Collected Paul the Samurai by Beb Edlund

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Ben Edlund is best known in comicdom as the creator of the Tick. However, Edlund also created three spin-off series from the Tick. Among them was Paul the Samurai. This older book collects the character's first three Issue series from 1990-91.

After Paul's appearance in the Tick, he sets out to become a private detective but finding work sparse, he becomes a night watchmen in a mall. Skulduggery has been afoot as several night watchmen have disappeared while patrolling the boiler area. While his fellow guards are apathetic, Paul sets out to find the truth and he has to match wits with Reverend Billy, an insane boiler man who has become leader of the boiler men as well as the other boiler men.

Paul the Samurai is nowhere near as zany as the Tick. (Though perhaps that would have gone without saying.) The humor of the book doesn't rest on Paul's behavior. Paul is the straight man to the book's cast of characters. He's truly an honorable hero though he does struggle with self-doubt in Issue 3. He still is loyal, courageous, and honorable.

The book is actually quite good and given that the biggest plot point deals with mad boiler men, it's pretty good. In the Paul the Samurai #3, we see a Superhero dive that predates the Comet Club which was one of the most iconic places in the Tick Universe. This bar caters exclusively to down on their luck superheroes, so it's not quite the same, still the seeds of the idea for the Comet Club are in this section.

Overall, this a wonderful book about an overlooked hero in the big blue world of the Tick.



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