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.

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...

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

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!

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



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

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...

***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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

...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

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

Doc and I have just finished writing episode 39 of The Venture Bros., which, if you do your math, is the finale of Season Three. So we're done with the writing for a while, though, thanks to a number of intriguing plot developments in this last episode, we find ourselves uncharacteristically enthusiastic about starting up the next season as soon as possible. The past month was grueling--hence no posts here for a while--but rewarding. While we were writing the last two episodes at night, I was spending my days revising the storyboards and editing the animatic for the premier episode. Needless to say, the alpha and omega of any season are terribly important, so obsessing over getting both right at the same time with only so many hours in the day in which to do it was a challenge. Fortunately, I was not alone in either endeavor. Doc wrote heroically, and the storyboard team really busted their collective hump. Thank you, guys and gals.

Other than that, production's going pretty well. A little bit behind schedule, as always, but everyone is turning out great work. We're presently designing ep. 39, editing the animatic and coloring for ep. 33, storyboarding eps. 37 & 38, and we're set to record ep. 36 this week. I'm looking forward to being a full-time director and having my nights free for a while, but post-production will be starting up in about a month and a half, when we start seeing footage from Korea--screengrabs of which I'll undoubtedly post when the time comes. We've never edited HD footage before (did I mention The Venture Bros. is being made in HD this season?), so it should be interesting and full of unforseen technical dilemmas.

Now that I can look back on a full 13 scripts, I can truthfully say it will be a weird season. We dug deeper than we have before, told richer stories, took some chances (we'll see if they pay off), and, as promised in the commentary for the Season Two DVD, made no intentional Star Wars references. I think we managed to hit just about every semi-important character who's appeared before (with the exception of Baron Ünderbheit--might as well tell you now), including some Season 1 favorites who didn't get much play in season 2. And we introduced plenty of new ones, adding multiple layers of backstory (and forwardstory) to the Team Venture saga. And though we wrote more "stand-alone" episodes than usual, there is definitely an arc to this season. Long time viewers will undoubtedly get more out of it than newer ones, who we'll probably alienate altogether. One thing I can promise you is this: if you're a fan of the show, and at some point mid-way into this coming season you start wondering to yourself things like "How come they never __________ anymore?" or "Whatever happend to __________?"...just wait. It's coming.

With that, I offer you some more full-color glimpses of previously undisclosed areas of the Venture Compound, courtesy of Liz Artinian, Chris Fischer, and Deo Pangandoyon:

Hallway (with view toward the Rocket Observatory)...




The Venture Surveillance Room...




The Venture Lobby...





We Love You,
JP

Random P.S.es...

• Since it's been so long since I posted, I never got a chance to properly thank those of you who attended DragonCon in Atlanta and passed on gifts to me via Doc. So...thank you all. The snacks and care packages got me through many a late night writing session this month, and the "AstroBase BMX Dinosaur" t-shirt has become a staple of my wardrobe and the envy of my friends.

• Congratulations to my pal Phil Rynda, who received an Emmy last month for his character design work on a Billy and Mandy special.

• Somewhere in the midst of all that stuff above, I found time to read Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible, which I recommend checking out if you're a fan of The Venture Bros. or any of the things in this popular culture stew of a world that inspired it.

• To Whomever Hit My Car (when it was PARKED): DICK!!! Come on, man. $1,400 of damage and you don't leave a note or anything?

Super-busy crunch time of the season, which always happens around this time...so not much to say other than "we're working really hard."

Doc and I are presently collaborating on episode 37, which we intend to sandwich in as third or fourth in the airing order, since it introduces a plot line/character arc we've been playing with all season but somehow never got around to writing the genesis of earlier on. We'll only have two left to finish out the season after that--which instills me with a paradoxical combination of emotions: "my, where has the time gone?" and "crap...we're not out of the woods yet...what are we gonna do for a big finale this time?"

