The Tick
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The Tick is the name of a series of comic books and an animated TV series created in 1986 by Ben Edlund, following the exploits of a blue-skinned muscular man named The Tick who fights crime in a place simply called "The City". He is an absurdist spoof of the superhero genre, originally found in an independent comic book series started in 1993, subsequently gaining popularity through an animated television series on the Fox Network. A video game and a live-action television series have also been based on the character.
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[edit] Character profile
A square-jawed, muscular, bright blue figure with antennae sticking up from his head, the Tick is a surreal parody of superheroes. The Tick is high-spirited, frequently obtuse, and prone to quipping odd, dim remarks and "inspirational" speeches filled with bizarre metaphors. His superpowers are nigh-invulnerability, which allows him to crash and bang about without injury; super strength (he can bend a steel girder with ease); and something referred to as "drama power", or basically a tendency for the Tick's powers to increase as the situation becomes more dramatic. He can also survive out in space without a suit and underwater without oxygen. He is known for his nonsensical battle cry, "Spoooooon!", which he decided upon one day while eating breakfast (specifically the cereal "Drama Flakes").
Like many superheroes, The Tick has a sidekick: a former accountant named Arthur, who wears a white moth suit that allows him to fly, although he is often mistaken for a bunny due to the long ear-like antennae of his costume and the fact that his wings are often folded up. The Tick is impulsive, and Arthur serves as a sort of conscience; the hero often irks his sidekick. Arthur's "battle cry" is "Not in the face! Not in the face!"
Originally featured in an independent comic book series, The Tick and Arthur were made popular by an animated television series (1994 – 96) and a live action television series (2001 – 02). Both series aired on the Fox Network. According to the live action series The Tick is 6'6" weighs 230lbs (1 foot, six inches and a hundred seventy pounds less than his dimensions in the comic) and has black hair and blue eyes.
In all of his incarnations, The Tick is surrounded by a cast of equally absurd superheroes and villains, many of them parodies of popular comic book characters and character types. The Tick lives in a city called "The City". In the animated series, The Tick was assigned to the city after his "Cabinet of Terror", billed by Tick as the best destruction device 1974 had to offer, exploded during his city alignment selection trials at the National Super Institute Convention in Reno, Nevada. According to the series' companion book, Mighty Blue Justice!, at least one of the judges was amazed by this (perhaps by The Tick's survival), awarding The Tick a score of 10 out of 10.
In the original comic books, the Tick is/was apparently legally insane, an escapee from a mental institution located not too far from The City.
[edit] History
In 1986, 17-year-old Ben Edlund created The Tick as a mascot for the newsletter of New England Comics in Boston, where he was a customer on occasion. The character, which somewhat resembled The Cockroach from Cerebus the Aardvark, became popular and the store financed a few black and white comic books, written and illustrated by Edlund and featuring the character. In 1994, The Tick #4 introduced Arthur.
The Tick became extensively popular in the underground comics scene. Soon New England Comics published a regular series in color which featured the character. Spinoffs followed which featured characters such as Paul The Samurai, Man-Eating Cow, and Chainsaw Vigilante. Edlund continued to write and illustrate these projects through his years as an undergraduate film student at Massachusetts College of Art.
In 1994, the Fox Network licensed The Tick as a Saturday morning cartoon show, which Edlund wrote and co-produced. The Tick was voiced by Townsend Coleman, and his sidekick Arthur by Micky Dolenz in season one, with Rob Paulsen taking over the Arthur role in seasons two and three. The series also featured Die Fledermaus as a shallow, self-absorbed Batman parody; Sewer Urchin, a Rain Man-like version of Aquaman; and American Maid, a more noble superheroine featuring aspects of Wonder Woman and Captain America. Reruns on Comedy Central helped make the series a cult hit with adults. The 1997 book The Tick: Mighty Blue Justice! by Greg Hyland was published as a tie-in with the animated series.
In 1994, Fox Interactive published a beat 'em up video game based on the animated and comic series, released on the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. The game was panned by critics for having very long stages with ridiculous hordes of generic enemies to combat and a nonsensical game ending.
In 2001, Fox introduced a live-action TV series (Produced by Columbia-TriStar Television), written and executive produced by Edlund. The series starred Patrick Warburton as The Tick, David Burke as Arthur, Nestor Carbonell as Batmanuel (a Eurotrash Latin lover Spaniard version of Die Fledermaus) and Liz Vassey as Captain Liberty (a version of American Maid). These changes were due to copyright issues — characters created specifically for the cartoon series could not be reused, but ones from the comic were allowed. Once again, the series found a cult audience, but this incarnation failed to find a larger audience.
