The Mantis-Eye Experiment

For those of you waiting on buying the Venture Bros. figures, Entertainment Earth just put up singles of each figure, meaning you can buy them alone rather than in an arbitrary set of two. They're all $16.99, which is odd considering the two packs are $37.99, meaning you save $4 if you buy them separately (aside from the Henchmen). However singles of 21, 24 and Dean are currently sold out (and Brock is nowhere to be seen) but you can still totally buy a lone Monarch if you want.

Update (8/8/2010 11:51am): It's been pointed out to me that the single figures are cheaper because they are not in mint condition, meaning their packaging is probably folded or dented, which is something collectors don't like. Thanks guys!

Also Amazon has the season 4, volume 1 DVD up for the low, low price of $17.99. Obviously it won't ship until around October 26th, but it's there if you want it. Blu-Rayers will have to wait until the full season four set is out, which is likely to be around spring 2011.

• Stumble
• Tweet

With a decent amount of confusion surrounding the announcement of Venture Bros. season 4.2's start date as well as the 4.1 DVD, I decided to go straight to the source to get some clarification on the whole thing. Super thanks to Jackson for taking some time to set the record straight and provide some useful info.

• Stumble
• Tweet

Fresh on the heels of the premiere episodes of season 4.2, the first eight episodes of Venture Bros. season 4 (dubbed 'Volume 1' on the packaging) will show up on DVD on October 6th. No news on what the set will include, though it is apparently a two disc set, so expect commentaries from Jackson, Doc and friends at the very least. Note that, as Jackson mentioned in his blog there won't be a Blu-Ray release until the complete season four can be put on it. So if you're buying on Blu-Ray you won't have anything to worry about until at least next spring, but DVD folks will have two sets to buy.

The set has a suggested price of $23.98, so you may be able to snag it for $20 some places. Many thanks to Robert Sullivan for sending me this news; he is apparently better at finding this stuff than I am!

• Stumble
• Tweet

From the blog of Annie Wu:

I decided to take on a series of portraits (rather than my usual improvised characters) depicting duos in today's comedy scene (no Laurel and Hardy, sorry). I also wanted to do illustrations that would appeal both to those familiar and unfamiliar with the real-life subjects.

Head on over to her page for some larger versions. Thanks to @TeamVenture for posting about that on Twitter.

• Stumble
• Tweet

Until March 1st, Deep Discount DVD has each season of Venture Bros. on sale for only $15.98. So for those of you without the DVDs, still, for whatever reason, that's a pretty sweet deal. On top of that the season three Blu-Ray version is also on sale for a measly $26.98, so if you were waiting to grab that for whatever reason, here's your chance. There are also a ton of other Adult Swim DVDs on sale as well, should they strike your fancy.

• Stumble
• Tweet

As part of the bevy of season three DVD promo interviews, the A.V. Club has a pretty good interview with Jackson. Sample:

I can after a while. I try to safeguard myself from doing that. I mean, it's easier sometimes to write in that vein than it is to challenge yourself to come up with a new villain or a new place to go or a new set of circumstances, a self-contained, good story. You know, all your souls, you have to keep them sharp. It's good to go back and really delve into things, it's good to get away from them sometimes. I probably am more inclined to take it a little too seriously, I think my approach is to make the funniest James Bond movie ever. [Laughs.] I think Doc approaches it differently, he's more concerned about comedy and the characters, and I'm more plot-oriented than him. I think he's way better at dialogue and comedy than I am. You end up with a good balance over the course of a season. I wouldn't want all of them to be the way I write, and I wouldn't want all of them to be the way he writes, but both are totally what the Venture Brothers are, and what Venture Bros. needs. When we write together, it's a pretty good balance.

• Stumble
• Tweet

... or a Blu-Ray. Jackson updated with some tidbits about the upcoming season and how it's coming in two parts. He also included a nifty new background painting for immediate consumption (do not take painting orally). Also he notes that you really should buy the season three DVD and/or Blu-Ray because that would make him happy, and when he's happy, you're happy. Capisce?

