The Chroma-Tick Special #1

From the random stack of unread comics.

Title: The Chroma-Tick Special
Issue: 1
Publisher: New England Comics
Date: 1992
Writer: Ben Edlund
Artist: Ben Edlund
Colorist: Bob Polio
Letterer: Bob Polio
Editor: George Suarez, Larry Boyd

This is the very first full-color comic featuring New England Comics' The Tick. The Tick battles ninjas, meets up with some mysterious strangers at a late-night diner, and even has an encounter with a familiar-looking mild-mannered reporter.

This was fun. Lots of good jokes, some clever references, and plenty of unexpected twists and turns. The Superman parody was particularly nicely done.

Bonus features include a set of trading cards, with a prose story in four chapters split between the cards, and an amusing interview with writer/artist Ben Edlund with some insights into the b/w comics boom of the 1980s, the origin-story of The Tick comic book, plus a bit of discussion about Pez.

This was particularly fun for me, as I was getting into collecting comics in the time period when The Tick was first being published, and I was also a regular at the New England Comics stores during that era.

Rating: 7.5/10

Farmer Johnson's Psycho Dairy Farm

Yard sale find.

Title: Farmer Johnson's Psycho Dairy Farm
Date: 1992
Publisher: Dell
Writer: Steve Phillips
Artist: Steve Phillips

Trade paperback collection of one-panel gag strips featuring a cast of cows, pigs, chickens, and one somewhat befuddled farmer. The cartoons are reminiscent of Gary Larson's work. They lightly touch on politics, animal rights, and environmentalism in some cases, but mostly just stick to goofy sight gags and puns. There are definitely some laughs to be had here, but Phillips mostly sticks to fairly obvious and unsubtle humor.

He does do a good job with series of jokes, coming up with some cute variations once he's off and running with a theme (cows of different decades was pretty amusing).

All in all, this was entertaining in the sense that it made me laugh, but I didn't feel like there was anything all that groundbreaking or original here.

Rating: 5.5/10

Note: I'm selling my copy of this book for $.75 here.