San Diego Comic-Con has gone blue.
Blue tents cover the out parts of the convention center as folks wearing blue antenna walk around handing out fliers and refreshments spread the gospel of Amazon Prime in an attempt to get the message out that The Tick as returned.
By the time Amazon Prime airs its incarnation of The Tick on August 25, the character would have been around for 30 years.
Star Peter Serafinowicz explains that part of the big blue hero’s staying power is not just his journey, but that his ability to remain who he is throughout the years is part of his appeal.
“I’m not one of the writers, but I was allowed to air my thoughts,” said star Peter Serafinowicz, “That was my main concern knowing that characters have to develop, but one of The Tick’s defining characteristics is that he remains exactly the same. And that was a situation that I think was dealt with expertly.”
Once again, The Tick has returned to poke a big, sharp stick at the super hero genre, but this time, the series take a focus on sidekick Arthur, played to milquetoast perfection by Griffin Newman.
“We are now doing a comic book movie parody,” said star Jackie Earle Haley, who plays The Terror. “The focus isn’t solely on Arthur, but it’s definitely his origin story. But there is a bit of Tick’s origin in there too, because he doesn’t remember who he is or what is going on. And he’s only whole when his is with Arthur.”
“His mom says to him in one episode, ‘Good is great. You are not destined for greatness. Just settle for goodness. Just hold down a job, get an apartment and pay your bills. That’s fine.’ And he’s miserable. He’s not doing anything that speaks to him,” said Newman, “So when the Tick comes and gives him a suit and tells him he’s supposed to be a superhero, he doesn’t believe it, because everyone told him not to believe it his entire life.”
“I think the arc is teaching him to believe in himself and trying to convince everyone around him that he hasn’t lost his mind and that this is what he was meant to do.”
“I think these character connect because they say something about the human condition,” continues Newman. “Tick and Arthur represent the two voices in our head. The id and the ego. Tick is all the bluster, all the action. Arthur is all the doubt, all the questioning, all the awareness of how unlikely of how we will accomplish anything. And we need both in order to succeed in this world.”
“If you are The Tick, you’ll go out and get everything done, but without a filter or a strategy and it will all backfire. And with Arthur, it will all backfire because you’ll think too much about how it will go wrong. If you balance your Tick and your Arthur, you can actually do something.”
The Tick launches it’s first season on Amazon Prime on Friday, August 25
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