Let's look at some Tick original art!

I've managed to get a few pages of Tick original art this year, so the time has finally come to post some images. 

First up is an inked page from The Tick Local Comic Shop Day 2016 Special #1, which came out last November. Jeff McComsey helped ink the first few pages of the book, and I grabbed the first one from him.

This might be my favorite panel from any of the Tick stories I've worked on.

Jeff inked over a blue line printout of Duane Redhead's pencils. I think they look really good together.

The next page is, I think, pretty impressive - it's from the second issue of Tick: Karma Tornado, the Tick's second series.

This page was written by Jackson Publick of Venture Bros. fame, and it features a whole lotta characters. It was pencilled by Bill Neville and inked by Dave Garcia. I was surprised to see that the word balloons weren't hand lettered, as the previous series had been.

The first post-Edlund story had The Tick being whisked away to participate in some intergalactic games with other Earth luminaries.

These included, naturally, a tyrannosaurus rex.

Next up is a page from the new Tick series, with art by Douglas Paszkiewicz! I met Douglas this year at Comic-Con in San Diego, and I was lucky enough to purchase my favorite page from the new series.

The Tick and Arthur are on this page a total of six times each! A Tick for every season!

The page is slightly smaller than a regular comic art board. And I enjoy the ink around the border, too! Douglas obviously spent a lot of time with this page.

Next are two pages from Bob Polio, long-time art director on The Tick. Bob drew a two-page backup story for the 2017 Comic-Con Special, and I was able to talk him out of both pages.

Bob created these characters, "The Tick and Artie", a while ago. This is the first story of theirs in quite some time.

Bob also painted this lovely piece for me, featuring the whole Tick and Artie cast. It really came out well.

Lastly, I grabbed this page from Ian Chase Nichols at the end of the show. This is one of my favorite Tick pages from any story I've drawn. It appeared in the 2016 Free Comic Book Day Special.

This is the first page of a three-page story, "Tick, P.I.". For anyone taking notes, this is the first appearance of about a dozen characters.

I have a special place in my heart for See-Through Tick.

This poster doesn't really fit into the original art category, but what the heck - I'm posting a picture of it anyway. This is the poster I got at the Tick cast signing right before the panel at Comic-Con. Everyone signed it! How neat!

A lot of people at the show were asking about buying some original Ben Edlund Tick pages. Get in line, folks. Maybe one day.

Corgi's 1:12 scale Thing statue (plus some relatively random updates)

I recently picked up another Thing statue, this one from the Corgi company. I had seen this around a few times, but it was never on my "must buy" list until I saw it for a great price.

This statue came out in 2006, when Marvel was starting to roll out its more generic branding with stock art. The side of the box is the Thing's chest, though, which is pretty cool.

Here's the front of the box, with an image of what's inside.

The statue itself it pretty heavy for its size. The base is made of metal and is quite hefty. I got #1453 out of a run of 2500.

And here's the back. The pants the Thing is wearing are similar to his appearances in the Ultimate Fantastic Four title, which debuted around this time. It's a nice, if not unremarkable statue. I'm glad that I finally grabbed it after looking at it online for years.

While we're here, why not have a quick Local Comic Shop Day recap? I spent a few hours at Pittsburgh Comics on the day of the event and signed a few books. Some people even got a (very rare) Sandwich Edition copy! Lucky ducks.

How did the day go? Well, here's a picture. What is Larry doing in the background? Nobody knows. (Check out Larry's new website here.)

Extra big Fantastic Four news: I walked out of the store on this day with a copy of Fantastic Four #11! (I paid for it.) This issue has the first appearance of the Impossible Man, and is now the earliest issue of the series that I own. The issue is in good shape and I'm thrilled to have it.

And lastly, artist Tony Sedani sent me this great Thing pinup a few days ago! Tony has drawn a few pages in recent issues of The Tick, and I was surprised to get this in the mail. What a cool piece! Into the collection it goes. Thanks, Tony!

Tick: Local Comic Shop Day Special and signing at Pittsburgh Comics on 11/19

There's a new issue of The Tick coming out this Saturday, 11/19, for Local Comic Shop Day! LCSD is in its second year and is designed to promote comic shops with physical locations (so the books aren't available at online retailers). The Tick is the first book with all-new material. I wrote the main story in this issue with Duane Redhead once again on art. There's also a backup story from a new Boston-area creative team. This is the first issue in stores since the new Amazon show aired, so I hope that the reception is good.

If you're in the Pittsburgh area, I'll be signing some copies of the book (and basically anything else) at Pittsburgh Comics on Saturday from 1:00-3:30. This is the first time I've been in Pittsburgh on the day of a release - I'm usually in Boston for FCBD and in San Diego for the Comic-Con specials, so I'm happy to, for once, just get to roll out of bed in the morning and wander into the comic shop without having to plan a trip around it.

Check out localcomicshopday.com for more details on the event and pittsburghcomics.com for location information on the store!