Publick Nuisance

Score One for the Home Team

2009-06-20T07:24:45Z

Our good friend John Hodgman deserves a standing information superhighway ovation for his performance at the Radio & TV Correspondents' Dinner this evening...

We can forgive him for failing to mention The Venture Bros. in his speech (despite the fact that appearing on our show has now twice proved to be the fast track to landing Correspondents' Dinner speaking gigs), for the simple reason that he made the Leader of the Free World talk about Star Trek, Dune, and Conan The Barbarian...on television.

Also, because he goes to the same hair stylist as Doc and I. And I would not things to get awkward at the salon.

By the way, this is what Hodgman will look like in Season 4...

We Love You,

JP

P.S. Buy this! It's amazingly good...

La Dolce Venture

2009-06-13T08:21:18Z

Wow. It's been a while. Apparently 11 weeks. I was busy, and then I was a lot less busy, and then I was really not busy at all, and now I'm busy again, having recently returned from my first vacation in 3 years. Went to Rome for a few days, then drove south all the way to Sicily over the course of a week and a half with 2 night stops in Positano, Giuncano, Tropea and Taormina before flying back up to Rome for a couple more days. Am hoping to finally get around to writing that Venture Bros. story that takes place in the Vatican I've been kicking around for years so I can write it all off. Anyway, it was an amazing trip and I actually got enough sun and rest to neutralize the dark green in the circles under my eyes, so now I can almost pass for a normal person who sleeps at night and doesn't feed off the flesh of the living.

ANYWAY...Here's what's going on with The Venture Bros.

Animation!
So far we've received four "first take" rough cuts back from Korea, and a new one arrives every two weeks...so the hits keep coming. They're looking really good so far. Even though it still takes a couple of days of repeat, frame-by-frame viewings to catch all the mistakes and type up a retakes list, the quality on the whole is very high--higher even than last season which, for my money (or adultswim's to be exact) is pretty damn good. This is the first time we haven't made some huge stylistic change from one season to the next, so we and the overseas studio were able to build on all of the solid groundwork we laid in season 3. Of course we couldn't resist making some minor stylistic tweaks, so we took a new approach to the inking style of the characters, who are looking more satisfactorily (and consistently) comic book-y than ever now, to my delight. So, now that we have some animation...

We have begun editing.
Doc and I (mostly Doc, of course) are currently editing the first episode of The Venture Bros. Season 4.1. "Handsome Ransom" is our fortieth episode (not including the pilot and the Christmas special), features the voice of Kevin Conroy, and for continuity purposes will probably air at least second or third. J.G. Thirlwell has already provided us with the music, and we'll be handing it over to the sound engineer in a couple of weeks--after Doc's had time to work some Final Cut and After Effects magic on it.

A few random, working titles for upcoming episodes: "Blood of the Father, Heart of Steel," "The Revenge Society," and "Perchance to Dean" (and yes... I've been wanting to use that last one for years)

We are also writing.
Doc and I are both writing scripts for the "second half" of season 4, which will begin production later this summer (once we have enough scripts to guarantee we won't fall behind again). We even finally caved in to Hollywood style writer's room protocol and purchased a giant Dry-Erase "Big Board" for the Astrobase, upon which we work out our ideas and storylines for many episodes to come. It's already paid for itself in Post-Its savings alone. Personally, I'm still kind of finding my feet in that phase of writing where I have a dozen ideas for halves of episodes and am still trying to figure out which pieces fit together best to form a coherent story with an A and a B plot (and sometimes, it's been noted, C, D and E plots). For this, the Big Board is indispensible. We have some pretty f-ed up stuff in store for these poor Venture bastards, that much I can tell you.

We will also be at Comicon.
Both Doc and I will be appearing at the San Diego Comic Con this year--one by air and one by rail, as is our habit. Don't know what day or what panel format or anything yet, but Mike Sinterniklaas is joining us for sure (you can't keep that kid away), and possibly James Urbaniak (can we get a confirmation, James?) and/or John Schnepp, who co-directed with me this season and who you probably already know and love from Metalocalypse. It is our fervent hope that we're able to concoct some sort of preview/spoiler/clip reel kind of thing from whatever episodes we have done by then to screen at this as-yet-to-be-confirmed panel, so...bring your camera phones and I'll try to look as self conscious and shiny as possible.

I am told the Season 3 DVD has been selling well...
...better, in fact, than seasons 1 & 2 did, which I'm also told is relatively unheard of in the DVD biz. Which means I should thank you all for buying it and apparently spreading the Venture word from season to season.

Other than the above, I've been spending my time watching every episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, reading about gladiators, reading Jason's new graphic novel "Low Moon," helping out with new SuperJail scripts a little bit, enjoying my new Red Dragon e-cigarette, and trying to pick a color for my living room walls. So, you know...busy.

We Love You,

JP

jacksonpublick @ 2009-03-24T00:20:00

2009-03-24T05:48:00Z

THE VENTURE BROS. SEASON THREE IS NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD AND BLU-RAY!!!

They are available wherever fine video disks are sold. But most especially at Williams Street and Amazon, where I hope your orders will drive our sales rank to at least something above Jillian Michaels' "30 Day Shred."

The Blu-Ray edition includes a bonus disk featuring The Venture Bros. Soundtrack by JG Thirlwell. The soundtrack album can be purchased and downloaded digitally on its own in a number of places, but the only place you can buy the actual, physical CD separately right now is here. They also have a special, limited edition (and slightly abridged) vinyl release available.

