Let us now bemoan the fate of lost pop culture, slipping through our collective fingers, rolled across our national landscape, and dropped into the national sewer.  Rappin’, Rockin’ Barbie is inexplicably entwined with Rubik’s Cube.  Pink Lady and Jeffsinks along with The Associates.  Within this swirling mass of mediocrity, we find the Tick, bubbling to the surface and crawling back into our national consciousness like some… bubbling… crawling… thing.

Long before The Invincibles, the comics industry made fun of its own.  Plastic Man and Captain Marvel were originally as much satire as heroic.  The Tick appeared during the late eighties independent comics boom, created by Ben Edlund. Hollywood was scouring the comics’ field for the next Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and discovered Edlund’s semi-annual series.  They wanted a franchise that would burst over the youth market like a squeezed zit.  Instead, Edlund and company produced a Saturday morning cartoon that was just a little too off-kilter (i.e., Mickey Dolenz, Bobcat Goldthwait, Laraine Newman, and Jim Belushi all contributed their voices).  It did last for three seasons, but nobody bought the tchotchkes.  Edlund handed off the comic book to friends as he pursued a career in Hollywood.  Later, he launched the live-action Tick series. Unfortunately, other parties owned the cartoon show and fought the use of any of the original storylines or characters.  The magic was gone like a fallen cake.

Today, Edlund works in television.  The Tick live action series is available on DVD.  The original, hilarious comics have been collected in The Tick Bonanza 1-4.  For that and other shiny stuff, check out www.necomics.com.  The Tick: Days of Drama, a new, non-Edlund comic is due this month.  The best news is that ABC is showing the original Tick cartoons all summer long. Chairface Cippendale, American Maid, Thrakkorzog, and Arthur are available at 11 pm weekdays (Toon Disney) and 11 am Sundays (ABC Family).  Tune in and hug your destiny!

July, 2005

Metropolis has always been a very mobile city.  Joe Shuster, the co-creator and original artist of Superman, modeled the city on Toronto and Cleveland.  DC Comics, the publishers of Superman tales for all these years, have moved the city between Delaware and New York.  If you’re driving on Route 24, you’ll find Metropolis in Illinois about halfway between Nashville and St. Louis.  They have a giant Superman statue and a Super Museum.  For generations, Metropolis has described a place in the heart where a person can dream of the right thing and have the power to do it.

Jerry Siegel dreamed of writing for the pulp magazines of his day.  Fresh out of high school, he hooked up with Joe Shuster and the pair began producing comic strips.  They had some minor successes before their creation Superman appeared on the cover of Action Comics #1.  The character was an instant success, soon spreading to newspapers across the country.

The duo spent the next ten years watching their creation grow into a commercial juggernaut, appearing on radio, in movie serials, and on every little thing imaginable.  Most of the money from these off-shoots went into the coffers at DC Comics’ corporate predecessor.  In the mid-forties, Siegel and Shuster initiated the first in a periodic series of lawsuits with DC (or related entities) over the use of their creation.  It took a public relations campaign upon the release of the first Christopher ReeveSuperman film for Time Warner to award Siegel and Shuster a $35,000 annual honorarium and permanent credit on all Superman media.

In Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book, Gerard Jones chronicles the struggles of these two creators, along with many of the other people responsible for so much of what appears on the modern silver screen (such asSuperman Returns).  For a much more intense take on the wrongs that were perpetrated in the name of comic book capitalism, see Rick Veitch’s The Maximortal.

June, 2006

Thirty-five years ago this very moment, you would find me on a bicycle peddling madly up Lancaster Drive on the way to Wedgewood Plaza.  The bike was metallic green, which was cool, but not as cool as the banana seat bikes which were appearing in the neighborhood.  Entering the outdoor plaza by the hidden bike-safe entrance, I weaved around the bowling alley (originally groovy pool tables soon supplanted by groovy video games), passed by the cinema (one screen where I hid under my coat throughout Jaws), and pulled up in front of Gray Drugs.  At about the third aisle, the owners perched a tall rotating metal rack filled with comic books.  They cost ten cents, then twelve, twenty, and beyond. My allowance allowed for the purchase of one comic book because of the additional expenses that accumulated during a week (candy and baseball cards).  The store employees might hover, but they never rushed the selection process.  My inclination went toward the most number of pages, though a good cover could win out.

On Saturday, May 6, I will once again ride my metallic green bicycle (still no banana seat) to my neighborhood comic book shop.  And I don’t need to bring any allowance (quite a relief considering the inevitable weirdness of having that conversation with my parents).  It’s Free Comic Book Day!  For five years now, the comics industry has supported their retailers and customers with this promotional bombshell.  You show up at the comic shop and they give you a comic book printed just for the occasion- maybe even more than one, maybe you pick…  It’s free!  Everything from the Archies to the X-Men are possibilities, alongside a bushel full of independent and downright creative titles.

Local participating stores include Comics Etc., Rochester (473-7150); Hammergirl Anime, Rochester (475-9330); All Heroes, Rochester (865-9113); Lost Worlds, Macedon (315-986-7858); Collector’s Choice, Brockport (637-8556); and Joe’s Comics, Geneseo (243-4240).  Be sure to call ahead for hours, directions, policies, and whether or not a metallic green bicycle is required.

April, 2006