The fall of the Tick started with an enjoyable cartoon destined for failure. The Fox TV Tick cartoon pulled Ben Edlund away from what he did and did well; write and draw comics. The 12 issues of The Tick were insightful, comical, and free from the kind of idea censorship which killed the cartoon off. (Though the strongest blow against the cartoon was likely the fact that it was in the wrong time slot for the age group it should have catered to, much like the ill-fated Sam & Max Fox cartoon. Does Fox kill off good stuff with frightening efficiency or what?)
Several other artists and writers have since taken up the mantle and produced some Tick comics which were not half bad. Most spin-offs of the Tick, however, have failed to recapture the wit of the initial twelve because they've gone further and further from the original ideal. While the comic was a superhero spoof, it was also a tale of two people, The Tick and Arthur, who just happened to be Superheroes (okay, one of them did. The other was a sidekick), and we saw how that affected their lives, their wants, and their aspirations. Now all of the comics seem content to come up with some wacky enemy with whom The Tick and Arthur do battle. There are a few exceptions, but even they lack the intelligence and humor that Ben Edlund lovingly poured into every issue.