The Tick
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The Tick is a comedic superhero, created by Ben Edlund in 1986.
A square-jawed, muscular man in a bright blue bodysuit, with antennae sticking up from his head, the Tick is an absurdist parody of superheroes. The Tick is high-spirited, frequently obtuse, and is prone to making odd, dim remarks and "inspirational" speeches filled with confusing, bizarre metaphors. His superpowers are nigh-invulnerability, which allows him to crash and bang about without injury, and super strength. His battle cry is "Spoon!"
Like many superheroes, The Tick has a sidekick: an accountant named Arthur, who wears a moth suit that allows him to fly, although he is often mistaken for a winged rabbit. 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 series (2001–02).
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, simply, "The City". In the animated series, this is the place all of the "reject" superheroes (and presumably the supervillains) are sent after their trial (a prospective superhero/villain needs to present themselves to a special council and exhibit their powers and nature. The council then decides whether the inductee is worthy of joining their ranks. Successful inductees are assigned to a specific territory, failures are sent to The City where they can't cause any harm or get in any real hero/villain's way).
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Franchise 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 worked part-time. The character, which bore an uncanny resemblance in costume and personality to 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 1989, The Tick #4 introduced Arthur.
The Tick became extensively popular in the underground comics scene and soon New England published a regular series, in color, which featured the character, and spin-offs, featuring characters such as Paul, the Samurai and the Man-Eating Cow. Edlund continued to write and illustrate these projects through his years as a 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, a shallow, self-absorbed Batman parody; Sewer Urchin, a Rain Man-like version of Aquaman; and American Maid, a more noble superhero featuring aspects of Wonder Woman and Captain America. Reruns on Comedy Central helped make the series a cult hit with adults and it lasted three seasons.
In 2001, Fox introduced live-action TV series, written and executive produced by Edlund. The series starred Patrick Warburton as The Tick, David Burke as Arthur, Nestor Carbonell as Batmanuel (a 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.
It was released on DVD 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 Family Guy and Firefly. As of 2005, this has yet to happen.
Comic book
Characters in the comic book
- Superheroes
- The Ant
- Arthur
- The Cape ("golden age" hero)
- The Caped Wonder (aka Clark Oppenheimer) (Superman parody)
- Captain Academia
- The Civic Minded Five
- Feral Boy
- Fernslinger
- Mr. Envelope
- Oddman
- Radio King (leader)
- Crested Grebe
- Crime Cannibal
- Hand Grenade Man
- Hollowpoint (Punisher parody)
- Mighty Agrippa
- The MITI Men (Japanese superhero team)
- Dr. Bonsai
- The Dubbed One
- Salaryman
- Zen Man
- Oedipus
- Paul the Samurai
- The Running Guy (Flash parody)
- The Sultan ("golden age" hero)
- The Tick
- Ulysses Bang ("golden age" hero)
- The Visible Man ("golden age" hero)
- Supervillains
- The Chainsaw Vigilante
- Chairface Chippendale
- The District Manager
- The Evileers
- The Fuzzy Person
- Mr. Tragedy
- Multiple Santa
- The Terror
- Tuun-La
- Gomorra (Godzilla parody)
- King Crime ("golden age" villain)
- Lord Byron
- The Man Eating Cow
- The Red Scare (Villain for hire from Villains, Inc.)
- Sagin
- Seven Hearts ("golden age" villain)
- Thrakkerzog
Animated series
Characters in the animated series
- Superheroes
- Agrippa
- Arthur
- American Maid (Wonder Woman parody)
- Big Shot (Punisher parody)
- Bi-Polar Bear
- Blitzen (superheroine of Belgium, Éclair's sidekick)
- Caped Chameleon (aka Crusading Chameleon)
- The Civic-Minded Five
- Captain Mucilage
- The Carpeted Man
- Feral Boy
- Four-Legged Man
- Jungle Janet
- The Decency Squad ("golden age" team)
- Captain Decency
- Johnny Polite
- The Living Doll
- Sufferage Jet
- The Visual Eye
- Éclair (superheroine of Belgium)
- Fishboy, Prince of Atlantis
- Die Fledermaus (Batman parody)
- Human Bullet
- Jet Valkyrie
- Sewer Urchin
- The Tick
- Members of The Tick's superhero class:
- Baby Boomerangutang