IN OTHER NEWS...

Jeez, a lot has happened since I last posted. Which is pretty much why I haven't posted. Much happening equals much busy--busy making The Venture Bros. for you! First things first...

WE BROKE SEASON FOUR.

Or, rather, we've cleft it in twain. But, like the fabled Planarian worm of so many junior high school biology experiments, rather than dry up and die on your desk, each half of Season 4 has grown. Instead of producing 13 episodes in a row--which would have killed us and/or forced us to delay the premiere until January or February of 2010--we've decided to split the season into two halves of eight episodes each. So Season Four Volumes 1 & 2 (as I like to refer to them) will comprise a total of 16 episodes. Volume 1 will hit the airwaves this fall--October or November, I'm not sure yet. We're are just about to wrap up pre-production on those eight and will start getting them back from Korea next month. In the meantime, it's back to our laptops for me and Doc to write the eight scripts which will someday be known as The Venture Bros. Season Four Volume 2, which we'll begin producing this June with an eye towards a June, 2010 premiere.

PRESS ON!

We've done a few interviews lately. Here are a couple of them:

Animation World Magazine

ToyFare Magazine
(includes a bunch of super-old doodles I pulled out of a box in the bottom drawer of my desk. The print edition has many more of these)

Newsarama.com This was an on-camera interview we did in the magnificent Sky Box, high above the Jacob Javits Center during this year's New York Comic Con. I had an incredibly bad flu that day (Doc was fortunate enough to catch it from me several days later, when no cameras were there to capture it for super-forever internet posterity), but "the show must go on" and all that crap. Marvel, if you will, at the deep-socketed, soul-dead eyes of a man pumped so full of DayQuil he hardly has anything useful to say, and his writing partner just wants to talk about Bam-Bam. We die for you a little bit each day, Ventureroos! Now give us your money!

We Love You,
JP

P.S. More updates coming soon. For now, here's a neat background painting.

jacksonpublick @ 2009-03-13T21:40:00

2009-03-14T01:57:08Z

Honorary AstroBase Cadet (second class) Ken Plume is right now, as we speak, is trying to raise money for Comic Relief the only way he knows how: by staging a 24 hour, live-streaming internet telethon in honor of "Red Nose Day" (which is some kind of English holiday) from his bedroom.*

Go there. He is just now entering his tenth hour. Doc has already called in once, and the two of us will be calling in again later this evening. You just missed Jonathan Coulton, but John Hodgman is expected to make an aural appearance some time in the wee hours.

We Love You,
JP

P.S. I promise an actual Venture-related post in the super-soon. But for now, click the image above, watch as long as you can stand it, and then donate money.

*Note to fans: Ken Plume's bedroom was the model for Henchman 21's bedroom! And it is way better than cartoon bedroom.

jacksonpublick @ 2008-12-23T19:13:00

2008-12-24T00:44:27Z

Hello, Merry Christmas, and God Bless Us Everyone!

As usual, Ken Plume twisted our arms into providing Quickstop with another holiday song. This one comes from Henchman 21's personal archives, and we are fortunate enough to get to hear the dulcet tones of Henchman 24 one last time, in that he and 21 had the foresight to get their Christmas shopping done early this year (in anticipation of a holiday trip to Cancun, which has of course been cancelled since). Click on the image below for extra yule-tainment:

I have shopping to do yet, and a drive to Boston ahead of me, so there's no time to post more. Season 4 of The Venture Bros. is coming along, slowly but surely, after many delays and much tardiness on my and Doc's part in the script department. Election obsession, apartment hunting, failed attempts to quit smoking...these are just some of my many excuses I needn't get into here and now. But we're hard at work.

One fun note: Christmas came to The Venture Bros. early this year as we pulled off something of a casting coup: Patton Oswalt, Seth Green, John Hodgman and Brendon Small were all kind enough to lend their talents to the most recent episode we recorded. That pretty much kicks ass right there, and they were all super-sweet and funny to work with. Thanks, boys. My only regret is that I had to record three of them over the phone.

LASTLY, SOME PLUGS:

It's probably already way too late to even call these "last minute gift ideas," but you should go and buy these fine quality items, all created by my talented super-pals (click on hotlinks to find out where to buy them):

1. WEEP'S "Never Ever." When he's not writing The Venture Bros. (or painting), Doc Hammer makes music. Listen to it!

2. More Information Than You Require. When he's not schilling for Mac or being a resident expert on The Daily Show, John Hodgman is a writer of note. Read it!

3. Zombie Tales #7 When he's not co-directing The Venture Bros. or directing Metalocalypse, John Schnepp dicks around with comics and zombies. Feast your eyes!

4. ...and speaking of Metalocalypse, the second season is now available on DVD.

Happy Holidays!
We Love You,

JP

If You're in the Greater Metropolitan Area This Friday Night...

2008-12-03T14:37:15Z

Might I suggest you attend THIS...

(CLICK IMAGE FOR MORE INFO)

We Love You,
JP

jacksonpublick @ 2008-11-30T21:12:00

2008-12-01T02:37:04Z

Dear Venturoos...

The show is deep into production and kicking our collective asses, so I haven't had time to write up a proper journal update. I am long overdue for one, and it will be coming soon.

