Hello hello you merry band of fellow travelers!
Today it’s time to talk about the single greatest superhero creation of the 90’s: THE TICK.
To preface, I’m running on three cups of black coffee and a slice of pecan pie and no other food, so if this post feels a little unhinged then you know why. That fact also makes it the perfect time to talk about the Tick!
I stupidly love the big blue guy, he’s the absolute best superhero ever created and I will fight you if you think otherwise. I vividly remember when the cartoon came out on Fox Kids (the home of all the best Saturday morning cartoons in the 90’s) and I must’ve watched the first season at least three times around. I owned a chapter book with the Tick’s antics and I read it cover to cover enough times for the binding to fall apart. I kid you not.
The Tick is very clearly a product of a Gen X mind and their typical rebellion against the social norms of the day, with a fair dose of annoyance at corporate culture. It’s incredibly stupid and to my sugary cereal addled child mind it was the most awesome thing on the planet. To my adult and fully grown caffeine and stress addled mind it’s still just as awesome. The Tick had the best characters, sampling and parodying liberally from existing heroes and villains. Here’s a quick rundown of my particular favorites: El Seed (an anthropomorphic sunflower), the Human Bullet (who is literally shot in to The City and is only useful that one time), Die Fledermaus (the requisite batman knockoff), and the Carpeted Man (my personal favorite). The entire series is basically a fever dream and I’m here for it.
Also of note, there’s so many things in the series that totally went over my head. Arthur, the Tick’s sidekick, gets fed up with his corporate job and quits so that he can go be a superhero. He’s a little on the chubby side and has difficulty running and keeping up with the Tick’s hijinks, and now that I too have a job that crushes my soul I totally understand that character more than I ever could back in the day. Also, the running joke that he’s a bunny are hilarious, especially because him being a moth never strikes fear into anyone. I’m a child.
If that wasn’t enough reason to love the Tick, I actually got to meet one of the artists, Eli 5 Stone, one time at a gaming convention. So getting to actually see the human who brought such an awesome character to life was pretty amazing for me. It helped that he was hilarious and generous with his time, going so far as to sketch this photo in my dad’s autograph book. I'll never forget it and that’s a big reason why I love the Tick to this day. Also, he’s really cool and DM’d him on Twitter and you should definitely go say hey and maybe spend some time watching Twitter implode, but that’s a different story for a different day…
All that being said, The Tick isn’t for everyone, I get that, but you really need to try watching it on a Saturday morning round about your second bowl of sugary cereal. The Tick being slightly off kilter will get better the more off kilter you are as well.
Thanks everyone for reading, I know you have a choice in Substack reads and I’m glad you made this one! Tell your friends to party up, it’s dangerous to go alone!