|
AJ's Monthly Comic Book review, brought to you by threats from the editor! In this month's installment we'll learn about Tick and Arthur #6, published by NEC Press, written and drawn by Sean Wang.
They're making it harder and harder to read comic books these days. Anytime I find something I like reading, it either gets canceled, or there's gigantic gaps between issues being released. I'm still trying to get over the loss of Skeleton Key (not to mention the cancellation/ruination of every Marvel comic I used to waste my money on). I need the stability of a nice monthly or bi-monthly comic to help me cope. I thought Tick and Arthur and the slightly-less-funny-because-it's-a-few-short-unrelated-stories-instead-of-something-with-continuity Tick: Heroes of the City, would fill that gap, along with Warlands, which seems to come out every 2 or 3 months instead of monthly like it's supposed to.
The scene: Friday early afternoon at the comic shop. I picked up Tick and Arthur 6, and Hieroglyph 3 (which sucked even more than the last 2 issues, but I'm not reviewing that again, so don't even get me started!). While waiting for my boyfriend to finish his slow perusal, I flipped idly through Tick, and noticed a note in the back... This was the last issue, the sudden cutting off of what was supposed to be a 12 issue series. It and hot were going to alternate, each having 12 issues, lasting for two years. This wasn't fair, cutting it off with no warning. I felt... disappointed. HotC is being canned, too. No monthly Tick series. Only holiday specials. For some reason Sean Wang decided to abandon us Tick readers for his own personal series... Good that he's following his dreams, but would it have been so hard to complete his job on Tick and Arthur first? Would another year have hurt that much? Does my whining mean a pile of Corn Nuts to him? Probably not.
While the news was disappointing, the story was not. It was funny. Maybe the funniest Tick and Arthur yet. Y'see, it's Christmas. Tick has his own little superhero team going, consisting of the Big Blue One himself, Arthur, The Bumbling Bee, Rubber Ducky, Running Guy, Caped Cod, Man-O-War and of course Crazy Blue Rocket and Johnny Wingless, the disembodied tongue. A collection of all of the funniest Tick secondary characters. The team is having their nice Christmas celebration, which gets crashed by the Chainsaw Vigilante.
The Chainsaw Vigilante, in my opinion, automatically makes any Tick comic worth reading. I love this guy. He has my attitude, only worse. And the idea of anyone being able to perform a combination between gymnastics and Martial Arts while holding a large, running chainsaw in one hand makes me laugh. The outfit only completes the greatness.... The crooked smiling mask and the black leather jacket boldly proclaiming "Kick Yourself" on the back are classic. I wish they hadn't canceled the Chainsaw Vigilante limited series after 2 or 3 issues. Heck, I wish he had his own monthly series... Anyone at NEC listening to me?
However, Chainsaw Vigilante is not nigh invulnerable, unlike the Tick. We know that if the two meet in a fight, Tick is going to kick his butt. It's happened before. So the rest of the super hero team gets into a really uncoordinated fight with him, while Tick just seems to be standing around. This can't last forever, so obviously they have to throw in a... diversion!
The diversion comes in the form of the Dire Wreath, an animated Christmas wreath with the special ability to control Christmas trees. Dire Wreath and his army of enraged Christmas trees crash the fight. I won't spoil the outcome for you. But the fight between the team and Chainsaw Vigilante, and later the one between the team and the Christmas trees, is hilarious. You've just got to read it. It's definitely $3.50 worth of laughs.
|