The live-action series was released on DVD through Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2003. Ben Edlund says on one of the DVD commentary tracks that he hopes the sales of the DVD might spur development of either a revived series or a movie, similar to the fates of other cult TV series, such as Firefly (which he was a writer and producer on). As of 2007, this has yet to happen.
In June 2005, the Toon Disney network began to air episodes of the animated series along with such other shows as X-Men in an attempt to counter Cartoon Network's popular Adult Swim block. The Tick currently airs at Midnight Eastern Time. It also occasionally airs on the ABC Family channel as part of the Jetix block.
Buena Vista Home Entertainment released the first season of The Tick on DVD on August 29, 2006. The release contains only 12 of the 13 First Season episodes. On May 31, 2006, Disney released the following statement regarding the missing episode: "Due to creative considerations, episode #11 ("The Tick vs. The Mole Men") is not included. However, we hope to include it in future releases of "The Tick". [1]
[edit] Characters
A few characters have appeared throughout the 3 incarnations of The Tick. Due to copyright laws, some characters could not be used in all versions.
[edit] Main characters
| Picture | Character | Media | Notable powers | Notes | Actor/Voice Actor |
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American Maid The World's Most Patriotic Domestic | Animated series | Skilled acrobat, can throw her tiara and stilettos with extreme accuracy | Wonder Woman/Captain America parody. Hates Die Fledermaus, though there are hints at a past romance | Kay Lenz |
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Arthur | Comic, Animated series, Live-action | Flight (with moth suit) | The Tick's sidekick | Micky Dolenz (Animated, 1st Season), Rob Paulsen (Animated, 2nd Season), David Burke (Live-Action) |
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Batmanuel | Live-action | None | Parody of Batman loosely based on Die Fledermaus. In love with Captain Liberty | Nestor Carbonell |
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Captain Liberty | Live-action | None | Wonder Woman/Captain America parody and loosely based on American Maid. Hates Batmanuel | Liz Vassey |
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Die Fledermaus | Animated series | None | Batman parody (also the name of an opera by Johann Strauss II; die Fledermaus is German for 'the bat'). In love with American Maid, and there are hints at a past romance | Cam Clarke |
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Sewer Urchin | Animated series | Super stench | Rain Man parody. In the sewers he has a luxurious apartment largely furnished with salvage from the sewers; however, he has relatively few guests. Is the "Apotheosis of cool" in the sewer. | Jess Harnell |
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The Tick | Comic, Animated series, Live-action | Nigh-invulnerability, Superhuman strength, "Drama power" | The main protagonist | Townsend Coleman (Animated), Patrick Warburton (Live-Action) |
[edit] Other characters
[edit] Comic book
The Tick has also appeared in other comics as well as books. For a full list, see List of Tick-related published material.
[edit] Animated series
| The Tick | |
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 The animated Tick patrols The City |
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| Genre | Animated comedy |
| Creator(s) | Ben Edlund |
| Voices of | Townsend Coleman Mickey Dolenz (1994-1995) Rob Paulsen (1995-1996) |
| Country of origin | USA |
| No. of episodes | 36 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes (includes commercials) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | FOX |
| Original run | September 10, 1994 – November 27, 1996 |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
[edit] List of episodes in the animated series
[edit] Season 1
- 1 "The Tick vs The Idea Men" (originally aired 10 September 1994)
- 2 "The Tick vs Chairface Chippendale" (originally aired 17 September 1994)
- 3 "The Tick vs Dinosaur Neil" (originally aired 24 September 1994)
- 4 "The Tick vs Mr. Mental" (originally aired 1 October 1994)
- 5 "The Tick vs The Breadmaster" (originally aired 8 October 1994)
- 6 "The Tick vs El Seed" (originally aired 15 October 1994)
- 7 "The Tick vs The Tick" (originally aired 22 October 1994)
- 8 "The Tick vs The Uncommon Cold" (originally aired 29 October 1994)
- 9 "The Tick vs Brainchild" (originally aired 5 November 1994)
