Tick (comics)

The Tick is a fictional character created by cartoonist Ben Edlund in 1986 as a newsletter mascot for the New England Comics chain of Boston area comic stores. He is an absurdist spoof of comic book superheroes. After its creation, the character spun off into an independent comic book series in 1988, and gained mainstream popularity through an animated TV series on Fox in 1994. A short-lived live-action TV series, video game, and various merchandise have also been based on the character. IGN's list of the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time ranked The Tick as #57.

History

In 1986, 18-year-old cartoonist Ben Edlund created The Tick as a mascot for a newsletter of the Norwood, Massachusetts store New England Comics, where he was a customer. Edlund expanded this into stories, beginning with the three-page tale "The Tick" in New England Comics Newsletter #14–15 (July/August – September/October 1986), in which the hero escapes from a mental institution. The character became popular and the store financed a black-and-white comic book series, with the first issue released in June, 1988, and subsequently reprinted at least nine times through the next decade, including later editions with additional content. The Tick's sidekick, Arthur, was introduced in The Tick #4 (April 1989).

Tick

Ticks are small arachnids in the order Parasitiformes. Along with mites, they constitute the subclass Acarina. Ticks are ectoparasites (external parasites), living by hematophagy on the blood of mammals, birds, and sometimes reptiles and amphibians. Ticks are vectors of a number of diseases that affect both humans and other animals.

Despite their poor reputation among human communities, ticks may play an ecological role by ailing infirm animals and preventing overgrazing of plant resources.

Taxonomy

Of the three families of ticks, one – Nuttalliellidae – comprises a single species, Nuttalliella namaqua. The remaining two families contain the hard ticks (Ixodidae) and the soft ticks (Argasidae). Ticks are closely related to the numerous families of mites, within the subclass Acarina (see article: Mites of livestock).

The Ixodidae include over 700 species. They are known as 'hard ticks' because they differ from the Argasidae in having a scutum or hard shield. This shield generally can resist the force of a human's soft-soled footwear, especially on soft ground; it requires a hard sole on a hard surface to crush the tick. However, stepping on an engorged tick, filled with blood, kills it easily, though messily. In nymphs and adults of the Ixodidae, a prominent capitulum (head) projects forwards from the body; in this they differ from the Argasidae. They differ too, in their life cycle; Ixodidae that attach to a host will bite painlessly and generally unnoticed, and they remain in place until they engorge and are ready to change their skin; this process may take days or weeks. Some species drop off the host to moult in a safe place, whereas others remain on the same host and only drop off once they are ready to lay their eggs.

The City

The City may refer to:

Places

Fictional cities

Film and television

And I

"And I" is a song written by American R&B singer Ciara, and produced by Adonis Shropshire for Ciara's first album, Goodies (2004). It was released as the album's fourth and final single on August 30, 2005 (see 2005 in music) in North America.

The song was originally the third choice for the fourth single. Ciara has mentioned in an interview that "Thug Style", "Hotline" or "Pick up the Phone" would be the fourth single, but when Ciara suggested "And I" to executives at her previous record label LaFace, they were unhappy because they wanted "Next to You" to be the fourth single.

Chart performance

At the time of the U.S. release of "And I", Ciara's collaboration with Bow Wow, "Like You", and her collaboration with Missy Elliott, "Lose Control", were at the height of their popularity. "And I" peaked at 96 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and 27 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart, which were poor positions compared to those attained by the first three singles from the album Goodies. It was not released outside North America because of this, and it is Ciara's least successful single.

Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. (/ˈæməzɒn/ or /ˈæməzən/), often referred to as simply Amazon, is an American electronic commerce and cloud computing company with headquarters in Seattle, Washington. It is the largest Internet-based retailer in the United States. Amazon.com started as an online bookstore, later diversifying to sell DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, video downloads/streaming, MP3 downloads/streaming, audiobook downloads/streaming, software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys and jewelry. The company also produces consumer electronics—notably, Amazon Kindle e-book readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV and Fire Phone—and is the world's largest provider of cloud infrastructure services (IaaS). Amazon also sells certain low-end products like USB cables under its in-house brand AmazonBasics.

Amazon has separate retail websites for United States, United Kingdom and Ireland, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Australia, Brazil, Japan, China, India and Mexico. Amazon also offers international shipping to certain other countries for some of its products. In 2011, it professed an intention to launch its websites in Poland and Sweden.