THE TICK

'The Tick' started out as a short comic book series created by Ben Edlund in which a totally insane 'spoof' superhero escapes from a mental asylum and decides his destiny is to protect 'The City' from crime. Note that, his gung ho character means he doesn't want to *stop* crime, he just wants to *fight* it. This twisted and hilarious take on the Superhero psyche was steeped in dark humour and cynicism almost on a par with the classic Watchman series, and became an immediate favourite with comic fans.

Today, the Tick is still a huge blue guy with an ickle antannae-laden head, but his character has developed along the same lines that Homer Simpson's has, gradually going from beard-stroking satire to outright silliness, becoming more friendly, colourful and losing his hard-edge of really dangerous insanity. The Tick is now fluffy, and the world he lives in is depicted as just as insane and incompetent as he is, actually elevating the mighty Blue one to genuine Hero (without irony) leaving his sidekick Arthur as the only icefloe of reality in what has become an entire world of Black and White morality. Instead of 'odd Tick person in the world' Ben Edlund's creation has, after being recreated in a gaggle of not-so-cleverly-written comics, a cartoon series and now a live action show, developed into the sub-iconic story of a bosey, blue do-gooder living in a town where even the stupidest things can happen. The Tick is te Platonic form of both Goodness and Hilarity. He is my favourite Cartoon and comic character, and he's nigh-invunerable. SPOON!

EPISODES

Season 1 (1994-1995)

1. The Tick vs. The Idea Men

The Tick arrives at his assigned City (The City) to find it full of silly Superheroes and villains. Stopping only to take on Arthur as his sidekick, he promptly saves the City from being flooded.

2. The Tick vs. Chairface Chippendale

The Tick and Arthur team up with American Maid and, disguised as caterers, attempt to stop Chairface writing his name accross the face of the Moon.

3. The Tick vs. Dinosaur Neil

The Tick tkaes a day off and visits Dinosaur Grotto, only to find a Paleantologist who accidentally turns himself into a huge Dinosaur.

4. The Tick vs. Mr. Mental

The Tick is invited to a seedy club and is hypnotized by a villian into stealing a special device.

5. The Tick vs. The Breadmaster

The Tick undercovers a bitter villians' scheme to swallow the city with a huge bread bomb.

6. The Tick vs. El Seed

The Tick discovers a flower-headed villian who is intent on using the flora of the world to conqur the fauna.

7. The Tick vs. The Tick

The Tick is found by another Hero with the same name! He must fight for the right to use his stationary, or forever lose his identity!

8. The Tick vs. The Uncommon Cold

The Tick and Arthur are cloned by an evil alien from another Dimension.

9. The Tick vs. Brainchild

The Tick follows a ybernetic dog back to the lair of an unlikely evil supervillian, and his loving family.

10. The Tick vs. Pineapple Pocopo

The US Government hire the Tick, Arthur and American Maid to rescue a lost supergenius monkey from a small conutry ruled with an iron fist.

11. The Tick vs. The Mole Men

The Tick finds Mole men in the cellar!

12. The Tick vs. The Proto Clown

A rampaging Clown bops Tick into orbit. Can he overcome his own inner quest and return in time to save his comrades?

13. The Tick vs. Arthur's Bank Account

The Tick overspends on new gadgetry, causing Arthur to kick him out of the apartment. Will Arthur and American Maid be able to end the Tick's sulk in time to defeat the greatest Supervillian of the 19th and 20th century?

Season 2 (1995-1996)

14. The Little Wooden Boy And The Belly Of Love

Best episode ever. Impossible to describe.

15. Alone Together

The Tick is blown into space. Lost, he encounters a mighty being who helps him return home in exchange for the unexpected.

16. Armless But Not Harmless

The Tick and Arthur lose their arms and become fugitives.To regain both their arms and names, they must infiltrate the biggest annual gathering of supervillians.

17. Coach Fussel's Lament

The Tick must rescue Arthur from the evil Aztecs and on the way discovers a new pet sidekick.

