What do you think?
Rate this book
The Tick Comics #2
The Tick: Omnibus, Vol. 2 - Thursday Ad Infinitum
Tick Omnibus 2 "Thursday Ad Infinitum!" Collects The Tick #7-10 plus additional features. Story and art by Ben Edlund. The Tick, he's big, he's strong, and he's a (disillusioned!) force for good! He's Tick, and he's ready to protect you from crime! Softcover, 120 pages, B&W.
120 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
38 people want to read
About the author
Ben Edlund
187 books36 followersIn 1988, Ben Edlund launched the comic book that would make his name known to many comic and cartoon fans across the nation. It was the tale of a 300 lb., 7ft tall big blue insect named "The Tick". It was a character that Ben created a few years before in high school. The original series, drawn and written by Ben and published by New England Comics, only lasted 12 issues, but became quite popular in the underground comic world. The creation of a 13th issue is something Ben still hasn't decided against, but he has become a busy man since.
In 1994, Ben worked with Fox Kids Network to bring The Tick (and Arthur) to the small screen in an animated series. The show was a pretty faithful interpretation of the quirky heroic characters introduced in the comic book. It became an underground hit with a cult following. The show lasted for 3 seasons but eventually succumbed to being marketed as a kids show. The humor was often targeted to an older audience and trying to cater the show to children just stifled its creativity.
Fox wanted something to sell happy meals and figures. The Tick did just that, for a time, but shows would come along that Fox saw as better suited to a child audience.
Comedy Central picked up syndication rights to the show and aired it for a while. There it picked up some more fans and its popularity continued to grow.
In 2000, Ben began working on the Tick's 3rd incarnation, a live action television show. With the support of Barry Sonnenfeld (Director of Addam's Family, Men in Black), and the talent of Patrick Warburton (best known as Putty from Seinfeld) as the embodiment of big blue justice, the show had much promise. After a delay of almost a year after the acceptance of the pilot, The Tick finally aired. However, a difficult timeslot, (against NBC's Must See TV and CBS's Survivor), preemption by Baseball, as well as little promotion by the Fox Network, and other reasons I won't get into here (though I could!) would have the show end after only 8 episodes. It was the second time Fox had mismanaged one of Ben's creations.
In fall of 2002, Ben was working as a producer and writer on the Joss Whedon created show Firefly. He and Joss had worked together before on the screenplay for Titan A.E. Firefly was an innovative, character-driven space western. Unfortunately, Firefly was cancelled after only an 11 episode run, including the pilot. The only episode penned by Ben that aired was Jaynestown. And yes, Firefly was also on the Fox Network, but we've blamed them enough today. Currently Ben is writing and producing for Angel.
In 1994, Ben worked with Fox Kids Network to bring The Tick (and Arthur) to the small screen in an animated series. The show was a pretty faithful interpretation of the quirky heroic characters introduced in the comic book. It became an underground hit with a cult following. The show lasted for 3 seasons but eventually succumbed to being marketed as a kids show. The humor was often targeted to an older audience and trying to cater the show to children just stifled its creativity.
Fox wanted something to sell happy meals and figures. The Tick did just that, for a time, but shows would come along that Fox saw as better suited to a child audience.
Comedy Central picked up syndication rights to the show and aired it for a while. There it picked up some more fans and its popularity continued to grow.
In 2000, Ben began working on the Tick's 3rd incarnation, a live action television show. With the support of Barry Sonnenfeld (Director of Addam's Family, Men in Black), and the talent of Patrick Warburton (best known as Putty from Seinfeld) as the embodiment of big blue justice, the show had much promise. After a delay of almost a year after the acceptance of the pilot, The Tick finally aired. However, a difficult timeslot, (against NBC's Must See TV and CBS's Survivor), preemption by Baseball, as well as little promotion by the Fox Network, and other reasons I won't get into here (though I could!) would have the show end after only 8 episodes. It was the second time Fox had mismanaged one of Ben's creations.
In fall of 2002, Ben was working as a producer and writer on the Joss Whedon created show Firefly. He and Joss had worked together before on the screenplay for Titan A.E. Firefly was an innovative, character-driven space western. Unfortunately, Firefly was cancelled after only an 11 episode run, including the pilot. The only episode penned by Ben that aired was Jaynestown. And yes, Firefly was also on the Fox Network, but we've blamed them enough today. Currently Ben is writing and producing for Angel.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 27, 2008
watch out for man eating cow!!! i love this big blue oaf! after seeing the cartoons i sought out the comics--oh what a whacked out world they led you to1
March 11, 2021
The main character is seven foot tall, packed with muscles, has a jut jaw, wears a blue body costume, defeats criminals and yells “Spoon!” when he does so. This story also features the almost necessary sidekick called Arthur that also wears a costume and has what looks like bunny ears.
What really distinguishes this graphic novel is the incredibly wacky dialog with puns galore and references to the superheroes in comics. For example, when a scientist questions the origins of a rock that Arthur claims is a meteor, the scientist says to Arthur: “. . . You’re playing let’s pretend with a seven foot tall idiot in his long johns.” The scientist then turns to the Tick and says, “No offense intended.” The Tick’s reply is,” None comprehended.” Very funny and typical of the content.
