all newin color!

FREE!

cover.indd 1 2/16/2011 3:00:01 PM

BOOK TOUR

Hey,Running

Guy!

Hey,Man-o-War!

Still tryingto get internetfamous, I see.

Working onselling t-shirts, or

have you moved on to some other improbable

scheme?

Of courseI’m still

trying to sellt-shirts, Tick!

But now I’mdirecting attention to them via ViRAL

MARKETiNG.

I’ve uploadedthis video that I

think people will gonuts for. It’s got me“accidentally” falling

off a treadmill-

Oh no! I totallyfell down not atall on purpose!

If that doesn’twork, I’m going to

get some dental workdone and have fatso

here tape all theembarrassing things

I say while I’mhopped up on

pain meds.

Oh, thesacrificeswe make inthe name offriendship.

Sounds promising.The public loves

people falling down and saying stupid

things. I’ve based a whole career on it.

Make fun if you want, tough guy. We can’t all luck into a cherry book deal

like you did.

A cherry WHAT deal?

Concept: Ben Edlund Writer: Benito Cereno Artist: Les McClainePublisher/Editor: George Suarez Art Director: Bob Polio Asst. Editor: Ralph Blaser

-then a cat plays aconcertina while wearingmy “running eye” t-shirt, available in stores now!

pg01.indd 1 2/16/2011 3:05:52 PM

2

Kneel beforeme, capitalistfat person!

Hah! And so theborders of Liechtenstein

crumble like so much poorly made American confection before the sprawling empire of

Bumbling Bee!

Sigh…why didI agree to play this game with

you again?

Arthur!

Tick! Please, in the name of all that’s holy, tell me we have a mission.

We have a mission.

Anychance this is

a three-person mission?

Not this time, Ducky. This time-it’s PERSONAL.

This sounds serious.

What isit, Tick?

Hah!You shallnot escape

the clutchesof empire soeasily, swine!

Running Guy read on Fish Boy’s blog that someone made a book about us, and we’re

going to find it!

A book? About US?

pg02.indd 1 2/16/2011 3:06:50 PM

3

Into thesewers!

Quickly, Arthur!

What? Why?

We’ve gotto find that

book!

No time for questions,

chum!

I guess it’s upsettingthat someone out there is

profiting off our likenesses, but I’ve never known youto be concerned about

intellectual property rights.

What? No!Don’t you seethe potential?

Someone wrote a book about our life! Our WHOLE

LiFE!

What willhappen nextmonth, next

year, whatever!

We just have to flip ahead to see what’s

coming!

We’ll get the drop on all our

enem-YiPE!

Shut up, mimes!

pg03.indd 1 2/16/2011 3:07:39 PM

CAPED COD

SECRET IDENTITY: Walter St. Dubois

HEIGHT: 6’

WEIGHT: 225 lbs

CLEVER NICKNAMES: [unprintable]

CATCHPHRASE: [unprintable]

POLITE TERM HIS FRIENDS USE TO DE-SCRIBE HIM IN MIXED COMPANY: “Earthy”

ARCH-ENEMIES: smoking bans; liquor laws; the boundaries of good taste

UTILITY BELT CONTENTS: Brass knuckles, cigars, matches, chewing tobacco, rolling paper, liquor nips, a foldout spittoon, numer-ous purchases from the vending machines in truck stop bathrooms, calamine lotion and other items too intimate to mention here.

SUPERHERO-NESS: Like many heroes with an alleged aquatic theme, Caped Cod has absolutely no fish or water-themed powers whatsoever. He can, however, swim in emer-gency situations such as impressing a lady or retrieving a dropped six-pack. He also claims to have defeated a number of the various self-

proclaimed lost princes of Atlantis in a mixed martial arts tournament, but these results were apparently not politically binding.

Cod’s heroic forte has proven to be his barracuda-like ferocity and an almost crimi-nally foolish tenacity, coupled with a com-plete disregard for his own well-being, and for that matter, the well-being of anyone else. This complete unwillingness to give up under any circumstance has given him a reputation among villains as someone to avoid in battle situation, as well as a reputation among la-dies as someone to avoid in social situations.

The most common target of his advances is his erstwhile teammate, Bumbling Bee, whom he constantly propositions despite her vaguely defined romantic relationship with team leader Rubber Ducky. Even though Cod clearly expends way more of his ef-forts in wooing Bee than he does in fighting crime, the only substantial result he has so far attained is the knowledge that he can survive (barely) the attacks of huge swarms of Africanized bees.

As a person, Cod is a foul-mouthed, vulgar, obscene, lecherous, voyeuristic, unshaven, unwashed, two-timing, back-stabbing, im-polite, rude so-and-so. He is unkind to small animals, delinquent in changing his under-wear, and has never once recycled except by accident. Otherwise he is considered to be not such a bad guy.

Cod has a reputation for going through sidekicks the way a normal man might go through facial tissue. It is unclear whether this is due to his treatment of them as child slaves or just general negligence.

Recently Cod was one of a number of heroes who abandoned The City to move to Blissburg, an idyllic city where crime is fought via appointment. Since Blissburg was exposed as a fraud by Tick and Arthur, Cod’s whereabouts have been largely unknown, other than recently showing up for a Dirty Santa party at the Comet Club, but experts believe his activities could best be described as “shenanigans.”