What could not wait, however, and deserves an entry all its own, is the message copied below. Honorary AstroBase Cadet Ken Plume has asked me and other Friends of Plume to post this message on his behalf, and I do so gladly, if not without sadness.

Ken, you'll remember, has been the moderator at many a Team Venture convention panel, an uncredited guest henchman on the show, and the guy who twists our arms into doing a Christmas song for quickstopentertainment.com every year. He's also a giant sweetheart who takes a lot of crap from me and Doc and still sends us free stuff whenever we ask for it (or don't).

So please give Ken's message your undivided attention, and I'll see you all again soon...

We Love You,
JP

BEGIN QUOTED TEXT:

A Small Request

Posted by Ken at www.tibbysbowl.com (November 18, 2008)

I’m not really known for my moments of seriousness and personal candor here in cyberspace, so this missive will come as a bit of a surprise for those who know me well.

Four years ago, right before the holidays, the doctor found a lump in my mother’s breast. After surgery intended to remove the lump discovered deeper penetration, a second operation was scheduled to remove her left breast. It was right after Thanksgiving.

Months of chemotherapy followed, and my mother was given a clean bill and told the cancer was gone. After a few more months of recovery, she began counting the months and years that would bring her to that magic number for cancer survivors - 5 years out. Expecting she was well on her way towards that goal, she had the port that was surgically installed to deliver her chemotherapy removed earlier this year. After all, she was almost 4 years cancer free, with only one year to go.

And then, nearly four years to the day when the original cancer was found, another lump was discovered in her right breast. Surgery was performed, and the biopsy came back positive for cancer.

The bitch was back.

It was also found that the cancer had metastasized. Tests have been performed. Chemotherapy has begun again. Hopes are high that the bitch can be beat back into remission, leaving my mother many, many more years with her husband, children, and grandchildren.

She did it once, and she’ll do it again.

However, I want to keep my mother’s spirits up, and I want to utilize the power of this here internet to whom my livelihood has been intertwined for almost 15 years. And not only am I hoping for the assistance of the thousands of people whom I’ve befriended and worked with in those years, but also the kindness of total strangers.

With that in mind, I’m hoping that whoever reads this post - or has it forwarded to them - will take some of their valuable time and help me keep my mother’s spirits bright and her outlook optimistic.

Over the course of this holiday season, I’m hoping my mother will receive an avalanche of postcards from around the world - fun and funny postcards - with the well wishes of those who send them. Postcards sent by you, the person reading this now.

And, in addition to the postcards - if you have the inclination and means - please take a moment to make a donation to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Please send your postcards to:

PAT PLUME

808 BARN ST.

JACKSONVILLE, NC 28540

On behalf of myself and my family, I thank you all.

Coming This Sunday...

2008-09-24T03:48:24Z

My good friends, Misters Karacas, Warbrick and Augenblick, proudly present the warped fruit of their labors beginning this Sunday night on adultswim...

...please watch and enjoy!

We Love You,
JP

Pleas of a Dying Man...

2008-08-22T07:13:48Z

Since adultswim.com will be premiering the final episode of The Venture Bros. season online this afternoon, and since our season finales tend to be rife with big plot revelations, I implore you all not to ruin things for those who choose (or are forced) to wait until Sunday night's television broadcast of the show by posting spoilers here before then.

...and in that self-same spirit of not spoiling anything, we've decided to postpone the release of this week's Shirt Club design until MIDNIGHT (EST) on Sunday because it, too, contains a spoiler. And we want everyone to have a chance to see the episode first...at least on the East Coast. So don't go checking out the Shirt Club page on Sunday until you've seen the episode, or you'll be sorry you did!

• • • • • • • • • • • • • •

But for now, on behalf of Doc and myself, we thank you for watching...

We Love You,

JP

P.S. Doc and I also hope to see some of you at DragonCon in Atlanta at 2:30pm on Saturday, Aug. 30, which has just been confirmed.

Prelude to a Kill...

2008-08-15T18:07:03Z

If you've never watched one of our episodes on adultswim.com, this is your week to do it!

Why? Because it's the only place (short of the season 3 DVD anyway) to see a full extra two minutes we had to cut out of the broadcast version. Far from the usual "padding" or "meandering bullshit" we normally cut from our episodes, these two minutes are actually an action-packed, hilarious and entirely self-contained scene that you will not want to miss! The new episodes usually premiere online at about 6pm EST, but sometimes they're up earlier than that.

. . .

So here we are again...about to launch into another epic two-part season finale. Season 3 has been a long haul, and it's not even over for us yet. We still have to mix the final final episode and deliver it to the network, which will happen around Monday. We've not had a break since April or May of 2007, and though my load has been lightened in recent weeks, it doesn't look like we'll get a proper one until Season 4 is finished...

...but we haven't exactly started Season 4 yet. Well, we have and we haven't. It seems we were a bit premature and overly optimistic when we launched headlong into production over a month ago. Doc and I struggled to turn our first two scripts in late, and it was immediately apparent that we would not be able to continue on through the season in that vein. So the first two episodes were designed and storyboarded, we recorded one of them (with special guest star, the legendary Kevin Conroy!), and then we sent everyone on the staff home for six weeks. Which is easily the suckiest thing I've ever had to do on this show. The deadlines on the last few season 3 episodes were just too tight, and we were just too exhausted to start sprinting into production full steam right away. Aside from being impossible, the quality would have seriously suffered, so we're taking this month to finish post-production, rest a bit, regroup and recharge. Our plan is to get a couple of scripts ahead and then resume production in mid-September. I'm not sure yet where that puts us in terms of a Season 4 premiere date, but I'm guessing we're looking at next Fall.

