2 out of 5

What can we say about a book that sat on my shelf for probably fucking ten years without being read through at least once?  And this isn’t one of those ‘intended to read’ dealies, but rather a book I’d started in earnest a few times… and then conveniently set aside when something else grabbed my interest.  In the same way that ‘The Tick’ cartoon always seemed pretty funny but was sorta maybe a tad snoozy when viewing, the comic book hardly works for me, and is even a tad obnoxious in this repackaged walking commerical Omnibus format.  So after sticking it out for this NEC issue #1-6 collection, it turns out Edlund’s brand of humor is better suited for television, perhaps owing for why, once he made the transition after an initial 12-issue run, you haven’t really seen him stop back by the print world too often.

Meep.  So the comic is certainly a little more ‘adult’ than the TV series, fully admitting to Tick’s start in an insane asylum (before breakout and then on to antics) as well as including plenty of ‘damn’s and ‘hell’s.  It’s easy enough to separate the feel of the show and the book: Tick’s patter is paced differently and though they did a great job of translating Edlund’s art style to a more palatable cartoon format, his print style of parody initially sticks to the shadows, so while the characters are big and bright there’s plenty more shading here than was on the screen.  I mention this separation because, regardless, it still seems like a strange match when Ben has Tick questioning the nature of the world after a ‘sobering’ incident in which he saves Oediupus (an Elektra parody sorta only cause of the name and ninjas involved) from evil assailants, a story which takes up the middle issues of the collection.  But even this aside, the jokes just lack the sorta goofy charm of the show – with which Edlund was involved, so, again, I just think it works better in the other format.  On paper, we get a visual pun on Clark Kent but besides tossing in further Tick versions of Clark Kent-related ephemera – a newspaper with a different name, a fortress of solitude with a different name – there’s really not so much parody or comedy as just alternate depictions of thing.

But Ben did have art chops.  Panels are pretty packed, with some good cityscape splash panels, though the foreshortening and ‘acting’ sometimes displays the indie bookishness of it.  Everyone looks big and hefty and properly embellished, though, so visually the book is easy to read, it’s just the story that drags it down.

The binding of the edition I have is softcover all the way, super floppy, thin, off-white paper stock.  However, as the book is slightly oversized and because the whole thing is so flexible, it’s actually a bonus and holds up well – you can bend it back, crack it open, whatever, and it molds to your reading tastes.  Although the cheap paper is inky.

Now the issues themselves would probably merit an extra star.  However, by the point of this printing, the Tick had already become a known cartoon, so there’s an annoying amount of ads for ‘collectibles’ and other obnoxious crap in the book.  This brings out some of the obvious ‘buy me’ pandering Ben had written into the series, making the collection reek of commercialism, which is weird for what still was an indie property.  It just rubbed me the wrong way while reading it.

So: ten years on, I can finally bid adieu to this collection and deem it ‘not for me.’  But I also have to think that it’s not an easy sale even for fans of the show since they emit different enough vibes to not fully support each other.