FirstAppearance

The Tick and Arthur #2

Page 13

pg12.indd 1 2/16/2011 3:38:41 PM

DESPERADOE

SECRET IDENTITY: Dosie Doates

CLEVER NICKNAME: The Cervine Scofflaw; the Cloven Hoof Hood

KNOWN RELATIVES: Deer Prudence, sister; No-Eyed Deer, father

ARCH-ENEMIES: The Tick; ticks, tree stands

SUPERVILLAIN-NESS: The fleet-footed thief known as the Desperadoe comes from a tradi-tion of deer-themed costumed figures, which includes her twin sister, Deer Prudence, a respected member of the New York superhero community and frequenter of the Comet Club, hotspot for the musclebound and fabulous, and their legendary father, street level blind super-hero No-Eyed Deer, who used his kung fu skills and heightened deer senses to clean up the mean streets of New York City in the 1970s.

Although her sister Mairzy gladly helped to fight the good fight (or at least garner the fame that comes along with having the reputation of fight-ing that fight) by suiting up as the hero Deer Prudence, Dosie decided to assert her teenage rebellion by using her natural deer-like swift-

ness and large, innocent-looking eyes to steal valuable art and artifacts from various muse-ums and collectors across the globe.

Taking up the mantle of the deadly Despera-doe, Dosie was often most successful in her larcenous misadventures not by using her preternatural speed and agility, but by taking advantage of a skill most identical twins have exploited at some point in their lives: i.e., impersonating her twin sister. By pretending to be her better-reputationed sibling, Despera-doe has found herself able to infiltrate all sorts of private locations that would otherwise be completely off-limits to a woman dressed in a one-piece bathing suit, doe ears and cloven-hoofed booties.

She most recently used this talent to infiltrate The City’s Museum of Accessible History, where an enormous heart-shaped diamond known as the Heart of Glass was soon to be put on display. Impersonating her sister Prudence, Desperadoe got herself hired as security for the invaluable gem, which was be-lieved to have supernatural powers that could control others through the force of unbridled love. Shortly after stealing the diamond and escaping the museum, however, Desperadoe found herself confronted by the Tick, who proved to be immune to the diamond’s alleged magical effects.

Desperadoe subsequently led the tick on a merry chase around The City, only to find herself incapacitated when Arthur, unaware of a deer crossing sign, ran into her with his Mercury Bobcat. Desperadoe is currentlyincarcerated.

Like Scarf Ace, Desperadoe apparently works for an unknown, shadowy crime boss who encourages the innovations of the younger generation of criminals.

FirstAppearance

The TickNew Series #2

Page 1

pg13.indd 1 2/16/2011 3:39:40 PM

SCARF ACE

SECRET IDENTITY: Unknown

CLEVER NICKNAMES: The Yarn Varlet; the Stitchin’ Witch

CATCHPHRASE: “Just you wait until I finish this row!”; “Shut up while I’m counting!”

KNOWN ASSOCIATES: The Whipster, her sidekick or partner or roommate or something

ARCH-ENEMIES: The Tick; Running Guy; she’s not too keen on Chairface and other vil-lains she considers to be “old dudes”; also she has something of a love-hate relationship with cats.

GADGETS AND WEAPONS: various yarns bearing preternatural properties, including hypnotic yarn and a skein made from unicorn hair that grants wishes; weaponized needles and a modified 12-gauge shotgun out of which she can fire them; row counter plastique; drum carder (not a weapon; she just likes to brag about it); an otherwise unused art degree with a minor in computer science

SUPERVILLAIN-NESS: Prior to her tenure as a super-villain, Scarf Ace was just another of a seemingly innumerable crowd of aimless 20-somethings looking for purpose in a world of ennui-inducing sitcoms and soul-crushing retail jobs. One fateful day, however, while

trying to figure out something to do with her hands while ironically watching television documentary series about teen pregnancies, she decided to teach herself knitting. And the world would never be the same.

Almost immediately after discovering the ancient art of turning animal hair into things you put on your body or on top of small ap-pliances, the future Scarf Ace found herself obsessed, and would not rest until she had successfully obtained the finest yarns fromthe rarest of animals, and had knitted the most complex of patterns, rendering all human relationships worthless in her eyes when compared to the potential of the ultimate knitting project. Experts believe that such sociopathic behavior is not unusual in knitters, and that most would become supervillains to enact their goals if they could.

Utilizing both her skill at crafts and technologi-cal knowledge, Scarf Ace first rose to public attention when she absconded with the Purl of Great Price from its stop in The City on a national tour of fiber festivals. Since then, she has gained notoriety by hypnotizing The Tick and Arthur with mesmeric Christmas sweat-ers and using their brawn to steal a herd of alpacas so that she might use yarn made from their coats for her own nefarious purposes. Once she was foiled, Scarf Ace did some time in prison, but upon her parole, she and her minion (or boyfriend? Or something?) the Whipster have invested their energy into scarfaceco.com, a website that allegedly sells hip t-shirts, but which is actually a scam to take the money of designers without ever printing their designs.

Scarf Ace and Whipster work for a boss whose identity is unknown, but who seems to favor more subtle flavors of villainy than the old guard of world conquerors and moon defacers

FirstAppearance

The TickNew Series #1

Page 9

pg15.indd 1 2/16/2011 3:41:50 PM