This was my first Tick ~ 1988 (I still have it)
That early Tick fought Ninja's a lot!
The animated show pretty much kept the humor of the books but took the edge off of the surreal life that was the hallmark of the comics. This Tick might not be crazy. True he didn't know who he really was, true he jumped into danger without giving it a second thought, but was he crazy? This tick won the right to defend the city in a yearly contest in Reno by, "surviving the deadliest engine of destruction 1974 had to offer."
The show was hilarious, but it was very obviously changed from the dark overtones of the comic. Actually pretty much everyone was crazy in the animated show!
Patrick Warburton was the Tick
Now we have a new Tick. I'm going, to be honest, it took me several episodes to start liking this show at all (and I'm still not in love with it). This is a darker version of the Tick, with much more in common with the original. This Tick may or may not actually be crazy. This is also a smaller Tick profile than was presented by either Warburton or the animated cartoon and it is hard to get used to. I don't like the costuming much at all. Arthur especially doesn't look like any of his previous incarnations. The new costumes are just clunky.
All that being said, by the end of season one pt.1 this Tick is starting to grow on me. It was funny by episode 6 (the last one of season 1 pt.1). Peter Serafinowicz's Tick is growing on me. Griffin Newman's Arthur, not so much (but I am having real trouble getting past the costume). I also dislike that the main villain is the Terror as he was the last bad guy in both the animated series and the first live-action.
So far the supporting cast is weak. We have no Bat Manuel (or Die Fledermaus on the animated show), no Captain Liberty (or American Maid) but the one really great supporting cast member so far has been the anti-hero Punisher type vigilante called Overkill (who is definitely an updated Big Shot from the cartoon).
Season 1 part 2 is coming ~ I'm hopeful but not ecstatic
I'll keep watching - for now!