Brian Bollinger

"Ashcan" editions were originally photocopies of the comic book used during the editing phase of creating a comic book.  When you were done with them, they where thrown in the trash, or ashcan.  I'm not sure when they became collectible but at some point New England Comics saw a value in them and "printed" (photocopied) some of them and sold them.  They only did this for a very few of their issues.  On the first two issues of The Tick, back in 1988, NEC also made some and sent them out (pre-production) to distributors to send to other comic book shops to determine if there was a marked for the comic or not.  I have one of these (I may have two ...now that I have kids I am a little less organized).  If you're interested in the Tick and his line of comics I have a website that is up to date as of last summer.  It doesn't list values or try to sell you anything.  It's just a complete collection of cover photos - including any variant covers, and when possible, a little bit of information about each comic.  http://www.TickComics.com

Happy to ad this #10 graded 9.8 to my collection.  Only 3 of these in the registry.  Also, got a commission piece from Ian Nicholes.  Abby Road / Tick.

Happy to ad this #10 graded 9.8 to my collection.  Only 3 of these in the registry.  Also, got a commission piece from Ian Nicholes.  Abby Road / Tick.

Happy to ad this #10 graded 9.8 to my collection.  Only 3 of these in the registry.  Also, got a commission piece from Ian Nicholes.  Abby Road / Tick.

Well drawn and nicely colored also!  Congrats!

Can't wait to see what you have to share!  :-)

Hey, just signed up for the boards.  Huge Tick fan here.  Looking forward to reading through everything and sharing my collection with you all.

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Unless they're rare, reprints don't sell for much.  But I suppose anything in good condition is worth preserving.  If you're saving the comics for posterity sake go ahead and get them slabbed.  If you're doing it for an investment make sure you check them carefully for spine ticks (no pun intended), bent corners, white pages and stuff like that. Even on eBay right  9.8s are selling for less then they did 2 years ago.  The "Amazon hype" dwindled when the show was canceled.

Tick ad from Amazing Heroes #143.

Not really knowing what I am doing as far as display's goes...this is my feable attempt at a start.  I am using a Detolf Glass Cabinet from Ikea, Some tubular glass cups to hold up a really thin piece of glass I got out of a Dollar General picture frame.  And some plastic dixie shot glasses to elevate some of the characters in the back.  

i just think it's neat that the idea of The Tick, came about because of a role-playing game called Marvel Superheroes...
"which wasn't a badly-designed game, but it also kind of took the veil off of superheroes, in a sense. You'd have to take all of their abilities and all of their strengths and weaknesses and kind of itemize them, and it began a process of breaking down superheroes and seeing what was mythic and clever about them, and also what was kind of naive, even sometimes dumb about them, which really started to get me into the direction of superhero parody, which is of course where The Tick began."
Begun as a spec strip, Tick's true origin was as a joke during a role-playing game session amongst Ben's friends. Intrigued by the character that he jokingly made up, he began to think and draw him out as "an unstoppable, uncrushable, and somehow deeply disconnected goofball that fell from the sky." 
Not long after, the artist was beginning to feel confident in his work and drew some superhero samples with the hope of procuring some paying work. He showed them to art director Bob Polio and comic store owner/publisher George Suarez of NEC, who were impressed enough to call him back for a potential comic book they were developing. With college starting and the -script to the comic arriving super-late, Ben realistically pondered on the opportunity when Suarez asked him to create a book based on his Tick strip instead.  Excited with this offer, he worked on the first issue and developed the character more during his freshman (and part of his sophomore) year at Massachusetts College of Art, where he wanted to study film. 
 

I snapped these up on eBay the other day, just because I like them.  Upon closer inspection of these tiny morsels, I noticed they were done by Blaine, and after doing some Googling, I found that they were done by Patrick Blaine back in 1996, which was coincidentally the last year of The Tick Animated Series which ended on November 24, 1996.  

The prices on Tick comic began and rise about 6 months before the release of the Amazon series a few years back and then peaked about 2 weeks after Season 1 started.  The prices have dropped a lot since then but some people are still holding out for that "peak" price.  I saw ungraded special edition #1's selling for $600-$800... now I see them sometimes listed for under $150.  I was new to collecting slabbed comics and bought a few lower grades and what I thought were good prices.  At least I only spent a few hundred dollars to learn my lesson and not a few thousand.

Please add the following comics to the Tick - Complete with One-Shot and Mini-Series
Tick - Karma Tornado, Issue 6, first printing - 2008619017
Tick - Free Comic Book Day 2019 - 2044913001
Tick - 20th Anniversary - 1565319001
Tick - Circus Maximus A thru D - 1571338013
Tick - Color #1 - 1463507002
Tick - Chroma Tick #1 - 0303079023
Tick - Chorma Tick #9 - 1484209020
If, in the future, you want to break down this set into individual sets based series types you can refer to the navigation menu at the bottom of the homepage at http://tickcomics.com site.
Thank you,
-Brian

I registered it onto The Registry, but they wouldn't let me put it on the right spot, but that's okay, I'm still thrilled about it.    Oh, and they gave me a whopping "2" whole points for this real mccoy ashcan...and still...I'm very content.  Cuz...we all know better...  The only thing that would top this is someone...finding that illusive gosh darn No. 1 Ashcan that my good friend Brian lost somewhere on the road to his new house.  I hope whoever found it comes to the CGC to share their good fortune, cause I would love to see what red marks George Suarez and Bob Polio did to Ben's first go at his first Tick Comic Book!

I'm only posting this because I can't find any info that CGC does this.  If they do, please delete this post...
This company grades cards:
https://www.beckett.com/grading

@vsndesignsDid you get the artwork for the GPK card that was on eBay?  It was up there for several months.

I am all set - it's all yours.  I'm down to only needing 3 items. 2015 SDCC Sketch cover (with no printed number on it), a variant cover for the Man Eating Cow Bonanza (that I can't confirm if it exists or not), and... well... you know... the hard to find yellow ashcan #2.

Wonder if there's any chance for a season 3 if they win... or is it all too late?

Um... maybe we could trade some day  :-)  I really like Bumbling Bee.

Welcome to collecting Tick comic books!  It turns out that the first image (??? 2007) was never an official comic book cover. Someone got a hold of a pre-production mock-up image of what the comic book might be like.  I'm assuming it came from NEC.  The actual cover released is the one I show here.  The middle comic was limited to a printing of 200.  The comic you're looking for was limited to 250.  They show up on eBay once in a while.  That's probably one of the best places to keep your eyes on.  I don't have one to spare at the moment but if I come across one I'll let you know.  Another forum member was willing to part with the original cover art for that comic so I'm exited to have it in my collection.

There was a lot to see and do at SDCC 2019... but there was no Ben Edlund.  :-(  I did manage to get this sketch from Billy Tucci.  His booth was next to the NEC booth.

There was a lot to see and do at SDCC 2019... but there was no Ben Edlund.  :-(  I did manage to get this sketch from Billy Tucci.  His booth was next to the NEC booth.

There was a lot to see and do at SDCC 2019... but there was no Ben Edlund.  :-(  I did manage to get this sketch from Billy Tucci.  His booth was next to the NEC booth.