He stands… Like some sort of pagan god or deposed tyrant. Staring out over the city he’s sworn to… to stare out over… And it’s evident… Just by looking at him… That he’s got some pretty heavy things on his mind.
After dedicating this “great comics” series to such artistic masterpieces as Sandman, Astro City, Swamp Thing, Usagi Yojimbo, and Zot!… how can I make the next entry The Tick?
And what is there to possibly say? How many words can I squeeze out of, “It’s funny.” (Over a thousand, it turns out.)
I guess I could point at different gags and say, “Look isn’t this one funny?” That’s kind of like commentary.
And if we’re going to talk about an issue of The Tick, why this one?
The answer to that is easy: I like this joke about a hedge.
I could have covered the first issue insead. That tells his origin, and I do like his origin, enough to quote it here.
Destiny is a funny thing. Once I thought I was destined to become Emperor of Greenland, sole monarch over its 52,000 inhabitants. Then I thought I was destined to build a Polynesian longship in my garage. I was wrong then, but I’ve got it now. I’m the destined protector of this place. I’m this City’s superhero.
He then learns the City already has a superhero, the Caped Wonder, secretly Clark Oppenheimer, reporter for the Weekly World Planet.
At one point Clark loses his glasses, and has to think fast before young photographer Billy sees him.
Night of a Million-Zillion Ninja
But while the first two issues amuse me, I want to talk about a hedge.
My copy of this issue is a second printing. Hence the “encore presentation” banner on the cover. Otherwise, I think this is identical to the original.
Letters and production by Robert Polio. George Suarez is the editor.
That’s Oedipus, a ninja woman Tick will team up with. Bears some resemblance to Marvel’s Elektra.
She meets Tick while he’s monologuing and staring out over the city he’s sworn to… to stare out over.
Notice the page also introduced our next major character.
She’s being chased by some ninjas, but Tick assures her, “Ninjas aren’t dangerous. They’re more afraid of you than you are of them…”
The District Manager’s plan is to have his ninja stake out Oedipus’ house and ambush her there. Finally, we’re getting to that hedge.
“Even as we speak, our ninja surround Oedipus’ mansion ingeniously disguised as a hedge.”
There it is. That’s my favorite panel. Because I find jokes are funnier when you over-explain them, let’s note a few things about that first panel. First of all, the kid is blonde with a pet tiger. Likely a Calvin & Hobbes reference. Then why the ABBA t-shirt? I have no idea.
The District Manager describes the disguise as ingenious when it’s plainly not. It’s just a line of ninja, each holding a branch. To complete the disguise, they verbally inform passers-by that they are a hedge.
But here’s the thing. Suppose it were a better disguise. Suppose they actually looked like a hedge. Wouldn’t the people who own the house be suspicious of the sudden appearance of a hedge?
How is this an ingenious disguise?!?
They go on to address this.
The father is fooled by the disguise, but notes it’s odd that he doesn’t recall a hedge in his own yard. But his wife just yells at him for forgetting they had a hedge, and he apologizes, accepting this new reality.
That could be it for the gag, but Edlund just does not back away from it. Oedipus sees through the disguise and points out to Tick that the ninja are disguised as a hedge. Then Tick calls it “ingenious!” That’s exactly the word the District Manager used. But it’s not ingenious!
This comic is from 1988. These are the days before cell phones. So a ninja has to go find a phone booth to get further instruction.
The plan fails when the ninja with a dime gets hit by a car.
Notice he’s still wearing his hedge disguise. The sad irony is that he was one of the few properly wearing his disguise as a headpiece. Most of his fellow ninja were just holding branches.
“Oh dear! I think I ran over a ninja back there!”
“Well, keep driving. We’re late as it is!
“I mean it’s not like we hit a collie or anything.”
Not knowing of his fate, the ninja continue to maintain their disguise. They’re still holding their branches even as cars pass by for the party that’s about to begin. None of the guests suspect anything about this hedge. Maybe it is an ingenious disguise.
“Of course we will let them in, but no one will leave here alive.”
“Does that include us?”
Still not quite done mining the gag, when Tick wants to go fight the ninja, he says, “Let’s go beat up the hedge!” Why is he still calling them a hedge?
The gag continues all the way until the end of the issue with ninja arguing with each about whether they look like a hedge, each casting aspersions on the other’s efforts.
The gag even continues into issue #4. When the ninja finally attack, Tick shouts, “Hedge!!”
There’s a whole insert book in the middle of the comic, a pamphlet advertising Ninja World, and related products and ninja lessons.
Here’s the back cover. Modern audiences will recognize Arthur, but readers of the time may be scratching their heads. As Arthur hasn’t yet been introduced.
Or has he? Let’s read the comic again, more carefully.
And now we see why this comic is so notable. It’s the introduction of Arthur, destined to be Tick’s sidekick. This comic is thus certain to become a collector’s item.
End notes
I’d meant this series to be spotlighting standalone stories, and the Tick’s battle with the Ninja will last two more issues. Oh well. My justification is that the plot isn’t really what’s important here anyway. And also that I’m running out of ideas of great standalone stories.
Edlund notes in his introduction that he wanted to use Ninja to poke fun at how overused they are and how misrepresented they are in western culture. He then goes on to spend three issues on them, thus contributing to their overuse.
Ben Edlund wrote 12 issues of The Tick from 1988-1993. Not exactly a rapid pace. Issue 12 ends with a cliffhanger, and he’s promised issue 13 is coming. It’s been almost 30 years. After 5 years, experts got together to draw a best guess at what #13 might look like if Edlund ever got around to it.
Edlund got distracted by making an animated series out of The Tick, and then finding other–likely more lucrative–work in TV and film. He’s worked as writer, producer, or director on episodes of shows such as Firefly, Angel, Venture Brothers, and Supernatural. He was also a screenwriter on the film, Titan A.E.
It doesn’t seem like he’s planning to return to comics anytime soon.
In the meantime, other writers have put out no shortage of Tick comics, and I’ve read a lot of them. Too many, probably. But nothing has really stayed with me outside of these original 12 issues. Similarly, I’ve read countless superhero parodies, but none have stayed with me like The Tick.
Reading Great Comics
This is the sixth entry in our “reading great comics” series.
My favorite of your Great Comics picks, but I still like the one with the Man-Eating Cow Better.
I’ll allow it.