In Other News...
• I had a blast at the San Diego Comicon this year. As usual, the fans were fantastic--a pleasure to meet and sign for--and I saw some hysterically great Venture Bros. costumes. The rest of my time was spent drinking with old friends, drooling over turn-of-the-century prints I'll never be able to afford at Century Guild Gallery's booth, ogling Hayden Panettierre from afar, perusing The Watchmen's Owl Ship, and discovering that Patton Oswalt has a huge geek chubby for The Venture Bros. I also received the coolest, weirdest gift from a fan ever--only to discover it missing from my mysteriously open suitcase when it came around the baggage carousel back at JFK.

• Doc and I will be attending DragonCon down in Atlanta together, as it turns out. We're set to do a panel on Saturday--though I don't know what time yet, or who else will be on it--and we'll undoubtedly arrange some sort of signing during the weekend as well.

• The Dark Knight was really excellent.

• I don't know where I've been for the past few years, but I finally discovered and got hooked on Brian K. Vaughan's Ex-Machina comic series last week and blew through every trade paperback and uncollected issue in about two days. Check it out. Especially if you're a New Yorker.

• Persepolis and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly were pretty great. Best DVD double feature I've enjoyed in years. Way better than the night I got In Bruges and 10,000 B.C. on Pay-Per-View.

Lastly, A Quick Update About Shirt Club...
A very small minority of you Shirt Club members have fallen victim to American Apparel's continued ham-handed customer service in that a handful of the Dean, Camp Rusty, and Order of the Triad orders are still outstanding. The full supply of Dr. Girlfriend shirts are shipping as I write this, though, and the O.S.I. shirts are on-track for on-time delivery. The Original Team Venture shirts will probably suffer some delays, however, as ringer style t-shirts always seem to give us the most trouble. Again, apologies to all those affected by these delays, and thanks for your continued patronage.

We Love You,

JP

Life imitates Art, courtesy of The Venture Bros. and Siobhan Mullen's deft camera. Click on Siobhan's name and check out her blog for more delightful photos and the occasional Venture Bros. behind-the-scenes post.

A Little Update About Shirt Club

2008-07-19T03:10:55Z

Hey,

Just a few words for you Shirt Club subscribers and enthusiasts, since I've been getting a lot of questions about it here in the comments section...

Though Shirt Club has been running extremely smoothly--especially considering the haste with which we established it and the unbelievable volume of orders we've received--we have experienced some unexpected and unavoidable production delays with some of the shirts, leaving some of you shirtless, baffled and maybe even a little hurt.

For instance, we actually blew out American Apparel's entire nation-wide stock of eggplant ringer tees with our Billy Quizboy T-Shirt. So, while most of those orders shipped, some of you won't receive yours until American Apparel makes more and gets them to us, which we're told will be this week.

The Rusty's Day Camp shirts experienced a slightly different problem: American Apparel shipped us nine boxes of navy t-shirts with white rings instead of our full order of white t-shirts with navy rings. So we had to delay the print job on that shirt, and we'll be starting it next week.

A very small percentage of the Sgt. Hatred t-shirts were printed with misaligned logos, so rather than send crooked designs to people, we're having some of them re-printed.

Lastly, a tiny minority of you loyal Subscribers are still waiting on your Brock Samson Kodokan Blood Judo bonus shirts. Again, this is because American Apparel didn't have quite enough of them in stock at the time we ordered them.

And so, we humbly apologize to all of you affected by these shortages and delays. We appreciate your patience, we haven't forgotten about you, and we fully intend to honor each and every order just as soon as supplies become available.

Hopefully this post answers most of your questions, but in the future, the best place for you to direct any Shirt Club-related correspondence is vbshirtclub@gmail.com. But please...DO NOT email us at that address unless you're a Shirt Club customer with a legitimate Shirt Club issue! It is not a mailbox for fan mail, complaints about the show, or requests for internships, interviews or answers to your burning questions about Dr. Girlfriend's gender!

...but enough about business...

While you wait for your Shirt Club shirts to arrive (and by the way, you are soooo gonna want this Sunday's offering!), why not while away the hours enjoying our latest episode? The delightful, Doc Hammer-penned "Tears Of A Sea Cow" (formerly "Murder O'Clock"), is already available for online viewing at adultswim.com...

We Love You,

JP

P.S. Some of you out there have found a way, intentional or not, to coax a full subscription order out of PayPal. Don't even try it! Your money will be returned immediately and the order will not be honored! Subscriptions were only available for a limited time for the specific reason that we do not make a habit of over-printing these intentionally ultra-limited-edition t-shirts. So we cannot honor orders for expired shirts because there simply aren't any extras.

P.P.S. Don't be suckered by eBay offers on official Shirt Club shirts. I've seen the same seller hawking ten copies of the same shirt in like four different sizes, and no individual ever ordered that many of any of them. Not saying for sure they're fake, but it's pretty damn likely. And come on...no shirt is worth $75. Okay, maybe that sleeveless New York t-shirt that John Lennon actually wore, but that's about it.

