What's big, blue, beefy and named after a blood-sucking arachnid? The Tick, of course, the most entertaining of the animated superheroes on the small screen these days. The Tick leaps through the world with vim, vigor and stupidity, with the help of his moth-garbed sidekick Arthur, in a far-from-serious manner.
Created by Ben Edlund as a minor character in comic book retailer New England Comics' catalog, the Tick's appeal was immediately obvious. The project swiftly became a wonderfully executed comic book that parodied various comic book genres and characters. As time went on, the comics came out less and less. It has been a number of years now since the most recent issue, although Edlund has promised a new one in the next year or so. The main cause of the interruption has been the television show.
Edlund has more or less abandoned the comic to creatively steer the show. And it has paid off. "The Tick" is quite possibly the comic-turned-animated half hour that is truest to its source material. It is a far cry from the terrible Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fiasco, the TV version of which was about as close to the comic as Adam West was to Batman.
"The Tick" has been a show full of fun and wit, just as the comic was. It has been altered to be somewhat more self-sufficient, however. Instead of relying largely on specific comic-oriented parody, the show has a more generalized comedic oeuvre. A few vestiges of specific parody do remain, though, as anyone with half a brain can see that Die Fledermaus is a literally costumed bat-man. Look up "fledermaus" in your German-English dictionary if you don't get it.
The show is humorous on many levels. The main characters are inherently funny, and by interacting act as effective foils. The Tick is big, stupid and nigh-invulnerable, with a crusading sort of attitude that any good hero should have. Arthur is virtually powerless (his ability to fly coming from a suit he bought used), neurotic and far more sensible than the Tick. They make a classic big guy/little guy comedy team.
The other heroes they occasionally hang out with are also funny by nature. Sewer Urchin talks like Rainman and has stinky powers, Die Fledermaus is an ineffectual jerk and American Maid is the strait-laced normal hero, except of course that she's dressed in a patriotically designed maid's outfit.
The villains are humorous, too. Chairface Chippendale has a chair for a head. El Seed is a huge, anthropomorphic sunflower-cum-revolutionary. Thrakkorzog is a hideous blobby alien who speaks ultra-proper English and has a monosyllabic self-speaking tongue mouth. It's a strong base, all around.
The writing for the show is also funny: Arthur has been abducted by Aztecs who say "itlan" all the time and who actually meant to capture his girlfriend, people's minds get zapped into other people's bodies, aliens try to take over Earth. Goofy stuff. You get the idea.
By being a show, "The Tick" has also made some fine spin-offs. There was a line of action figures (virtually impossible to find at the toy store now), PVC figures, video tapes and even a horrible CD-ROM. The CD-ROM is an interactive comic that has a very limited amount of animation from one episode of the show scrunched into a tiny box. Adding insult to injury, the disc makes ugly pauses in the story at points of heavy action, and the producers have even added completely non-story-related animations to the thing. By far, this is the worst spin-off the show has had. A CD-ROM that only included one episode of the show on it would've been far preferable. And at around $10, the actual product is pretty sickening.
Eventually the question has to be asked: Is the show worth the virtual death of the comic? And surprisingly, the answer might just be yes. In a time when television is starting to produce some quality superhero shows with the flaw of being too serious too much of the time, like the Spiderman and Batman cartoons, "The Tick" makes some strong comedy. Now if only some live-action shows would.
 "The Tick" cast (from left): Die Fledermaus, The Tick, Arthur and American Maid. |
The Tick is stuck in a tight situation. |