Paul the Samurai
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Paul the Samurai is a character in the Tick series of Comic books written by Ben Edlund and published by New England Comics Press, and later, in two spin-off comics of his own.
Paul is relic of medieval Japan in the modern world. He is completely loyal to the code of Bushido and its tenets of courage, honor and vengeance against wrongdoing, all of which he is prepared to follow to the death. His weapon is a katana which he wields with deadly efficiency and which, once drawn, must draw blood before being resheathed. Due to Paul’s understanding of U.S. weapons laws, he regularly carries his sword baked into a loaf of French bread in order to avoid problems with local police. Paul is also a third degree fuschia belt in the martial art of Yubiwaza. Paul has a particular contempt for ninjas.
Paul first appeared in The Tick 4, when he follows his enemy, Sagin the Wolf, worldwide head of ninjas, from Japan to America. Sagin is traveling to recover the Thorn of Oblivion, a powerful ninja artifact from the renegade ninja, Oedipus. Paul helps Oedipus and the Tick defeat an army of ninjas, but is denied in his personal vendetta against Sagin when the Tick inadvertently drops the Thorn from a skyscraper and Sagin plummets to his death trying to save it.
Paul decides to become a private detective in the City, but lacking the money to start this venture or to fly home to Japan, he ends up living in a tenement building and takes a job at as a night watchman at a local factory. Here he defeats a team of boilermen intent on taking over the world. During this time he meets the mysterious genius, Vernon Coop and becomes an employee helping Coop create powerful machines without a clear purpose. Paul becomes despondent because he is being untrue to his Samurai principles.
Spurred on by the ghost of his dead grandfather and mentor, he leaves Coop’s employ. From then on he concentrates on battling villains in the City. He defeats a man in a giant robot car, intent on destroying Japanese competition within the auto industry and a pack of intelligent dogs and then becomes involved in a battle between radical environmentalists and a corrupt logging company. He also travels back to Japan where he finds that Sagin is still alive and also, his half-brother. After once again aiding the Tick in vanquishing Sagin and the rebuilt Thorn of Oblivion, Paul does finally start a detective agency, with Oedipus, now known as Ashley Stevens, as his assistant.
[edit] Bibliography
- The Tick 4-5, April 1989-August 1989
- Paul the Samurai Limited Series 1-3, October 1990-December 1991
- Paul the Samurai 1-10, July 1992-May 1994
- Man-Eating Cow 9-10, April 1994-June 1994
- Tick & Arthur 1-3, February 1999-June 1999
- The Tick: Heroes of the City 4-5, July 1999-September 1999
- The Tick Big Xmas Trilogy 1-3, December 2002
