but we ended up doing nine. One of the nice things about self-publishing is that artistic considerations and no others dictate things like how long an issue or a series has to be.

RD: Well, that's not entirely true—if we suddenly started losing money on these projects, I'm sure that would put an end to things real quick. But having worked on so many (noncomics) projects where every detail has to be approved by a phalanx of executives, directors, managers, lawyers, salespeople, marketers and the president's basset hound, I truly love the whole making things up as we go along spirit of self-publishing. The only approval that Fred and I need to do something comes from each other (and our bank account).

PWCW: All comedy aside, how factual and comprehensive will CBC be in chronicling the history of the medium?

FVL: Oh, we're very serious about our comedy—and our veracity. Comic Book Comics is the 100% no-B.S. true story of the comic book industry, and anyone who doubts anything they read within its pages is more than welcome to check it against our sources, which are extensively noted at EvilTwinComics.com. (The sources were too long to actually put in the comic, and putting them online, available for all, is a nice compromise.)

And we're definitely trying to be as comprehensive as possible, beginning with the birth of the Yellow Kid and going into the rise of Web comics—and covering the American, Japanese, British and Continental European comics industries.

RD: This is all news to me. I thought the whole point of this series was to make fun of nerds in the name of "historical scholarship."

PWCW: How would you describe your sense(s) of humor?

FVL: Fish.

RD: A slightly less avant-garde Gallagher.

PWCW: What's this "World's Greatest Comic Book Collection" back matter that I've heard about?

FVL: Well, just as we had "Recommended Reading for the Genius-on-the-Go" in the back of each issue of Action Philosophers, in the back of Comic Book Comics our buddies at Comics Buyer's Guide are assisting us with assembling the world's most historically important comic book collection—basically, covers and blurbs on each important comic discussed that issue, along with that comic's current market value. In the first issue of CBC alone, over $400,000 worth of comics are listed, so start saving those dimes and nickels, kids!

PWCW: Any ideas on what might come after CBC for the two of you?

FVL: Two words: action presidents. And it's exactly what it sounds like.

RD: Would you believe he already gave me the first script? At this rate, I won't get started on my first solo graphic novel until I'm 80. Curse you, Van Lente!!!