Don and Randy break out their spoons and dig into a big, heapin' bowl o' comics history, as they take a look at the original run of The Tick.
Don:
Comics fans are probably more familiar with the TV animation incarnation of the mighty, blue Tick, and like me, they probably thought the original comic-book version was pretty much the same as the one seen in the cartoon (and the short-lived, live-action Tick show).
Wrong. Though I read some of the original Tick comics years ago -- even before the cartoon debuted in the mid 1990s -- I'd forgotten that Ben Edlund's original stories, though they were just as zany and entertaining, were actually a little bit darker in tone. The folks at New England Comics supplied Randy and me with a stack of the original Tick comics, and it served as a welcome and hilarious look at the source material.
Randy:
Like you, I had figured that having seen both the animated incarnation and the brief live action version, that I knew all about the Tick. I figured this would be a funny but familiar read. I was right about the first part, but not the second, because while the inspiration for the two other-media versions is clearly on the page in the Tick comics, these stand as a hilarious set of stories all on their own.
The Tick #s 1-13
published by New England Comics
written by Ben Edlund & Marc Silvia
illustrated by Ben Edlund, Max Banks, Dave Garcia, Jeff Whiting, Mychailo Kazybrid & Tak Toyoshima
Don:
After escaping from an asylum, the nigh-invulnerable Tick travels to the City, and emulating the Caped Wonder, decides to become a super-hero. Soon, he's knee-deep in ninjas, face-to-face with a chainsaw-wielding vigilante and on the road with his new sidekick, Arthur, as they head to New York in a quest to become the cream of the super-hero crop.
On television, the Tick was always a loveable, well-meaning goof, but in these comics, there's a slightly darker edge to him. He's an escaped madman, phasing in and out of reality. Though Edlund's original stories still boast the same silliness we've come to expect from the property, there are moments a nastier side creeps about the periphery of the comedy.
Randy:
There are also different influences, to some degree. The Tick of the animated series was a sort of weird central figure to an ensemble of strange super-heroes and villains, but Edlund's take on the character in the comics gives equal (if not more) time to other characters that we never even saw in the animated series for the most part, such as Chainsaw Vigilante, Man-Eating Cow and Oedipus. In fact, though the stories become more free-wheeling by the end, in the beginning The Tick was a riff on the Superman mythos and the classic Frank Miller run on Daredevil. The latter was responsible for the absolutely hysterical use of ninjas as a running gag.
Don:
It was interesting to see Edlund's artwork and designs evolve over the course of the first dozen issues of the series. The early Arthur look was pudgier, but was more imposing as well. He came off as more of an equal to the Tick. Edlund's designs clearly took on a greater level of detail as the years passed as well. Just compare the somewhat generic characters from the early issues to such minor characters as Agrippa, Six-Gun and the Ant in later issues. The backgrounds take on greater depth in the latter issues as well.
Randy:
You can definitely see the evolution in the artwork, but it starts out strong as well. These comics are slightly oversized, which really shows off the art, and Edlund is an accomplished storyteller, not only in terms of comedy but with some pretty impressive action sequences and a terrific use of double-takes, slow realizations and other comic timing that is hard to do in comics. And though the book looks great in black and white, there are some truly great looking color covers created for these issues.
Don:
I think what I enjoyed most about reading these Tick stories was discovering characters and gags that never made the jump to the small screen. For example, we're all familiar with such villains as Chairface Chippendale and the Pineapple Pokopo, but I didn't realize that they were originally just an answer to a Dick Tracy spoof that Edlund created. I also found the Tick and Arthur's brief discomfort with the seeming homoerotic overtones of two men in tights sharing an apartment to be hilarious. It makes sense that such an adult gag wouldn't be carried over into a children's program.
Randy:
Well, they did sort of hint at it on the animated series, but you're right that they tackle it head on in the comic and that makes it even funnier. You're right, though, in that the Tick has a lot to offer even those who have seen every episode of the animated and live action television version. There are only a couple of jokes that I recognized throughout this entire 13-issue run; most of it was entirely new to me, and almost all of it was laugh out loud funny. Edlund (and on the thirteenth issue, other creators) structures the series as one- or two-issue stories with some overlapping character development, and that allowed him to put a lot of characters and interesting plots, not to mention a staggering number of riffs on pop-culture (with a focus on the super-hero genre) into the book.
Don:
What's great about this book is how it still holds up, even though it got started in 1986. Even if one has watched every episode of the TV incarnations of the characters, there's still an abundance of "new" material to be discovered in this original Tick comics. Those lamenting the loss of their TV Tick Fix should turn to the character's print origins in order to renew their addiction.
Randy:
Absolutely. If you're like me, you probably assumed that the comics were the springboard for the animated series and that all of the characters, plots and gags were going to be ones you'd already seen. Nothing could be further from the truth, and anyone who likes funny comics should pick these up. Anyone who loved the Tick on TV should run to the store to do so.
For more information about The Tick, visit