Recorded Patrick Warburton for episodes 33, 35 and 36 over the phone today--he in Burbank and me in Brooklyn. I was supposed to go to L.A. this weekend to record him, Urbaniak, Dana Snyder and a couple of other guys, but Urbaniak and the Snyde magically appeared in New York this week so I cancelled the trip and recorded them here. Which worked out nicely because Doc and I are a bit behind in our writing and he's going to DragonCon next weekend (which I'm not). Every day I don't have to waste six hours on a plane, stare at the walls of a Hollywood motel, or walk around like a zombie because I'm exhausted from doing either of those things, counts. Of course, this means I'll have to go out there in September...but I'm trying to book a couple of guest voice actors to make it more fun and keep things interesting. They probably won't mean much to anyone but me, but I'm excited about it. Why can't you just let me enjoy this?!

Speaking of me enjoying myself, I paid my first visit of the season to J.G. Thirlwell's place last night to chat about the score for the first few episodes. I was treated to several earsful of some of the themes he's been working on in anticipation of the hours of music he'll have to create this year, and, needless to say, everything I heard was super-cool.

Other than that, we just finished the animatic for episode 30, the design department is working on episode 36, the storyboard guys are plugging away at episode 35 (check out Stephen De Stefano's blog for a window into that world), and we've just shipped episode 29 to the studio in Korea to be animated.

One more brick in the almost non-existent wall of Venture Bros. merchandising is about to be mortared into place--I just got my 3 free copies of a 2008 Venture Bros. calendar in the mail. So look for those in stores...um...some time...soon-ish?

In non-Venture news, Adult Swim's SuperJail has just gone into production on their first season (wish them luck) and it looks like I'll be doing some voices for that.

As will become habit for the next few months, I bid you a fond farewell-for-now with some images of this season's background paintings...

The Revised Venture Living Room...


The Revised Venture Kitchen...


The Revised Venture Compound Overhead (on an importantly gloomy day)...


We Love You,
JP

P.S. If you're a fan of The Venture Bros.--especially the sad and lonely parts about loss and failure--I highly recommend Joe Meno's The Boy Detective Fails, which I recently re-read, and which is available at finer bookstores everywhere.

...then shake off those blues with an eyewalk through Brandon Bird's portfolio.

Haven't posted in a while. Because I didn't have much of anything to show and/or tell. And because I've been very busy: production is in full swing now, with almost all departments operating at full steam (except for the animation direction department, which starts Friday) and half a dozen episodes or more in play at various stages of development. We've turned in seven scripts so far, with Doc expected to turn in the eighth this week. Doc and I have, so far, only written one together--the premier--but hope to rectify that with the ninth script starting next week. If there's an overall theme to the season developing, it would appear to be the repercussions of the past on our characters' present--flashbacks abound! One trend that's also developed among the stories thusfar is the further exploration of our supporting characters. Indeed, there are a couple of episodes in which the Ventures family are all but guest stars in their own show. On the other hand, we've also been exploring many heretofore unseen rooms and wings inside the Venture Compound, so our protagonists are not without plenty to do themselves, nor are they bereft of surprises.

We've had a few production setbacks, which is par for the course on this show, but we seem to be weathering them and recovering well. This season's team is the absolute best we've ever had--I'm completely confident in their abilities to make this the best-looking season yet--and I'm terribly grateful to them for both that and the fact that I haven't had to pull any all-nighters yet.

Speaking of good-looking, now that we've finally deployed the color department, below are some of the first background paintings from the new season, as promised last time:

The new and improved Venture Compound "master shot"...


...and the Conjectural Technologies bathroom...


That's about it for now. More next time. Oh, and unfortunately, it doesn't look like Doc or I will be attending the San Diego Comic Con. Adult Swim has...I won't say "boycotted" it...but they've decided not to have a presence there--which means they're not sending us out for free.

We Love You Anyway,

JP

P.S. On a sad note, I only this week learned of the passing of Daniel Robert Epstein, interviewer extraordinaire, perhaps best known for his work on the SuicideGirls website (I would hotlink him, but he's done hundreds of interviews--Google him!). I've only met Daniel on three occasions, the most recent being about two months ago when he came by The Astrobase to interview Doc and me, but, as all his interviewees can attest, he was a supercool guy who made you feel more like you were hanging out and having a conversation with a friend than being interviewed. I'm sad I didn't get to know him better, and my heart goes out to his wife.

