Great Pages: CHROMA-TICK #1

Chroma Tick #1 (1992)

From Chroma-Tick #1 (1992)

Though the Tick may be best remembered for his two Fox television shows, he started out life as an independent comic book first published in 1988 by New England Comics. Created by Ben Edlund, The Tick was a satirical book that poked fun at the conventions of traditional superhero comics. Never seen in anything other then his costume, the Tick was a dopey do-gooder, happy to right the wrongs of the world as best he could. Though his mental abilities were slight, his strength and nigh-invulnerability helped him to usually win the day.

The Tick was originally published in black-and-white. In 1992, Edlund went back and colored the first several issues of The Tick‘s run, which was republished under the name Chroma-Tick. On this page from that first issue, the Tick has just stumbled his way into a diner used to serving a superhuman population. It contains one of my favorite gags in the series as the Tick does his very best to stop a stranger from questioning his choice of names. This page helps establish the tone of the book and made me a fan of the character for life.


Comments

  1. Great choice of pages Jeff. I love the Tick! Comic, cartoon and maybe even the live action (a little bit). SPOON!

  2. I’ve got the B/W version of this somewhere. I’d like to have it and the subsequent issues in color now.

  3. SPOON!

  4. Too bad he is just nigh-invulnerable.

  5. I loved this book. IIRC, he gets light-headed from breathing through the straw too long?

  6. The original Ben Edlund run was a classic . I wished he would come back to the book soon.