“Attention Naughty Spawn! The Big Blue Bug of Justice is here!!” Sometimes writing these reviews can be quite the release. In a way, they could also turn into my memoirs. Don’t know if this makes for good reading, but I’ll leave that up to you. Writing about “The Tick” reminds of another time. A time when I was young, school was in session, and I had quite the affinity for comic books. I don’t think I ever quite slipped into the persona of comic book geek (though a geek in general I certainly was). I had a modest collection of around 4,000 comics that I kept categorized, more out of a need to be able to find what I wanted to read, when I wanted to read it. I was totally into the superheroes, and admittedly more of a DC fan overall than Marvel, though Spider-Man was my all-time favorite hero. I gave up all my comics when I became stupidly smitten with a psycho-chick, and she somehow convinced me that selling them so I could buy a car was a good idea.

Occasionally I still imagine what they might have been worth today, almost twenty-five years later. But I digress. The point I’m getting at is that I have a history of reading comics and know (or at least knew) what used to make them great.

Many, MANY years went by before I picked up another comic book. I happened to be walking through a bookstore, when my eyes fell upon an odd little comic that had an unusual title, “The Tick.” I saw that it was the third issue, and for no other reason than curiosity, I picked it up and started looking through it. By the time I had gotten to second page, I had already laughed out loud, several times. I had never read anything so funny in a comic… ever.

I bought the book, took it home and read it all the way through and laughing like I was watching a good comedy. I started reading up on the comic’s creator, Ben Edlund, and started searching for back issues. It took me a while, but I finally tracked them down (including some rare numbered editions) and made it a point to pick up new issues whenever they would (sporadically) hit the shelves.

“The Tick” was a perfect blend comic heroism, complete nonsense and sharp sarcastic humor. If it is possible to write and draw comedic timing, Edlund had that talent. Over the years, the comic spawned (though not naughtily) a cartoon series that did a fairly good job of keeping the spirit and humor of its source material intact. It was so good that I’m still hoping for an eventual DVD release of that series.

Since the time of the original comic and cartoon, Edlund has gone on to write successfully for several TV shows like “Angel” and “Firefly”, as his brand of humor goes hand in hand with Joss Whedon’s brilliance.

Somewhere along the line, someone had the idea that creating a live action “Tick” series was a good idea. I had to agree, as long as they were able to bring Edlund on board. They were, and he did, so it was all a go. There were Internet rumors for months about who would be the right actor to bring the ‘Big Blue Guy’ to life. The casting couldn’t have been more perfect. Patrick Warburton was chosen, and if there was ever an actor capable of portraying the innocence, strength and sheer vapid stupidity of “The Tick”, I couldn’t name him.

Legions of Tick fans (yes, they exist) were both thrilled and hesitant when airings of the show were finally announced. Would it live up to the spirit of the original? Would it be funny? Would it last? Well, yes and no pretty much sums up the answer to all three questions (well, except the last one which is a definite no, since it was cancelled).

Patrick Warburton, was indeed perfect in the role. He played it completely straight, and was often the saving grace of the series. There were a few problems, however most of them didn’t really cause the show’s demise. The first problem was in the surrounding characters. With the exception of “The Tick’s” partner Arthur, all of the other characters were new. Well, not so much new, but more like re-inventions of existing characters, which is even worse.

Liz Vassey as Captain Liberty (which should have been American Maid) and Nestor Carbonell as Batmanuel (which should have been Die Fledermaus) did well with what they were given. But had they been given the opportunity to play the original characters it would have probably been funnier.

Then there was a problem with pacing. Most of the jokes and bits are actually quite funny, but a few of them fell kinda flat. It was generally hit and miss like that throughout most of the episodes. This unevenness in the writing is what lost some of its core audience. The humor that was funny, however, only worked on the aforementioned core audience. People tuning in who had no idea what “The Tick” was, found themselves confused by the silliness of the main character. Much of that humor was written way above the heads of your average TV watching audience, who basically just didn’t ‘get it.’

I knew the series wouldn’t last though, because even if it had been given the chance to go through a season and allowed to hit its stride, that average audience would have still never ‘gotten it.’ The core audience would have kept on watching it, but that wouldn’t have been enough people to make the networks happy.

Though the series was short-lived, at least it’s still accessible thanks to the folks at Sony / Columbia Tristar. They’ve made the wise decision to release all nine episodes on a 2-disc set. It may not appeal to the masses, but at least it gets it into the hands of those who would appreciate some of the more subtle brilliance of the show.

“The Tick: The Entire Series” doesn’t have much in the way of extras, but it does offer up some separate commentaries on four of the episodes by Barry Sonnenfeld (the show’s producer) and Ben Edlund. These commentaries are exceptionally worthwhile, and as you might hope, Edlund is a really funny guy.

Despite some of the show’s weak points, I thought it had the potential to be a really funny series. It was unfortunately misunderstood and under appreciated by the masses, so it was pretty much a lost cause before it even hit the gate. I do recommend giving it a chance on DVD, though. But only if you can appreciate sarcastically farcical humor without having to have it explained to you.

“SPOON!!”

Episodes:
Pilot
The Terror
Arthur, Interrupted
The License
Arthur Needs Space
Couples
The Funeral
The Tick Vs. Justice
The Big Leagues

Starring: Patrick Warburton, David Burke, Nestor Cabonell, Liz Vassey
Extras: Commentaries by Garry Sonnenfeld and Ben Edlund
Specifications: Widescreen (1.78:1), English Dolby Surround
Studio: Sony / Columbia Tristar
Release Date: 9/30/2003
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give The Tick: The Entire Series a B.