What Goes Down, Must Come Up...

2008-07-12T03:09:13Z

Man oh man we are busy...

I really haven't posted anything in quite a while, have I?

This is because we are desperately racing the clock to edit each new episode in time for broadcast, and...

THE VENTURE BROS. SEASON 4 HAS BEGUN PRODUCTION!!!

Yup, the character/prop/background design teams and production team started work at World Leaders several weeks ago...and we didn't even have a script for them. I turned in my first script (Ep. 40, "Handsome Ransom," if you're keeping track) a little over a week late, keeping the artists busy in the interim with judiciously doled out spoonfuls of design assignments for characters and locations I was pretty sure would make it into the final draft. And Doc is just now turning in the second episode of the season...which we're supposed to finish designing in like three days. Neither of these scripts, by the way, are for next season's premiere episode. As usual, we probably won't get to that one for a little while...

We have never tried this business of overlapping seasons before, and I must say it is hell on all of us. Nevertheless, I'm quite pleased with what we've all turned out so far on both the art and writing fronts. Episode 40 is already being storyboarded and we're set to record the voice tracks next week, keeping our fingers crossed in hopes of getting a special guest voice to play a major role, which I will not spoil.

Now I have less than a week to get the next script in. Guess who will be late again?

If I hadn't been so busy, I'd probably have written a bunch of stuff about all the episodes we've shown so far. Like about the various songs we tried unsuccessfully to license for the last montage scene of "The Invisible Hand of Fate..."

...Or how all the photos at the beginning of "The Buddy System" are of Doc, me or my brother circa 1977. Because you can't put pictures of other people who were children in 1977 on TV unless you can track them down and get them to sign a release form, no matter how public a place your dad snapped the photos in. So take that, "Josh," you could have been on TV, but Noooooooo...

...Or about all the real and fictitious celebrities hanging out at Jonas Venture's house in the key party scene of "Dr. Quymn, Medicine Woman..."

...or how Dr. Entmann in this week's episode was recorded three different times by two different actors, after we were turned down by a third semi-celebrity (who shall remain nameless because he apologized profusely)...

...but I guess I'll save that stuff for the DVD commentaries, which someone is bound to make us start recording soon, because we don't have enough to do. Then they'll bleep it all out for legal reasons.

In other news, Ep. 33: "What Goes Down, Must Come Up," is now available online at adultswim.com for your viewing pleasure, and will of course be broadcast in its full glory this Sunday night at 11:30pm EST. It's another solo effort by yours truly (and a weird, dark one at that) and features the voice of our beloved "Art Director" (I prefer "Storyboard/Design Guru," but apparently that doesn't fly on Linkedin) Stephen DeStefano, whose lovely blog can be found by clicking here, and who probably speaks in that accent at the office roughly 38% of the time.

Next week's episode will be Doc Hammer's "Tears of a Sea Cow," the working title of which was "Murder O'Clock" just because.

The network tells me our ratings are excellent this season, with each episode scoring higher than the highest-rated episode of any previous season. The Family Guy continues to kick our ass, of course, because it would seem many many many more people would prefer to watch a Family Guy rerun for the tenth time than a brand new episode of our show. That, or a lot of people go to bed at 11:29 (EST) on Sunday nights.

And Shirt Club continues to rock the worlds of our overworked interns, and the bodies of fandom...

We Love You,

JP

P.S.
Oh, and Happy Belated 4th of July, everyone...

The Invisible Hand of Fate

2008-06-14T01:34:23Z

For those of you peak-at-your-Christmas-presents types out there, this week's episode of The Venture Bros. is already viewable online over at the Adult Swim Fix .

I won't spoil it or anything for those of you who'd rather wait until it's on TV Sunday night, but "The Invisible Hand of Fate" was the first episode to be written and produced for season 3, mainly because I originally planned to write it as the penultimate episode of season 2...before the finale got away from us and turned into a two-parter. Given some of the secret histories revealed within, you can well imagine why I would have wanted to shed some light on these particular characters before launching into the finale story. But it was worth the wait, I think.

For the record, I wouldn't have aired this one third in an ideal world, but production deadlines forced our invisible hand. While I'm quite proud of the episode, I worry that throwing another secondary character/flashback-heavy episode at you guys so soon after our Monarch-centric premiere could be a bit confusing--or, worse yet, kind of disappointing--and the episode mightn't get judged fairly on its own merits. But whatever...hopefully you're all into it. And if you're not, there's always next week's episode, "Home Is Where The Hate Is," which is a super-hot Doc & Jackson joint script (and, for no particular reason, probably the most beautifully animated episode of The Venture Bros. ever) and would have aired third if not for the fact that we're still mixing it!

Shirt Club Update:

The Guild of Calamitous Intent shirts and Super-Bonus Brock Samson Kodokan Blood Judo Subscribers-Only shirts will begin shipping next week. For those of you who ordered and are getting antsy wondering where your shirts are, they're being lovingly crafted at the printer's as I write this, and those overworked folks will be jumping onto the Killinger shirts shortly thereafter. Please allow this LJ post to serve in the place of some mass email--this Shirt Club thing has blown up in a way we never expected, but we will get everyone their shirts as quickly as possible. Our website did warn that they could take 3-5 weeks for delivery, but we plan to stick closer to the 3 than the 5.