So I got up at 4am on Friday to fly to Los Angeles (having missed my Thursday evening flight like a jackass), and I've just returned home. The mission? To record Patrick Warburton for the first five episodes of season 3 of The Venture Bros. But of course, now that James Urbaniak has moved there (and flying in the face of rumors about his departure from the show), I was there to record him for episodes 30 and 31 as well. Which meant...Dr. Venture and Brock Samson were, for the first time in the history of the series, in the same room at the same time. Obviously, the photo opportunity was not to be missed, and the location (NYAV Post's Western adjunct) provided a lovely backdrop. So that was my Friday...recording these talented fellows for something like 7 hours, while riding out an airplane and insomnia-induced sinus headache.

Sunday I went back to the studio to record the also-talented Dana Snyder and Brendon Small, then caught Ocean's Thirteen with Dana and accompanied him to a sweet little geeky CD listening party. Then it was on to the El Cid restaurant to join James and Todd Alcott for a burlesque show featuring the Sinatra-esque vocal and comedic stylings of Toby Huss, a guy James and Todd know from their ancient, late-80's/early 90's downtown performance days, but who I've only enjoyed from afar as the inspired lunatic behind MTV's best interstitials from the mid-90's (and the guy who stole the show in the Brendon Fraser remake of Bedazzled). He is also the only man on the planet I'd ever want to play The Monarch in a live action interpretation of The Venture Bros., not that anyone's asking.

In between, I spent my free Saturday taking pictures of the actual Frank Lloyd Wright house that inspired Phantom Limb's place, just for kicks...

...Then I went to join my friend Ben at a children's mud-wrestling party in Topanga Canyon--which was undoubtedly the closest thing to the cover of Houses of the Holy I've ever seen in real life.

But now it's back to work. Doc and I are busy plowing through the script for the premier episode, we've got five others done already, the fourth of which is being designed and the first of which is in its animatic stage. Next week the color department starts, so perhaps I'll be able to start posting some dizzyingly lovely art from the show again soon...

We love you,
JP

For those who don't know, Upfronts are a traditional event that pretty much all networks engage in. The network in question invites all their potential advertisers to a gala affair to showcase their present and future programming, in hopes of attracting advertising dollars. There are usually speeches and clips and graphs and charts and so forth explaining what a good idea it is to advertise on their lineup. I went to one of these things for the Fox network about six years ago, when the live action The Tick series was set to premiere and it was in a huge theater in mid-town. The Brian Setzer Orchestra opened the festivities with a re-written, Fox-themed rendition of The Stray Cats' "Rock This Town" and then Frankie Muniz came out to really get the party rolling in his inimitably precocious, freckle-cheeked way. Each new series in their upcoming Fall lineup was touted by the executives, and their respective casts were paraded out on stage to take a little bow (The Tick was among them, as well as Boston Public and something called "Untitled Michael Crichton Project" which, as near as I can tell, never ended up happening). It all had the palpable air of a glossy slave auction, with higher production values and better catering.

[adult swim] does things a little differently, thank God (though the catering was excellent). They're kind of the anti-network when it comes to stuff like this. Their Upfronts are an aloof month later than everyone else's, and the presentations are mercifully brief. A little bit of patter from some business guys, then Mike Lazzo--the ultimate anti-executive--talks for about ten minutes with a few ironic slides projected behind him...and it's all over. Then it just becomes a big party...with nary a Muniz nor a Setzer in sight.

The [adult swim] Upfronts were pretty fun, I have to say. In the past, they've been held in some big, dark club and it's been crazy crowded and loud with someone spinning the most invasive hip hop I've ever heard, but this time (to the chagrin of some, but not this reporter) it was in a well-lit, stylish art space and I could actually see and hear some of the people I attend these kinds of things to see and hear. And they're all actually really cool people. There is a genuine feeling amongst the creators of the [adult swim] programming that there is something special going on. That we're lucky to be with this network, at this time and place, because there are opportunities here that simply don't exist anywhere else on TV.