- The Flying Squirrel
- Gesundheit
- Mr. Exciting
- Sarcastro
- Supervillains
- Arthur Clone
- The Angry Red Herring
- Baron Violent
- Barry (aka "The Tick")
- The Breadmaster
- Buttery Pat (sidekick of The Breadmaster)
- Charles (aka Brainchild)
- Chairface Chippendale
- The Crease
- The Deadly Bulb (aka Pigleg)
- Dinosaur Neil
- Dynamole
- El Seed
- The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight
- Eyebrows Mulligan
- The Fin (aka Mr. Smarty Pants)
- The Forehead
- Hariet Curse
- The Human Ton (and Handy)
- The Idea Men
- The Indigestible Man
- Julius Pendecker
- The Mad Nanny
- The Man Eating Cow
- Milo (sidekick of Venus)
- Minda (sidekick of Mr. Mental)
- Mr. Mental (aka Mel Mental)
- Mucus Tick
- Multiple Santa
- Octo Paganini (from Belgium)
- Omnipotus (Galactus parody)
- Pineapple Pokopo
- Professor Chromedome
- Lou Salazar, the Sewer Czar
- Sheila Eel
- Stalingrad
- The Terror
- Thrackerzog
- Toon-La, not of this Earth
- Tung-Tung
- Uncle Creamy
- Venus
- Whirling Scottish Devil
List of episodes in the animated series
Season 1
- 1 "The Tick vs The Idea Men" (originally aired 09/10/1994)
- 2 "The Tick vs Chairface Chippendale" (originally aired 09/17/1994)
- 3 "The Tick vs Dinosaur Neil" (originally aired 09/24/1994)
- 4 "The Tick vs Mr. Mental" (originally aired 10/01/1994)
- 5 "The Tick vs The Breadmaster" (originally aired 10/08/1994)
- 6 "The Tick vs El Seed" (originally aired 10/15/1994)
- 7 "The Tick vs The Tick" (originally aired 10/22/1994)
- 8 "The Tick vs The Uncommon Cold" (originally aired 10/29/1994)
- 9 "The Tick vs Brainchild" (originally aired 11/05/1994)
- 10 "The Tick vs Pineapple Pokopo" (originally aired 11/12/1994)
- 11 "The Tick vs The Mole-Men" (originally aired 11/19/1994)
- 12 "The Tick vs The Proto Clown" (originally aired 02/04/1995)
- 13 "The Tick vs Arthur's Bank Account" (originally aired 02/11/1995)
Season 2
- 14 "The Little Wooden Boy and the Belly of Love" (originally aired 09/09/1995)
- 15 "Alone Together" (originally aired 09/16/1995)
- 16 "Armless but Not Harmless" (originally aired 09/23/1995)
- 17 "Leonardo da Vinci and His Fightin' Genius Time Commandos!" (originally aired 9/30/1995)
- 18 "Coach Fussell's Lament" (originally aired 10/7/1995)
- 19 "Bloomsday" (originally aired 10/21/1995)
- 20 "Evil Sits Down for a Moment" (originally aired 11/4/1995)
- 21 "Heroes" (This is a satire on the TV show COPS) (originally aired 11/11/1995)
- 22 "Ants in Pants!" (originally aired 11/18/1995)
- 23 "The Tick Loves Santa!" (originally aired 11/25/1995)
- 24 "The Tick vs The Big Nothing" (originally aired 02/03/1996)
- 25 "The Tick vs Reno, Nevada" (originally aired 02/10/1996)
- 26 "Grandpa Wore Tights" (originally aired 02/17/1996)
Season 3
- 27 "That Mustache Feeling" (originally aired: 09/14/1996)
- 28 "The Tick vs Dot and Neil's Wedding" (originally aired 09/21/1996)
- 29 "Sidekicks Don't Kiss" (originally aired 09/28/1996)
- 30 "The Tick vs Arthur" (originally aired 10/06/1996)
- 31 "Devil in Diapers" (originally aired 10/12/1996)
- 32 "The Tick vs Filth" (originally aired 10/26/1996)
- 33 "The Tick vs Europe" (originally aired 11/02/1996)
- 34 "The Tick vs Science" (originally aired 11/09/1996)
- 35 "The Tick vs Prehistory" (originally aired 11/16/1996)
- 36 "The Tick vs Education" (originally aired 11/30/1996)
Memorable Quotes From the Animated Series
- "Bad, very bad" -Sewer Urchin
- "Not in the face! Not in the face!" -Arthur
- "SPOON!" -The Tick
- "Gravity is a harsh mistress" -The Tick
- (Upon eating a fortune cookie whole, then pulling the fortune out of his mouth) "Look! A message from my teeth!" -The Tick
Live-action series
Characters in the live-action series
- Superheroes
- Arthur
- Batmanuel (Batman parody)
- Captain Liberty (Wonder Woman parody)
- The Champion (Superman parody)
- Fiery Blaze
- Friendly Fire (sidekick to Fiery Blaze)
- The Immortal
- The Tick
- Supervillains
- Apocalypse Cow
- Destroyo (real name: Leonid Kasparov Destroyovitch)
- The Red Scare (robot)
- The Terror
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 11/08/2001)
- 2 "The Terror" (unaired but included on the DVD)
- 3 "Arthur, Interrupted" (originally aired 01/24/2002)
- 4 "The License" (originally aired 12/06/2001)
- 5 "Arthur Needs Space" (originally aired 12/13/2001)
- 6 "Couples" (originally aired 12/05/2001)
- 7 "The Funeral" (originally aired 11/15/2001)
- 8 "The Tick Vs. Justice" (originally aired 01/17/2002)
- 9 "The Big Leagues" (originally aired 12/21/2001)