One caveat for you 2XL subscribers only: some of you will be getting your super-bonus Brock Samson Kodokan Blood Judo shirts a little later than others, because we apparently cleaned American Apparel out of all their 2XL white/red ringer tees. But they're making more, and we'll get them to you as soon as possible. Your Guild shirts are right on schedule, though.

I won't spoil the surprise of this coming Sunday's shirt for you, but... those of you who've been craving a little color in your life after two weeks of plain black tees? You're going to get your wish.

And just a friendly reminder to you week-to-week Shirt Club enthusiasts: Orders for each weekly shirt officially close at 11:59pm (EST) Saturday nights!

And speaking of t-shirts... the Adult Swim Store is selling their own Venture Industries logo shirt , which I thoroughly endorse, and which Shirt Club won't be offering our own version of. So if our shirts don't float your sartorial boat, please check out theirs.

Okay, enough of this...I gotta go Hulk. I mean "write."

We Love You,

JP

The Doctor Is Sin

2008-06-09T05:39:39Z

Our second episode (and our first with our actual main characters in it) aired tonight, and people seem to dig it. I'm glad, because I'm always glad when people like one of these things, but also because I'm especially proud of this one--the finished script was one of my favorites, and it was a lot of fun to write...lo, those many months ago.

It was also, however, an absolute nightmare to make at just about every level of production. It had more backgrounds than any other episode, partially because all of our key Venture Compound backgrounds had to be re-designed and re-painted for HD, and partially because we revealed entirely new locations within the Venture Compound that we'd never seen before--like the lobby, hallways, conference room and R.O.C.C.--which would also become "key stock pack" backgrounds for the rest of the season...so they had to look nice because we'd be re-using them a lot.

Then we had some...problems...in the storyboarding phase that forced us to bump the show back one slot in the production cycle.

Then, when it came back from overseas several months later, we discovered that about half of it had been animated "on 3's"--which, if you don't know much about animation, means that there's only one drawing for every three frames of film--when American animation is usually done "on 2's." So it looked like anime; all stiff and ghostly, and those scenes had to be reanimated. If you were one of the unlucky few who caught Adult Swim's April Fool's Day sneak preview broadcast of the first 11 minutes of this episode, you would have seen this original animation. As it is, we still didn't catch every offending shot, so there are still a few of them in the final show.

In other news...

Last week's premiere apparently did really well in the ratings--the best we've ever done, by some accounts--and the online version received hundreds of thousands of hits as well. This is nice, and only slightly compromised by the knowledge that our Family Guy lead-in probably had something to do with it. I'll take it where I can get it, though.

Shirt Club has been a phenomenal success. We received way more orders for both subscriptions and single Guild t-shirts than we expected in our most ambitious estimates. The second week's shirt is now available for ordering over at Astrobase Go, so Astrobase go there now...

Our apologies to those who mistakenly missed the ordering deadlines. Despite the slightly misleading copy at the top of the ordering page, we clearly stated elsewhere on the page that the deadline for the first shirts and subscriptions would be 11:59pm on Saturday, June 7th. And this will remain our policy for the remainder of Shirt Club: each shirt will go up at 11:30pm the night a new episode airs and the ordering period will close at 11:59 the following Saturday night. Everyone needs a day of rest, after all. Or, in this case, a day to get our shit together.

Am still writing my first solo script for Season 4. Which is terrifying because we're starting production on Season 4 a week from Monday. Writing's been difficult because we're currently editing episode 35 of Season 3, World Leaders has just moved its offices to another floor, we've been doing a lot of interviews lately, we just got the first take of our finale episode back from Korea, and we're in the middle of a wicked heat wave here in New York. Just don't tell my producer on me.

We Love You,

JP

P.S. I know, I know...I broke the "no Star Wars references" rule already. It's my last one of the season, I swear. Doc blows it once this season, too (though he denies it), so we figure we're even on this one and nobody has to get any haircuts they don't want. But we're still proudly 98% Star-Wars-Reference-Free, and that's sort of an accomplishment for anyone of my generation!

The Venture Bros. Season 3 goes live right now!!!

2008-06-02T03:47:58Z

...And so does the first Shirt Club Shirt-of-the-Week! Now available for individual ordering!

We Love You (and thanks for watching!),
JP

Votes and Video

2008-05-30T19:51:53Z

Season 3 of The Venture Bros. premieres online this evening at over at ADULT SWIM.COM with our first episode, "Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny." As usual, you can spoil it for yourselves and watch it all tiny with questionable compression, or you can wait till Sunday night to see it in all its letterboxed, full-color, sonically-rich glory on the cable-equipped television of your choice. Whatever mode you choose to receive this gift, I implore you to please not spoil it for anyone else until after Sunday's broadcast!

Meanwhile...

...DOC HAMMER is participating in the "Masters of Song Fu" song contest over at QUICK STOP ENTERTAINMENT , pitting his musical skills against the likes of Jonathan Coulton, Paul & Storm, and a host of amateur upstarts. But he needs your votes! That Coulton cat is a slippery type, and an old hand at this internet self-promotion stuff, so he's already organized his army of sycophants to tippy-type their votes in his column. So click on the above image, give a listen, and vote your conscience!

Good luck, Doc! And happy viewing & listening to the rest of you...

We Love You,

JP

P.S. ...and don't forget...

SHIRT CLUB IS GO!!!