Sure, we creators love to gripe about how low our budgets are, or what time slot we got, or how disappointed we are about the promotion our little shows are or aren't getting...but ultimately, everyone's happy to be where they are. Take Seth Green--you'd think he's like a Hollywood guy. But he's happier than a pig in shit to be playing with dolls and goofing on Star Wars with Robot Chicken. Or Loren Bouchard--co-responsible for what I consider to be two of the best cartoons of the last ten years: Home Movies and Dr. Katz. He's now hard at work on the upcoming Lucy, Daughter of the Devil and seemingly loving every minute of it, despite numerous production hardships. I have a couple of friends who are just starting out at Adult Swim with the upcoming SuperJail, and I saw a New York underground cartoonist, whose work I'm a huge fan of, who told me he's about to sign a deal with the network. Say what you will about Tim & Eric (I like them quite a bit, personally), or 12 Oz. Mouse, or the addition of non-animation to the lineup in the form of Saul of the Mole People...[adult swim]'s doing some interesting stuff and they're way more experimental than any other network out there right now. They're really building on what they started with Space Ghost, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Sealab in interesting and unexpected ways. Some good stuff is coming down the pike. And if some of the new stuff isn't your cup of tea, I promise you it will still be like nothing else you're going to see anywhere else. And there's something to be said for that.

I've worked a little bit for other shows and other networks, and part of me knows I will probably never have a job this good again. Maybe I'll make more money somewhere else in the future. Maybe I'll make something that gets a ton of advertising and press coverage, I don't know. But I'll most likely never have as much freedom and control over my own work as [adult swim] affords me.

And so, Production continues...

We've already gotten just a tad behind in production because the first episode I wrote (episode 27) was heavy on new designs and we have a lot of new people who are still wrapping their heads around our little non-system for doing things. Episode 28 is a bit lighter, though, taking place mostly in the Venture Compound, so we're sure to catch up. Never one to leave well enough alone, we're tweaking the designs for the Venture Compound here and there in an effort to make the place a little more logical, lavish and functional. This is a constant process of refinement, and the breakneck production schedule rarely allows you to get each room looking exactly the way you want it to the first time around. So, as always, if you see new stuff in old rooms next season...just pretend it was always there. We'll also be showing off some new areas of the compound no one's laid eyes on before, too, which is exciting in my myopic little world. We'll be recording episode 28 this week. And the storyboard for episode 27 is currently being drawn by Matt Peters, Stephen DeStefano and Rick Lacy, so that should be pretty hot!

So far, both episodes are sort of stand-alone stories, albeit ones laced with hearty doses of backstory and continuity. Doc's turning in his first two scripts back to back this week, one of which is the most uncharacteristically complex plot he's ever penned. The other promises to be this season's "Tag Sale--You're It!" I'm really happy with these stories so far and looking forward to directing them. It feels like Doc and I are hitting our stride, playing all the right notes and yet expanding upon and deepening the Venture universe. Things feel a little more open and easygoing or something...it's hard to explain. But with 27 1/2 of these under our belts already, it's like we can take certain chances with the narrative we couldn't before because we were still setting up the world. Now that we've got these first few solo efforts out of the way, we'll set about the task of writing a couple together, which always yields surprises and new directions, and more often than not our most successful episodes as we fill in each other's weaknesses and try to out-crazy each other.

Apparently our DVDs are selling very well...

We received many congratulations and were made aware of much excitement on the part of the network at the Upfronts. And, for those of you lamenting our lack of merchandising, this buzz is sure to begin translating into Venture-themed knick-knackery for you to proudly display on your bookshelf or person over the next year. But it's the little things that count: I finally feel vindicated because Kim's Video on St. Mark's Place decided to carry our DVD this time around. If you're not from here, Kim's is like the video Mecca in this town, and while they're not the biggest video store around, they're one of the best when it comes to scoring fringe and hard-to-find videos. I drop like a hundred bucks there every week, so it was disheartening when they didn't have the Season One DVD for sale, despite shelves full of stuff like ATHF and Wonder Showzen. I keep poking my head into the Virgin Megastore, too, and have been delighted to see us completely sold out of Seasons 1 & 2 one day, with reinforcements quickly arriving the next.


We Love You,
JP