18. Leonardo Da Vinci & His Fightin' Genius Time Commandoes

The tick and Arthur must free some of the worlds all-time genii from a madman intent on causing havoc in the past.

19. Bloomsday

El Seed is back, and this time he wants to steal a rare flower and use it to take over the world.

20. Evil Sits Down For A Moment

Yay! Die Fladermaus finds a ne wlove interest, but will their lifestyles get in the way?

21. HEROES

The Tick is shadowed by a filmcrew and demonstrates one typical day of the Superhero's life.

22. Ants In Pants!

The Tick discovers he is afraid of ants, which is unfortunate as they soon begin to overrun the City.

23. The Tick Loves Santa

Multiple Santa comes to town, and the Tick must face the prospect of battling the jolly fiend.

24. The Tick vs. The Big Nothing

The Tick is abducted by good aliens to save the entire Universe from bad aliens.

25. The Tick vs Reno, Nevada

The Tick must overcome has gambling habit and rerscue a pair of performers from their captive 'aquatic' attraction.

26. Grandpa Wore Tights

Wow! The Tick temas up with the heroes of yesterday to once again take on the mighty terror.

Season 3 (1996-1997)

27. That Mustache Feeling

The Tick and Arthur must battle a rogue govenrment superweapon.

28. The Tick vs. Dot And Neil's Wedding

Once again, the Tick is called upon to rescue Dinosaur Neil from permanent large-green-and-Dinosaur-shapedness.

29. Sidekicks Don't Kiss

The Tick teams up with Carmalita to rescue his true sidekick.

30. The Tick vs. Arthur

Arthur goes bad, and the Tick must reluctantly face his former ally in combat.

31. Devil In Diapers

Brainchild returns to give the Tick a really bad day.

32. The Tick vs. Filth

Sewer Urchin allies with the Tick and Arthur against his old subterranean nemesis.

33. The Tick vs. Europe

*sob* Haven't seen this episode.

34. The Tick vs. Science

Yay! Mindswaps abound, the Tick must face himself!

35. The Tick vs. Prehistory

*sob* Haven't seen this episode.

36. The Tick vs. Education

The Tick attempts to pass on some of his wise superheroing experience to a motley band of new recruits.

Note of course that there is now also a Live action series of the Tick on Foxkids. Unfortunately I haven't seen it yet (perhaps a mixed blessing) because it hasn't been aired in the UK as far as I know.

COMICS

Well, there have been rather a *lot* of Tick comics of the past few years, so here is a nice list of most of them. You can still buy these from the New England Comics website.

THE TICK No.1-12

These were the original series that made the Tick famous. No big fancy (or even colour) drawing, just lots of fun satire an an introduction to the great blue one and his nutsy world.

TICK GRAPHIC NOVELS (OMNIBUS)

Collected Tick works.

THE TICK THE LUNY BIN

Darker than the original series, dealing with the origins of te Tick.

THE TICK BIG BLUE DESTINY no. 1-5

The Tick goes even *more* random in some spaced out adventures.

TICK KARMA TORNADO

Still not as good as the original series, but quite funny.

TICK'S GIANT CIRCUS OF THE MIGHTY
or TICK: CIRCUS MAXIMUS

These series' take the form of a Tick-world encyclopedia. Very funny, but one of those rather dry-funny things you read when you are bored.

PSEUDO TICK No.13

A not so funny comic attempting to pick up where Ben Edlund left off.

THE TICK COLOR no.1-6

The Tick in colour.

TICK SPECIALS

There have been *lots* of one off Tick comics. Every Christmas, Easter, Summer, Father's Day, etc, a new one appears.

HEROES OF THE CITY no.1-6

A good attmept to emulate the classic series, but not nearly as intelligent.

THE TICK AND ARTHUR no.1-6

The series that really brought the Tick back from the one-off grave. Clearer, better art than the original series, and a similar humour that took the best of the comic and cartoon ontologies and blended them into one hilarious mould.

