The Tick

In 1986, eighteen-year-old cartoonist Ben Edlund created the Tick as a mascot for a newsletter of the Brockton (Massachusetts) store New England Comics, where he was a frequent customer. Edlund expanded this into stories, beginning with the three-page tale "The Tick" in New England Comics Newsletter #14–15 (July–August – September–October 1986), in which the hero escapes from a mental institution . The character became popular and the store financed a black-and-white comic book series, with the first issue released in June, 1988, and subsequently reprinted at least nine times through the next decade, including later editions with additional content. The Tick's sidekick , Arthur , was introduced in The Tick #4 (April 1989).

Spin-offs followed featuring characters such as Paul the Samurai, Man-Eating Cow, and Chainsaw Vigilante. Edlund continued to write and illustrate these projects initially through his years as an undergraduate film student at the Massachusetts College of Art . The Chainsaw Vigilante spin-off, which was never completed, was written and illustrated by Zander Cannon . Other series, such as the second Paul the Samurai series and the Man-Eating Cow series, were written by writer Clay Griffith.

In 1994, the Fox network introduced The Tick as a Saturday-morning cartoon series, which Edlund wrote and co-produced. Lasting three seasons, the animated series provided the Tick's greatest mainstream fame. Townsend Coleman voiced the title character and Micky Dolenz played his sidekick Arthur, in season 1. Rob Paulsen took over the Arthur role during seasons 2 and 3.

Due to issues relating to Standards and Practices, Edlund was not allowed to feature the comic series supporting cast characters in the cartoon, as characters such as Chainsaw Vigilante and Paul the Samurai were deemed inappropriate for a children's television show. As such, new supporting cast characters such as Die Fledermaus (a Batman parody), American Maid (a Wonder Woman / Captain America parody), and Sewer Urchin (a parody of Dustin Hoffman 's character from Rain Man ) were created instead. Edlund did not secure ownership rights to said characters, and they are now owned by the animated studio Saban, who made the series. They are therefore exclusive to the animated series continuity.

Reruns on Comedy Central helped make the series a cult hit with adults. The 1997 book The Tick: Mighty Blue Justice! by Greg Hyland (creator of Lethargic Lad ) was published as a tie-in with the animated series. 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 and David Burke as Arthur. Due to rights issues, original characters from the Fox cartoon series could not appear in the live action series; forcing Edlund to create similar characters: Nestor Carbonell as Batmanuel (a stand-in for Die Fledermaus) and Liz Vassey as Captain Liberty (a stand-in for American Maid). The series was short-lived, however, and it only lasted nine episodes. A DVD release of the complete series (including several unaired episodes) was released on September 30, 2003.

In June 2005, the Toon Disney network began airing The Tick animated series. The series also occasionally aired on ABC Family as part of the Jetix cartoon block. The following year, Buena Vista Home Entertainment released the first season of The Tick animated series on DVD. The second season was released on August 7, 2007; however, both collections were missing an episode for different reasons.

In July 2016, Amazon announced that a new live-action series , starring Peter Serafinowicz and directed by Wally Pfister , would air on Amazon Video . The pilot was picked up as a series, and the first season's 12 episodes were released in two parts—the first six episodes on August 25, 2017, and the second half on February 23, 2018. A 10-episode second season was released on April 5, 2019.