Tick party!

In case anyone was wondering, the Tick property has had its share of popularity in its day, much of it surrounding the mid-'90s Fox Kids cartoon.  The show was a high-water mark for the character's level of recognition, and in addition to that, there was a lot of Tick merchandise created at the time.

Case in point, there was an entire party set made for the show, and I was able to get my hands on a complete set of party items recently.  Bucking my usual collector's mentality, we decided to have a party and use all of the props that I had bought.  These things were made for a 14-year-old's birthday party, but I saw no reason to let that stop us.

The occasion for the party was the Free Comic Book Day issue of the Tick that I wrote, and my continuing relationship with the Tick and New England Comics (hooray).  My wife had originally planned to throw the party in May, closer to the release of the issue, but it kept getting pushed back and hey, it's July.  But no worries.

At the very top you'll see the Tick party topper, which is at least three times as fun as it looks.  It's interesting (but not surprising) to note that all of this merchandise featured, pretty prominently, the Fox Kids logo.  Let's take a look at some of the other things included in the party pack!

Noise makers!

Plates!  You can see American Maid in the top left corner - she was the only character other than the Tick and Arthur to be featured on any of these items.  I wonder if that's because she was one of the few female characters, if she fit the color scheme, or if it was just a random choice.

Arthur got the napkins.

Tiny cups.

Party hats!

Here's the paper tablecloth.  "Keen" and "Spoon" are obvious phrases to include on some things like this, but the other caption (Arthur is saying it on the cups) is a bit more strange.  "We will protect and defend each other from now on until the end of time!"  As far as I know, that's not a line from the cartoon, and it seems altogether pretty generic.  And we can see another American Maid appearance on this tablecloth.

It wasn't my birthday...but why not?  There are only so many Tick-themed party decorations.

Some of the detail.  You can see the copyright of 1995 here.

There was lots of food to be had at the party, as I made corn on the cob, hot dogs, fried chicken, baked beans, cornbread...and other stuff.  We decided that it would have taken too much effort to cut the hot dogs into little octopi.

It's not a party without a Dairy Queen ice cream cake.  With blue icing!  It kind of looks like the Tick is eating a huge piece here.

I promise that there were other people in attendance than myself and three-year-olds.  My nephew couldn't figure out whose birthday it was, but he ate the cake nonetheless.

There were a couple items that we didn't break into, including the gift bags...

...or the invitation/thank you cards.  But they're there, too.

I felt like this should have been a roller skating party.  It certainly did take me back.  I had a great time, and it certainly feels good to celebrate something like getting to write the Tick.