2008-05-27T03:29:17Z

***UPDATE!!! All Shirt Club shirts will now be available in both Mens' and Womens' styles, contrary to the information stated in our original "Fine Print" disclaimer (which has since been updated)!!! No more excuses, ladies--join the club!!!!

(What are you staring at? CLICK IT!)

P.S. We Love You.

jacksonpublick @ 2008-05-25T15:48:00

2008-05-25T19:51:00Z

Shirt Club is coming.

SPOILER ALERT!

2008-04-24T17:02:31Z

The Season 3 preview piece we showed at the NY Comicon is now up, in all it's non-bootlegged, widescreen, crystal-clear, fully audible glory over at QUICK STOP ENTERTAINMENT . Or, you can watch it below (I think...I've never embedded a video before).

Don't watch it if you don't want to ruin anything for yourselves...

It should be noted that, while an entertaining group of clips, this piece is by no means a "best of Season 3" reel. Doc only had three and a half completed episodes to cull from at the time he put this together.

Production updates and more about our Comicon experience to come in a later post...

We Love You,
JP

Last Minute Announcement

2008-04-15T05:47:57Z

I think this is open to the public, but I'm not sure...

Doc Hammer, Liz Artinian (color supervisor), Stephen DeStefano (storyboard & design director), and I will be discussing all things Venture and screening the entirety of the episode Adult Swim previewed a couple of weeks ago...only ours will have sound.

...for more info, go to the ASIFA EAST's website.

Hosted by TV's Dave Levy.

--JP

Sucker Punch!

2008-04-03T05:07:37Z

For those who don't know, adultswim has made an annual tradition of screwing around with their programming for April Fools' Day, and this year they chose to broadcast "rough cuts" of some of their shows--including The Venture Bros. So if you were lucky/cursed enough to be watching adultswim this past Sunday night (I was neither), you would have been witness to the first 11 minutes of episode #28 ("The Doctor Is Sin") in its rawest form: a low resolution, straight-from-Korea "first take" with no sound effects, no music, and a ton of mistakes. Notorious perfectionist control freaks that we are, Doc and I were...somewhat less-than-thrilled when we heard the news (and even less than less-than-thrilled to have learned it from the viewers, not the network, and only after the fact). To us it was the psychological equivalent of having naked pictures of ourselves circulated on the internet. At first anyway. I've since warmed to the idea--because it reminds me that Adult Swim is a silly network that takes chances and has fun with itself, when I could have been working for some average, boring, anal network. Plus, if the message boards are to be trusted, you all seem to think we look nice naked...

Ironically, we turned the fully finished version of that self-same episode in the very next day. There are horror stories to tell about the production mishaps that plagued it from script to final cut (and all points in between), but those can wait to be bitched about until it airs for real...

Anyway, the aforementioned production problems and a couple of untimely flus have put us slightly behind in post-production. We've fully completed three episodes to date, we're currently editing picture on the fourth (its next stop is the sound engineer), and we'll be starting the fifth this weekend. To give you an idea of how screwy the production order is this season, the first episode we turned in (#27) is going to air third or fourth, depending on how quickly we can rush #37--written eleventh and produced tenth, which we hope to air third but will probably air fourth--through post-production. The second episode we turned in (#29) was written third and produced second, but is going to air eleventh. The third (#28) was written second, produced third, and will air second. And #32, which was written and produced sixth--but will be edited fifth--is actually the premier episode of the season. I dare you to try to keep that kind of continuity conundrum straight in your head...

Somehow, in the midst of all of this, Doc and I are also expected to begin writing season 4 and producing the DVD set for the not-even-finished-yet season 3. And we've both been doing a little moonlighting--Doc's been making music and I'm doing some voices and a little writing for adultswim's forthcoming SuperJail series. It's been a busy month, yes...

And now, the News in brief...

ITEM: The Venture Bros. will premier on June 1st.

ITEM: Doc and I were interviewed in the sophomore issue of Comic Foundry magazine, which is now on the stands. Aside from a preoccupation with the recent "Stephen Colbert Incident" (and the fact that they refer to me as "Pollack" no less than three times), the 2 page spread provides a nice little preview of the upcoming season with only mild spoilers.

ITEM: Kid Robot has made some miniature Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend figurines, which will be available in mystery packaging along with like 16 other adultswim figurines. So good luck if you decide to buy one. Or two.

ITEM: Doc and I will be attending the Venture Bros. panel at the New York Comicon on Saturday, April 19th at 4:00pm. Urbaniak and Sinterniklaas will be joining us, and we're hoping to cajole a couple of other people into dancing into the fire with us. Honorary AstroBase Cadet Ken Plume will be moderating the festivities.

ITEM: Word has it we'll be attending the San Diego Comicon in July this year as well, adultswim having retracted their unofficial boycott. But it's too soon to know what we'll be doing there other than sweating and trying to find affordable Robert McGinnises.

We Love You,
JP

P.S. The usual insincere-sounding apologies for the long delay between posts. When you finally find yourself to getting a little rest and free time after killing yourself to make a show for ten months straight, the last thing you want to do is think about that show--which can sometimes include posting about that show on your LiveJournal. Actually, the last thing you want to do is anything that doesn't involve lying on the couch all day watching every episode of Deadwood. Or maybe Munich for like the tenth time.