- 10 "The Tick vs Pineapple Pokopo" (originally aired 12 November 1994)
- 11 "The Tick vs The Mole-Men" (originally aired 19 November 1994) (#11 Not Included On Season One Box Set)
- 12 "The Tick vs The Proto Clown" (originally aired 4 February 1995)
- 13 "The Tick vs Arthur's Bank Account" (originally aired 11 February 1995)
[edit] Season 2
- 14 "The Little Wooden Boy and the Belly of Love" (originally aired 9 September 1995)
- 15 "Alone Together" (originally aired 16 September 1995)
- 16 "Armless but Not Harmless" (originally aired 23 September 1995)
- 17 "Leonardo da Vinci and His Fightin' Genius Time Commandos!" (originally aired 30 September 1995)
- 18 "Coach Fussell's Lament" (originally aired 7 October 1995)
- 19 "Bloomsday" (originally aired 21 October 1995)
- 20 "Evil Sits Down for a Moment" (originally aired 4 November 1995)
- 21 "Heroes" (parody of the TV show COPS) (originally aired 11 November 1995)
- 22 "Ants in Pants!" (originally aired 18 November 1995)
- 23 "The Tick Loves Santa!" (originally aired 25 November 1995)
- 24 "The Tick vs The Big Nothing" (originally aired 3 February 1996)
- 25 "The Tick vs Reno, Nevada" (originally aired 10 February 1996)
- 26 "Grandpa Wore Tights" (originally aired 17 February 1996)
[edit] Season 3
- 27 "That Mustache Feeling" (originally aired: 14 September 1996)
- 28 "The Tick vs Dot and Neil's Wedding" (originally aired 21 September 1996)
- 29 "Sidekicks Don't Kiss" (originally aired 28 September 1996)
- 30 "The Tick vs Arthur" (originally aired 6 October 1996)
- 31 "Devil in Diapers" (originally aired 12 October 1996)
- 32 "The Tick vs Filth" (originally aired 26 October 1996)
- 33 "The Tick vs Europe" (originally aired 2 November 1996)
- 34 "The Tick vs Science" (originally aired 9 November 1996)
- 35 "The Tick vs Prehistory" (originally aired 16 November 1996)
- 36 "The Tick vs Education" (originally aired 30 November 1996)
[edit] Live-action series
| The Tick | |
|---|---|
 The Tick Live Action series DVD cover |
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| Genre | Sitcom |
| Creator(s) | Ben Edlund |
| Starring | Patrick Warburton David Burke Nestor Carbonell Liz Vassey |
| Country of origin | USA |
| No. of episodes | 8 (1 unaired) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes (includes commercials) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | FOX |
| Original run | November 8, 2001 – January 24, 2002 |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
[edit] List of episodes in the live-action series
The episodes are listed here in their intended order (according to the DVD release). When they were originally aired on the Fox Network in the United States, they were aired out of order.
- 1 "Pilot" (originally aired 8 November 2001)
- 2 "The Terror" (unaired but included on the DVD)
- 3 "Arthur, Interrupted" (originally aired 24 January 2002)
- 4 "The License" (originally aired 6 December 2001)
- 5 "Arthur Needs Space" (originally aired 13 December 2001)
- 6 "Couples" (originally aired 5 December 2001)
- 7 "The Funeral" (originally aired 15 November 2001)
- 8 "The Tick Vs. Justice" (originally aired 17 January 2002)
- 9 "The Big Leagues" (originally aired 21 December 2001)
In the live-action version of The Tick, American Maid is replaced with Captain Liberty and Die Fleidermaus with Batmanuel.
[edit] Merchandising
While the Tick Comic book series included some extras, such as trading cards, the merchandising of the Tick really took off with the launch of the animated series. Action figures, stickers, pogs, t-shirts, hats, party favors, costumes were representative. In addition, many fast food restaurant chains, such as Carl's Jr. and Taco Bell offered Tick related giveaways.
[edit] Trivia
- Apart from The Tick and Arthur, The Terror, Arthur's sister, Dot and Fish Boy, Lost Prince of Atlantis are the only characters to appear in the comic book, the animated series, and the live-action show.
- The "Big Blue Bug" lines, such as The Tick's speech bubble on the live-action series DVD cover, are references to New England Pest Control, a Providence, Rhode Island based extermination business which is locally famous for its large blue termite statue.
[edit] Sources
- The Tick: Circus Maximus, NEC Comics, 2004.
- The Tick: Mighty Blue Justice!, Hyland, Greg, Berkley Boulevard Books, New York, 1997
[edit] External links
- The Tick Official Website for The Tick cartoon
- New England Comics
- The Tick (1994 – 1997) at the Internet Movie Database
- The Tick (2001 – 2002) at the Internet Movie Database
- The Tick (1994 – 1997) at TV.com
- The Tick (2001 – 2002) at TV.com
