The creator of tick on Season 2 and what superheroes represent today

For more than half of his life, Ben Edlund was followed by a giant figure in blue superhero costume. But rather than trying to escape him, the creator of "The Tick" continues to find new ways to tell stories about his unique creation.

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The latest version of the series of comic superheroes will debut its second season on Amazon Friday, but deciding to bring the Tick on television for the third time was something that, according to Edlund, was not easy. "It's a very scary and scary concept to try to do it again," he told IndieWire. But in this era of superhero saturation, he keeps coming back to his particular creation. "I'm really excited about what we're doing now, because I feel like it's a story we can tell in the future."

Before the new series starring Peter Serafinowicz and Griffin Newman, "The Tick" was an independent cartoon character Edlund began scribbling at the age of 17; in 1994, he was adapted as an animated series for Fox Kids, then in 2001, Barry Sonnenfeld performed a live-action adaptation starring Patrick Warburton as the main character.

Each version impressed the fans and each reflected its period. For example, at the very beginning, Edlund's "Tick" comics came out at about the same time as groundbreaking comic works such as Alan Moore's "Watchmen" and Frank's "The Dark Knight Returns". Miller – stories that cast a postmodern look at superheroes. and examining their meaning.

The trend goes back to comics from the 80s and continues today worldwide. "In general, we are in a totally different place now, where I do not have to educate anyone about the tropes of superheroes. American Express does it for us. Advertisements do. Everything says "superhero" now. I thought there could not be more superhero stuff five years ago. I was wrong, "he said.

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And with this saturation comes self-examination. "It's a collective moment, and it's strange, because what the superheroes represented, I do not believe anymore, in purity and desired accomplishment," he said. "I think we are currently experiencing a sort of catharsis. Something different happens, less about pure fantasy than treatment, because I think the more critical things become, the more they treat for us. I suppose that superhero fiction is now an instrument through which we transform our own divine power, and our anxiety about it. "

"The Tick", of course, has always been ahead of its time. But between the 2001 edition of "Tick" and the 2017 edition, Edlund received an epic education on what to do to make television, starting with a work on "Firefly" , the sect favorite of Joss Whedon, who brought him to join Whedon's "Angel". after the cancellation of "Firefly", followed by a lengthy report on the drama "Supernatural" of WB / CW.

Acquiring this experience, creating a resume that also included Fox's "Gotham", "The Venture Brothers" and "Powers" was very important, as Edlund said that "" The Tick ", as a show, may also be difficult. show that you can undertake. I mean, there are series that are better, I do not mean it's the best or anything. I just want to say that, as a producer, you have to do crazy things. There are visual effects, choreographic fights, costumes, incredibly complicated costumes, puppets. We have animatronics. We have many aggressive places and build constructions from another world. I therefore needed everything I learned to try to accomplish what we were trying to accomplish. "

Edlund said that he was still very attached to the 2001 release of the show – "I love Patrick, I love David Burke, who plays Arthur, and I thought the direction of Sonnenfeld was simply beautiful "- but what he learned while working in the Whedon group – It was important to connect an audience with the characters of a show, as well as" Supernatural ".

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"Previously, I used a lot of energy in the villain of the week, a lot of fun for Tick and a lot of ideas to come," he said. "But it was still at the same volume of interactivity. The emotions were not more engaged then you would have been last week. There was no crescendo, or it did not work like a story, it worked like a ritual or something. "

Now, he says, he feels he has the skills that help the show work on a more emotional level. "The second season seems to me to prove that it works like this: it combines the pleasure of this mostly light thing with attractive, familiar and psychologically compelling elements that make up the real story," he said. "It's a lot of trying to fit in this stupid blue man. But I am deeply intrigued by this effort. "

A fascinating aspect of each iteration of "The Tick" is that beyond Arthur, Tick and Arthur's sister, Dot, do not overlap much in terms of secondary characters. Each new version has completed the ranks with largely original creations. Edlund said it was the result of his feeling that "the first step in each of them is to understand what is going on in the world and what is happening now. [Each time], "The Tick" deals with this age of superheroes. "

For example, in the last series, the character of Overkill (Scott Speiser) "writes himself. Overkill just said, "I will definitely participate in this show because of all these Punishers, Deathstrokes and Deadpools."

One of the key figures of Season 2 is a new antagonist called Lobstercules, created by Jose Fernandez at Ironhead Studio from Edlund's drawing, as shown in the exclusive image below.

Courtesy of Ben Edlund

Edlund said that the initial inspiration "begins with a lobster and Hercules. But it's Lobstercules. It's even stupid, he laughs. "It's primarily a symbol that made me think of" Prawn Hercules, "but it did not work. He did not speak the language. "

Beyond the combination of shellfish and the strong man, the main inspiration was "the desire to have a visually very powerful antagonist, something to do against the Tick that would really made my childhood version of myself, the child in me, crazy about excitement. , right? Because this is the other aspect of what we want is that it really opens the way for adults and children – the pleasure of superheroes. "

Edlund deliberately infused optimistic energy at "The Tick" because the character is "a positive person who shows up in a universe full of love and forgetting that it's all about universe filled with love, "he said. "So he hears the music and he shows up for the others to hear as well. I like things to make sense, and I think we're missing some, and that's the case with "The Tick". So, if you feel optimism, hope, and warmth, it's because he's soaked in it. Until the marrow.

As for a third season, Edlund is hopeful. "It's a big show, so we have to prove ourselves in this season, in its response," he said. "I think we have something that people would like to see more. So, I'm cautiously optimistic that an answer will be given that gives us a chance, you know? "

Myles Aronowitz

Sony produces "The Tick" for Amazon, which according to Edlund is "the perfect place" for the series, because "Amazon is somehow defined as the perfect place for superheroes, but it must have some sort comment level. "- something that he shares with the upcoming new series" The Boys ", which will make its premiere on Amazon this summer.

"I think we're a part of the house take it all," he said. "As for the future, we just want a season 3, and I think Amazon wants it, but they must be satisfied by a set of badyzes. The calculation I do not pretend to understand. "

According to Edlund, it is useful that Season 1 be one of the best comedies received by Amazon, based on user ratings. "If I understand correctly, it was one of the top five programs … basically, I know it worked very well," he said.

There was a setback: the decision to split season 1 into two separate parts per month. "Splitting the season in two games did not help us, and we're not doing it this season, because this season is kind of autonomous," he said. "You can watch the first season, or you can go in and just watch these two superheroes decide that they will get to work and get to work."

If a third season occurs, Edlund added that he hopes to make "more … more. The second season was to get started and get Tick and Arthur to go to work … So we're ready. It is really time now to have a very emotional and very enjoyable version that I hope will give us all the pleasure of the cartoon and all the emotional feelings of the last two seasons. A synthesis of these things that, in my opinion, has never been seen before. I think the second season is a kind of start for that, and worked very well, but I think it can be even more. "

"The Tick" Season 2 will air on Friday, April 5th on Amazon.

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