Contest Over (Sorry)

2008-02-01T05:41:06Z

I must apologize for failing to make an official post about the fact that the joint "Guess the Celebrity Cameo"/ "Who's Secret Lair Is This?" contest is over. The winners submitted their correct answers roughly five minutes after the the contest began. A number of you have continued to submit guesses all month, and I have silently let you suffer. I apologize.

Nothing more to report. Too swamped with pre-production on this season's finale, and post-production on the second episode of the season to upload fancy art or craft amusing production anecdotes. More soon.

Still love you,
JP

P.S. The correct answers were:

1. Dick Cavett, Sammy Davis Jr., Aleister Crowley
2. The room belongs to the pink gentleman in the white wheelchair at the far left.

Holiday Gift Bonanza!!!

2007-12-24T05:38:34Z

Happy Holidays and all that good stuff to you all. You will find your annual Venture Bros.-themed digital music gift tucked inside your world wide information super-stocking by clicking HERE.

The studio's been abuzz with holiday shenanigans, even as we raced the clock to deliver another animatic and worked right up till the last moment. World Leaders hosted not one but three festive events in the past week, employing the crew's talents for such varied disciplines as karaoke, secret gift-giving, and heavy drinking. Things got rolling last week with a genuine Chili Cook-off, which I am proud to say my girlfriend and I took second place in. Blow-by-blow, on-the-day details can be found on Venture Bros. animatic/Animo editor Tom Bayne's rambling blog.

Speaking of blogs, Storyboard Czar Stephen DeStefano has a lovely one, and has seen fit to festoon it with a handful of his wonderfully expressive revision panels from one of our upcoming episodes. Check it out.

And now for your second gift:
Our overseas studio has already sent back three episodes, and here are some randomly-selected, out-of-context screengrabs from those self-same episodes, just to prove to you we're actually making a show in between all the heavy drinking and chili cooking, and that it actually looks pretty good:

GRINCH!...
One sour note from the past month (aside from my car getting hit yet again) is that Mr. Stephen Colbert has decided not to reprise his role as Professor Impossible this season, for reasons which probably have something to do with him being all super-famous, super-busy, and no longer in need of a few hundred bucks here and there. We figured this would happen eventually, considering his monumental success in the years since our first season, but we held out hope that the WGA strike would leave him with enough bored free time on his hands that he'd have a go at it. But after getting shuffled around from his assistant to his assistant's assistant to his agent to his manager, one of them finally shot us an email saying: "Stephen has neither the time nor the interest in participating in your project."

Was the "nor the interest" really necessary? I would have bought the "time" part without question, but man...you gotta kick a guy when he's down like that? Well maybe I'm not interested in your ice cream, mister! Or your book. Unless someone buys it for me for Christmas.

Your third gift:
I've been neglecting to show off any of the work of our talented character design team, so allow me to rectify that with lovely cast photo below, which depicts just some of the many characters who will appear in the first 2/3 of Season 3. As usual, I won't give away who anybody is, or how much screen time they get, and leave you to wonder (and probably imagine far better adventures than we ever use them in). Designs are by Matt Jenkins, Martin Wittig, Doug Lovelace, Kano, and the pinch hitter Chris George. Character colors by Carly Monardo. Background painting by Chris Fisher.

...And lastly...

...SURPRISE CHRISTMAS CONTEST!!!

Okay, now that you've looked at the bewildering "cast photo" above, be the first to comment back with the correct answer to either of the two following questions, and win a fantastic prize. Two questions, two winners. Here we go:

1. Which of these characters, if any, does this room actually belong to?

2. There are three famous, non-fictional people in the picture. Name all three.

Tell them what they win, Jackson...

Our lucky winners will receive an ultra-limited edition, not-for-sale-anywhere Venture Bros. American Apparel track jacket! These were produced exclusively for the cast and crew of the show and are available nowhere but my office. They're gray, the front is emblazoned with a white silhouette of the boys in "Go Team Venture" pose, tastefully small across the left breast, and on the back is the Venture Industries logo in full color, as tastelessly large as I could fit it.

Good luck, and Happy Holidays!

We Love You,
JP

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

2007-11-22T15:41:28Z

...and welcome to post-production! The first take of the first episode of season 3 of The Venture Bros. arrived from Korea last week, and the overseas studio did a fine job on this, our first widescreen format HD episode. Retakes aplenty are forthcoming, as always, and in less than a month we'll have the final footage in our hands to begin editing.

Meanwhile, in pre-production, we've just finished revising the storyboard and editing the animatic for ep. 35, which was a grueling pain in the ass (why must I write fight scenes with 30 characters in them?) but well worth it and much the better for our efforts. We're now going to skip ahead to ep. 37, because Doc and I were foolish enough to wait till the third-to-last script to write an episode that needs to air third in continuity.

Speaking of air dates, some bad news: we're probably not going to premier the third season until June now. I don't have an official date yet, but that's the latest word from Atlanta. Which is probably a wise decision, considering our production schedule. On the plus side, we will have already started production on season 4 by then, so the wait between seasons 3 and 4 won't be so merciless.

Anyway, have a great Thanksgiving. Next time: more production art, including some new character art, and perhaps more frame grabs from new episodes.

We Love You,
JP

jacksonpublick @ 2007-10-27T00:20:00

2007-10-27T04:37:47Z

I missed a plane to Bermuda today. So here's a cartoon one.