The Tick #1 - Mobile Edition

More Comics
The Tick #1
By Zak Edwards
December 13, 2009 - 18:00

New England Comics
Writer(s): Benito Cereno
Penciller(s): Les McClaine
$4.95 US

As of late, I have been consuming a lot of Tick comics. Three omnibuses and this issue bringing my total Tick consumption to a level which, if The Tick was unnatural sugar, would result in diabetes. Reviews for those will be coming next week (post finals) but in the mean time, we have the most recent incarnation of The Tick in an all new series, The Tick New Series (exciting, I know!). I’m usually not one for the heavy-handed satire The Tick comic books represent as they are usually reliant on stupidity than absurdity, but I have to say, The Tick is one of the better examinations of the superhero and this issue explains fully why. Also, The Tick is kid friendly and this issue could become a Christmas classic if it weren’t for all the other Christmas classics it has to contend with (many of which are mentioned in the issue).

So the thing that makes The Tick so amazing is how funny it is. The issue is laugh out loud funny right from the get-go. Even the first page loaded with the humour the series relies on, that of faux melodrama, super hero references, and blatant mocking of super hero conventions. For good measure, the entire issue plays out as a sort of company Christmas party with the guests, all superheroes, meeting for an ‘Uncanny X-Mas’ party, and makes use of mixing the melodrama of the superhero with the mundane drama which occurs around company parties. The primary scene of the issue revolves around a fairly mundane activity most of us have participated in during the holiday season, a sort of company gift exchange, while making the whole scenario hilarious. The gifts include a present wrapped in skull wrapping paper, which becomes the most wanted gift of them all, and an assortment of the types of gifts one always finds in these scenarios. One gets the gift the person who bought it really wants, another a quasi-inappropriate gift, another a completely useless novelty, which makes the scenario all the more entertaining as the characters become easy to relate to through the stereotype which is of course part of the humour. The diabolical past attempts at evil discussed in the subplot are equally ridiculous, with many of the plots’ ridiculousness really adding to the unashamed over-the-top referentiality this series is so good at. The Tick does not pull punches and does not attempt subtlety and is stronger because of it.

The art, now in full colour, is just as great. Much of the humour in this episode is precisely because of the art and complements this script perfectly. The art is completely functional without much flourish, but in a story like this, with such heavy-handedness, an art style which doesn’t try to be really individual aids the goals. The art looks like fairly typical superhero art, which of course adds to the universal mocking of the medium as more individualistic artistic representation would probably alienate the story from its target and make for a fairly unintentional humour, unless the story was blatantly making fun of a specific work, say, Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s Arkham Asylum. But right now, The Tick aims at everyone and so looking the part is perfect. It’s reflected in The Tick’s ‘costume’ of a poorly fitting Santa beard, we all know who it is and what’s underneath and that acknowledgment is part of the humour.

8.5/10 Funny and unashamed, who wouldn’t enjoy some Tick this Christmas?