People still hope that one day Ben Edlund will himself continue the Tick story, but most likely they do so in vain. New England Comics has turned our Big Blue friend into a merchandise Empire, but this is not a bad thing, for the Tick himself possesses the sort of innocence that would go *yay* at such a development, rather than frown at his philosophy being twisted into what it sought to mock.

The Tick is like Christmas. despite all the cynicism and corporate evilness, their spirit remains innocently glacial and untouchable.

So far, I have only managed to grab a few bits and pieces of wonderful Tick stuff for myself. I am rather proud of what I found though, especially my 4th Edition Tick No.1 comic, and my two yay Tick action figures, one of which (Arthur) is now really really hard to find!

I also have loads of the comics and most of the episodes on tape. I wish they would rebroadcast the show on UK TV though. To find Tick merchandise, try searching Ebay or the official New England Comic site.

TICK TRIVIA QUIZ!

1. What did the Tick name his new Pet 'Dog'?

2. Who was full of tinier men?

3. What are the Tick's antennae for?

4. What did Brainchild turn the Tick into?

5. How many Swiss operatives attacked Die Fladermaus?

6. What did Omnipotus have stuck in his ear?

7. What weapons did the Tick mind-midgets carry?

8. 'Why' was the Tick 'there'?

9. What is the name of the Supervillian awards show?

10. Who is Breadmaster's sidekick?

11. What bone was found at Dinosaur Grotto just before Neil began to 'change'?

12. What did Milo's new gadget do?

13. 'Hey, what type of corn soldiers are you?'

14. What did the Aztecs always say?

15. Which evil villian visited the Comet club?

16. Who didn't love Bigshot?

17. How do you de-multiply a Santa?

18. Who invented the wheel?

19. Who was the Terror's old partner in Evil?

20. Who sacrificed himself so that others could escape Blowhole?

21. What was wrong with the Tick's statue?

22. Whose condolence cheeses?

23. What does the Hey Empire believe in?

24. How's the water Mr. Soapdish?

25. What card game did El Seed cheat at?

26. Who made Neil burp?

27. When Chairface faced the Zebra, who did the Zebra face?

28. Which team does 4 legged man belong to?

29. Who is Arthur's sister?

30. What TV Show does the Deadly Bulb love?

ANSWERS

1. Speak 2. The Living Doll 3. Balance 4. A two-headed, tiny bird who could only speak High-School French 5. 4 6. A planet 7. Fish 8. Because a big clown hit him 9. The Enemies 10. Buttery Pat 11. A Fimir 12. Causes people's arms to fall off 13. Kernals 14. Itlan 15. The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight 16. His mum 17. Static electricity/the noogie 18. Wheel 19. Joseph Stalin 20. Little Wooden Boy 21. The head was way too big 22. Arthurs' 23. Nothing 24. A little sharky but okay once you get used to it 25. Fish 26. The Human Bullet 27. the Tick 28. The Civic-minded 5 29. Dot 30. Heroes

SCORE

0 - 5: Oh dear. You don't know who the Tick is, do you?

6 - 15: Hmm. Only watched the episodes once each?

16 - 25: Yay! You know about the Tick, and you pay attention!

26 -29: Eeek, you have a scary memory!

30: *Hides* I small. You big. SPOON!

TICK QUOTES!

"Criminals, you face...."

QUOTE 1

The Evil Midnight Bomber speaks!

QUOTE 2

"Hello Reno!"

QUOTE 3

Yay, Monkey niceness!

QUOTE 4

The Classic "SPOON!"

QUOTE 5

"Swingin'!"

QUOTE 6

"Villians...."

QUOTE 7

If you enjoyed this silliness, then you might want to find out more about the Tick at these nice sites:

All images and sounds contained within this page are property of FOX Broadcasting Company, FOX Children's Network, Inc., and Ben Edlund. This page does not contest their ownership, and is not related to Barry either.