Wherever injustice rears its ugly head, whenever a damsel in distress finds her damselness all distressed-like, when a monster the size of a 1988 Toyota Camry is attacking the town where your Aunt Blanche lives, only one nigh-invulnerable superhero can be bothered to take the call! Why, it’s The Tick!
Many of us have followed The Tick’s adventures against thousands of ninjas, the terrifying Chairface Chippendale, and The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight through his hit indie comic series, his foxy FOX Kids cartoon, and his “Isn’t that the guy from Seinfeld?” live-action series. But that’s not where his true origins lie.
Way back in prehistoric 1986, The Tick’s comic book premiered. An 18-year-old Ben Edlund created a 3-page comic for his local comic book store, New England Comics, in which this new superhero would act as mascot for their newsletter. As opposed to his now-familiar faux-spandex appearance, The Tick sported a more fuzzy and blue look. He was also unceremoniously violent, even to those who meant him no harm. The comic even parodied pop culture, including the Hair Club for Men and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. And here’s where we get to the relevant part. Hold onto your hats, folks.
After the blue guy, the first two characters we’re introduced to in The Tick’s universe are his doctors at a psychiatric institution. One of which is short, stocky, bald, and wears glasses that hide his eyeballs. The other is thinner, with hair that sticks straight up, a terrified look on his face, and a high-pitched speech impediment. Sound like a couple of someones we know?
In case that wasn’t blatant enough, the short one refers to his assistant as “Beaker,” while he himself wears an ID tag that reads “Hello, my name is: Dr. B. Honeydew.” Okay seriously, if you’re not getting this, then you need to go read some other blog.
In fact, this strangely familiar duo gets almost as much page-time as the titular hero. Sadly, their appearance didn’t carry over to The Tick’s proper comic and continuity, but that’s ok, seeing as they got to be on TV a heck of a lot more than The Tick over the years.
Below, be sure to check out the original 3-page comic of The Tick, featuring those two science guys from that show we all seem to like so much.
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