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My wonderful and omniscient editor needed an emergency interview this month, and
luckily I had a spare lying around. This one isn't all too recent, it's from a con a
few months ago. Even so, here's me and Bob Polio rather informally shooting the
breeze. The guy was friendly and fun to talk with, as always. The Tick is, of course,
one of the most humorous comics out there, and I grew up on the TV show. Ok, enough
plugging here, let's move on . . .
Chris:
I'm here with Bob Polio of NEC fame. To get us started here, how long has NEC been around?
Bob Polio:
Chris:
17 years? That's a long time.
Bob:
I was the first employee.
Chris:
Amazing. You must have seen it grow and change beyond anything you've imagined.
Bob:
It evolved... if you want to call it that. [chuckle] When I first started, I was a clerk, but I was also doing freelance art on the side. And then we evolved into doing a newsletter, and from the newsletter we gained the Tick. The Tick first appeared in the fourteenth issue of our newsletter. And it was a two page story, and he next appeared in the following issue, like issue fifteen. That time, it was a one page story.
Chris:
And from there it just grew. Quite a few characters have been spun off into their own comics from there.
Bob:
We spun off alot of series, you're saying?
Chris:
Yeah, like the Chainsaw Vigilante comics, the Paul the Samurai, and the Man Eating Cow to name a few.
Bob:
Yeah, those all sprang from the original twelve issue series we had. And there were just masses of characters. Some of them went on to television, too.
Chris:
So, what are you doing right now?
Bob:
[chuckles] I'm not going to give you the obvious answer. I'm coloring the books right now, doing some special features for the books. That is, uh, the new Golden Age books we're doing now. I'm doing the lettering. I design logos, I instruct the artists you know, exactly how we intend certain storylines to go, and how those storylines should be interpreted.
Chris:
Cool, so what were your feelings about the Tick TV show?
Bob:
It was a valiant attempt, and they thought they did a good job... but, politics got in the way, and from what I understand I don't think there was that much support for the show itself. You know, from the network. I understand that the new regime that came in hadn't initiated the show. It was the prior regime. So of course, they had their own agendas, and their own TV shows to promote at the time. This is probably why you didn't see many ads for it, and why they bumped it from one time slot to the next. You know, that's how it goes.
Chris:
So, how about the cartoon show?
Bob:
[laughs] What about the cartoon show? What do you want to know?
Chris:
Well, it's just a shame that it...
Bob:
From what I understand, the cartoon show was doing very well [ratings=wise] but it wasn't selling merchandise as much. If I recall correctly, Saban entertainment really had a lockhold on all of the features, all of the children's shows and such. Like the Tick, Power Rangers, and alike. They said if it wasn't selling toys and such, it would more or less go into another direction. But, there were plans of having an evening show, of the cartoon, but having it be more earthy... very much like what you saw happening with the live action TV show.
Chris:
Are those plans still in effect?
Bob:
No, no. Not that I know of. Our thing right now is involved with Fireflies. I think that's the name of the show. I think that's the guy who did Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is doing another series. I've got no clue what the pilot's like, I mainly heard the information that he got the job from his dad, you know, and can now pay the mortgage. [laughs]
Chris:
[laughs too] So, what can we look forward to from NEC in the future?
Bob:
Only time will tell. I really couldn't tell you at this point in time. We're just doing what we're doing right now, and hopefully we could take a few more steps... I don't know. Now we have a new comic to do work on.
Chris:
Thanks alot. Good luck with all you're doing.
Bob:
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