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I could be writing a postive review about the new Warlands spin-off
Shidima... But issue one was about a month old when I picked it up, and
besides, I'm in a bad mood and feel like saying something mean. The
latest Tick series is my chosen victim.
The past year of Tick comics have all been specials, rather than an
ongoing story. They all more or less went together, but there was no big
several-issue-spanning storyline to hold your interest. Just small,
generally holiday-themed stories. This wouldn't have been too bad,
except for the fact that all the stories sucked and the jokes tended to fall
flat. But I digress. This is supposed to be an overview, not a rant.
Then, not too long ago, the folks at NEC announced... We're bringing
out a new Tick series and it's going to be in color! So I saw it, bought it,
read it, and now I'm ready to dis it.
In a pathetic rip-off of the Wizard of Oz, the story starts out in normal
black and white... However, the page borders were in color... My first
thought was "If the whole comic is like this and this is their idea of color,
I'm going to drop the series and send them a flame letter telling them
what idiots they are." That would have been fun. But actually, along
comes that shambling blob of villainy, Thrakkorzog, looking for tissue
samples again. He tries to abduct Johnny Wingless, the former-sidekick-
turned-tongue-in-a-jar, ends up swallowing Johnny AND Arthur, and the
heroes (most of them, at least) follow him through his portal into his
homeland.
Let me clarify. His garishly colored, miniature gelatin based homeland.
This is where the comic turns to color. I wish it had stayed black and
white. To celebrate their new color issue, the Tick creative team decided
to use every scary color they could for giant Jello-Mold buildings. It
almost hurts to look at. And that's not even going into how the lousy
story and lame plot device to introduce color into the story hurts. I mean,
come on guys... This is just cheezy! Maybe I've grown up too much to
appreciate the silliness, and it really is funny to some people...
The story progresses... A couple quick glances back to the "normal"
world show it in black and white... Then when the heroes make their way
back home (yep, this story neatly concludes itself in one issue!),
everything is in color. Ho-hum. The good thing is, this issue had 2 to 3
times as many good jokes as all of last year's Tick comics... That's right! I
laughed 2 or 3 times, not just once!
All in all, I think that die-hard Tick fans will not find this book up to par,
and it will do nothing for new readers. (neccessary creator information:
Written by Marc Silvia, penciled by Marc Sandroni, inked by poor Tak
Toyoshima who must feel all left out for not being named Marc!)
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