“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 of heroism, complete nonsense and sharp sarcastic humor. If it is possible to write and draw comedic timing, Edlund had that talent. Since the time of the original comic, 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

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 funny that it in fact was able to survive a three season run Fox, before finally going the way of the Dodo. It originally premiered back in 1994, and built up almost as huge a fan base as the original comic book. For years, there have been online petitions to bring the series to DVD and after ten long years… they finally paid off. I believe there were some rights issues, but I've never gotten the full story of the holdup.

This month, Buena Vista Home Entertainment is offering up "The Tick vs. Season 1", a collection of all the animated episodes from… well, season 1. STRIKE THAT! That should read… ALMOST all of the episodes from season 1. It seems that one of the episodes, "Tick vs. The Mole Men" has been left out of the set. Again, we are told there are some rights issues, but still no details. The powers that be do say that they hope to include the episode on a later release. (Keep those fingers crossed… it's a hilarious episode.)

So what this set does have is 12 of the episodes from season 1, where the Tick and his trusty (but apprehensive) sidekick Arthur fight super villains and bills. Viewers can run in horror after looking upon the visage of Chairface Chippendale, a villain so hideously deformed that his head looks like a Chippendale Chair (GASP!). The series also introduces us to some of the Tick's other superhero friends, like Der Fliedermaus, American Maid, and the ever -popular Sewer Urchin (who is oftentimes mistaken for Rain Man).

Other than the missing episode, I was most disappointed by the lack of extra features in this set. I've heard Edlund on other commentaries and interviews and he's a very funny guy. I really hoped he would be more involved with this DVD release, but hopefully he step up and be heard on some of the future sets.

I should mention that 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. It wasn't quite as funny as the animated series, but it tried.

Now that both series are available on DVD, I strongly suggest you run out and buy them (DO IT… DO IT NOW!!!!).
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“SPOON!!”

Episodes:
The Tick Vs. The Idea Men
The Tick Vs. Chairface Chippendale
The Tick Vs. Dinosaur Neal
The Tick Vs. Mr. Mental
The Tick Vs. The Breadmaster
The Tick Vs. El Seed
The Tick Vs. The Tick
The Tick Vs. The Uncommon Cold
The Tick Vs. The Brainchild
The Tick Vs. Pineapple Pokopo
The Tick Vs. The Proto-Clown
The Tick Vs. Arthur's Bank Account

Starring (the voices of): Townsend Coleman, Mickey Dolenz, Rob Paulsen, Cam Clarke, Kay Lenz
Extras: None
Specifications: Full Screen
Studio: Buena Vista
Release Date: 8/29/2006
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give The Tick vs. Season 1 an A.