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Ben Edlund (; "Kai Ryssdal interviews THE TICK creator Ben Edlund" born September 20, 1968) is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, television producer, and television director. He is best known as the creator of the satire superhero character the Tick.
While still in college, Edlund was approached by Kiscom, a New Jersey–based toy licensing and design company, who wanted to develop merchandising off the Tick. Sunbow Entertainment, a New York–based animation company, paired Edlund up with writer Richard Libmann-Smith. After having their premiere episode turned down by Fox, the duo got approval with a refined version.
In 1994, The Tick debuted as an animated series on Fox and lasted three seasons. The program led to various toy and merchandising deals. The limited scope of merchandising compared to other contemporaneous animated series led Edlund to express contentment in his character as a "much more sincere proposal."Reber, Deborah Tick Fever Endures: Ben Edlund Talks About the Evolution of Everyone's Favorite Blue Superhero Animation World Magazine, Issue 2.4 (July 1997). Retrieved on 5-16-09. The Tick appeared on the Fox network in late 2001 with a short-lived live-action series.
Beginning in 2002, Edlund was employed by Joss Whedon at Mutant Enemy, first as part of the original writing staff for the space/Western hybrid series Firefly, which was cancelled during its first season, and then on the final season of Angel, where he wrote and also directed the Hugo Award nominated episode, "Smile Time". Edlund credits Whedon with teaching him to create television character arcs. Edlund also had a hand in creating characters for Whedon's successful web series Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, to which he contributed "Bad Horse" and the henchman sidekick "Moist".
In 2005, Edlund served as co-executive producer on Point Pleasant. He also wrote the second season episode "Grievous Intrigue".
Beginning in 2006, he served as executive producer, writer, and occasionally director on the TV series Supernatural from season 2 (2006–07) to season 8 (2012–13). On that show, there was a character, a writer/prophet named Chuck Shurley, who went by the pen name "Carver Edlund", a combination of Edlund's last name and that of Jeremy Carver, another Supernatural producer and writer. The writers named another important character after executive producer Robert Singer.
In 2013, Edlund left the Supernatural writing staff to join the second season of Supernatural creator Eric Kripke's new television series, Revolution. It was cancelled after that season. He then joined Gotham as a producer and writer for the first season (2014–15). In 2015, he became a writer for the second season of the Sony PlayStation Network original series Powers.
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