A parody of just about every male superhero in the genre, the Tick is as the name applies, an amusing annoyance that sucks value from others.
What really distinguishes this graphic novel is the incredibly wacky dialog with puns galore and references to the superheroes in comics. For example, when a scientist questions the origins of a rock that Arthur claims is a meteor, the scientist says to Arthur: “. . . You’re playing let’s pretend with a seven foot tall idiot in his long johns.” The scientist then turns to the Tick and says, “No offense intended.” The Tick’s reply is,” None comprehended.” Very funny and typical of the content.
A parody of just about every male superhero in the genre, the Tick is as the name applies, an amusing annoyance that sucks value from others.
January 5, 2017
Reprinting issues 7 through 10 of the original run of the comic book series The Tick, this collection contains the Man-Eating Cow (who later got a solo comic book spin-off), Chainsaw Vigilante, The Red Eye, and most importantly, Chair-Face Chippendale, who made his way into the Tick cartoon series along with his diabolical moon-signature plot. The original run of Ben Edlund's Tick comic is still the funniest version of the tick out there, and this volume is as indispensable as the first Omnibus containing issues 1 through 6. Don't miss out.
February 17, 2018
Ah, Monolith, Kentucky and the Red Eye. So much of my early 90's in jokes come this book.
March 22, 2018
Classic Tick stories, featuring the debut of Man Eating Cow, plus Chairface Chippendale's plot to graffiti his name onto the moon. Fun stuff, but some of it doesn't age so well.
September 14, 2025
Spoon am I right
October 28, 2015
Considerably thinner but no less potent than its predecessor, this second Tick Omnibus collects only four of the then increasingly rarer issues of Ben Edlund's masterwork. This time out sees Tick and Arthur hit the road for New York, their world's 'superhero central,' hoping to find some more engaging work than foiling inept ninjas.
Before they take off east, Tick meets private eye Angus MacGuire who pulls him into a Dick Tracy-esque world of grotesque villains led by Chairface Chippendale (a recurring villain in the cartoon, but a one-off baddie here). Together they (almost) foil a nefarious plot to write on the moon, but unwittingly release a man-eating cow into The City. The Tick then gets beaned by a meteorite that appears to be from Utah, joins forces with The Man-Eating Cow to foil an assassination plot on the big blue boy and discover a cult devoted to worshiping our hero. And that's before they're even in the car!
Ben Edlund has hit his creative stride by this point, and the art and writing are as good as they get for the series. He introduces several unforgettable (and spinoff-able) characters and even follows the classic style of hero road trips by sidetracking the fellas into a mysterious small town filled with brilliant inventors. Unfortunately, at this point in the series, Edlund was already regularly and chronically late for releasing the books, which led to its eventual demise a few issues from here. In the meantime, it's good, clean, weird fun all around.
This edition includes the original Red Eye comic printed in tiled format over two pages, but saves the red spot-colour for a later issue. The rest of this volume is black-and-white, with a new image for the front cover, the issue covers in full-colour on the back cover, and a wrap-around end-sheets image of the bus scene from the first omnibus, here printed in red. Included in addition to the issues is a one-page intro from Edlund, three pages of letter-column spillover from the issues, and adverts for other NEC Tick-related merchandise.
Before they take off east, Tick meets private eye Angus MacGuire who pulls him into a Dick Tracy-esque world of grotesque villains led by Chairface Chippendale (a recurring villain in the cartoon, but a one-off baddie here). Together they (almost) foil a nefarious plot to write on the moon, but unwittingly release a man-eating cow into The City. The Tick then gets beaned by a meteorite that appears to be from Utah, joins forces with The Man-Eating Cow to foil an assassination plot on the big blue boy and discover a cult devoted to worshiping our hero. And that's before they're even in the car!
Ben Edlund has hit his creative stride by this point, and the art and writing are as good as they get for the series. He introduces several unforgettable (and spinoff-able) characters and even follows the classic style of hero road trips by sidetracking the fellas into a mysterious small town filled with brilliant inventors. Unfortunately, at this point in the series, Edlund was already regularly and chronically late for releasing the books, which led to its eventual demise a few issues from here. In the meantime, it's good, clean, weird fun all around.
This edition includes the original Red Eye comic printed in tiled format over two pages, but saves the red spot-colour for a later issue. The rest of this volume is black-and-white, with a new image for the front cover, the issue covers in full-colour on the back cover, and a wrap-around end-sheets image of the bus scene from the first omnibus, here printed in red. Included in addition to the issues is a one-page intro from Edlund, three pages of letter-column spillover from the issues, and adverts for other NEC Tick-related merchandise.
November 20, 2013
This parody of super hero comics was so much fun! A bit insane (man-eating cows!)and exciting.
March 14, 2015
Check out my review of this series on Booklikes, Seeking Sequences segment!
November 21, 2015
Again, very funny comics that still hold up.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews