The entirety of The Tick (the live action series) is now available on Hulu.com. When I first saw this version of the tick, it was at a thanksgiving family reunion, and we literally watched all nine episodes at least two or maybe three times that weekend. Hysterical stuff.
My only previous exposure to The Tick had been in my Latin courses at college. The professor was absolutely nuts for The Tick, and would quote it regularly. I think he even went so far as to bring in some clips from the animated series for us to watch. Then about two years ago I got into the Tick comics, and had to collect them all in Trade Paperback.
So… just to add some links to this post, and spruce things up a bit, I started googling for the Tick, hoping to find a cool weblog by the creator or something. Instead, I found out that Ben Edlund, the creator/artist for the comics, was also a writer/producer for Firefly and Angel, and furthermore has written episodes of The Venture Brothers! He also wrote Titan A.E., which I didn’t think was nearly as bad as everyone said it was). His latest writing/producing credits are on a show called Supernatural, which I haven’t heard of, (or if I had, I didn’t care at the time), and which I will now gleefully Tivo!
Here is a choice quote from an interview with Edlund that I found on slashdot:
The Tick is a work in stupid. Just as others may choose clay or stone or paint, I and my compatriots have chosen stupidity as our medium. But stupid must be worked and mastered like any other material; during this experimental stage, the viewer of the work may feel he or she is observing “perceptiveness” or “art.” This is simply an illusion.
With all the awards this book has won, you’d think I would have been more excited to read it. When Florence brought home her signed copy from the reading that she went to with Jason, I gave her a list of excuses about why I didn’t think it was “my kind” of comic. First of all, it didn’t appear to be funny, or have any science fiction or fantasy in it. Secondly, it was more or less in black and white. Finally, it was supposed to be non-fiction for crying out loud! I basically didn’t even think I’d get past the first few pages.