• Stumble
• Tweet

Discussion threads make a comeback in '09 for one night only! Well, until season four starts at least. At any rate, if you've got something to say about the just-released season three DVD and/or Blu-Ray or the soundtrack CD/vinyl then here's the place to say it! My copies are still in the mail, though I expect my DVD to show up today. As is the norm I will also eventually be running a season three giveaway with the usual bevy of ridiculous questions. So stay tuned for that!

Also since I forgot to mention it, there's a new poll up for your voting pleasure. It's in the sidebar or you can just go directly to it if that's your thing.

Update (5:55pm EST): Hey, guess what just showed up!

• Stumble
• Tweet

Bundled with the upcoming Season 3 Blu-Ray release (and presumably sold separately) will be a much-lauded soundtrack, as you may know. A track list has finally surfaced (or maybe it surfaced a while ago, but it's the first I'm hearing of it) so you can lament that you don't yet own the damned thing and also maybe guess which tracks are which:

1. Brock Graveside
2. Tuff
3. Tensssacts
4. 13 BigMon / Boys as Transformers
5. Node Wrestling
6. Thunder-Bro
7. Damion
8. Assclamp!
9. Mississippi Noir
10. VB1 Spag
11. Bolly
12. Gawker
13. Descension
14. Warped Carousel
15. Sexy Sultry
16. In a spaceage Mood
17. X1 Krashi / woozzy
18. Warped Span
19. Fumblestealth
20. VB Theme

The DVD and Blu-Ray come out on March 24th in the US, in case you needed a reminder.

• Stumble
• Tweet

IGN has a quick article covering the Venture Bros panel. As expected most of the news is about the upcoming DVD/Blu-Ray release since there isn't a huge amount of info on season four just yet. They are hopeful that episodes will begin sometime later this year, however, so things seem to be on track.

• Stumble
• Tweet

In spite of all the skepticism revolving around season three's probability of being released on Blu-Ray (even though it was produced in HD) it appears that it will in fact get an HD release along with the standard fare DVD set. IGN has a story along with two product-shot mockups showing off the old Atari game box style the sets will carry.

Arriving at retail as a two-disc box set on both platforms for the suggested retail prices of $29.98 and $44.98, respectively, The Venture Bros. Season 3 features all 13 uncensored episodes from the show's highly popular third season and bonus material including deleted scenes and commentary. Additionally, the Blu-ray disc box set will be packaged with an exclusive CD which includes 20 tracks that comprise the full musical score from the television series' third season.

So there you go! The site says the release date is March 24, 2009, so there's a while to wait, but Blu-Ray fans and Playstation 3 owners rejoice.

Update: In celebration of this momentous event there's a new poll (or vote in the sidebar).

• Stumble
• Tweet

Right on the heels of Amazon's deals (but more likely because the company is bankrupt), Circuit City has both seasons for $12.99. That's right, season one and two for $12.99 together. It's only available on the site, but if you still don't have them and were waiting for an amazing deal than $6.50 per season (that's fifty cents per episode!) is probably as good as you'll find. So go already!

• Stumble
• Tweet

Just in time for the holidays Amazon has put Venture Bros. Season One DVD and the Season Two DVD on sale for only $12.99. They're listed as being normally $29.99 but that's a tad high, though you'd be hard pressed to find them under $20 most places. Either way thirteen bucks each is a good deal so if you know someone who you think would like a season or two or you have just been waiting to strike yourself now is a great time.

Also, just so there are no secrets between friends, those links use this site's ad codes for Amazon (same as the sidebar ads) which gets me a small percentage of the sale. So feel free to buy lots of stuff with those links! If I get a fat enough check from Amazon I might just have a Christmas contest/giveaway with some Venture-related paraphernalia as the prizes.

• Stumble
• Tweet

Many thanks to Toon Zone for posting a brief summary of the VB panel at this years Dragon-Con. Some highlights if you click through (still trying to avoid spoilers on the front page) including the future of characters, small clarifications, some DVD news and of course genitalia jokes.

• Stumble
• Tweet

Remember him? Do you? Well he updated his site with some news on season three's last-minute production (they are pretty much finishing editing right before the episodes go up online it seems) and early production on season four. The first script of his for an episode titled 'Handsome Ransom', is already done! Also next week's episode is called 'Tears of a Sea Cow'. Also vague DVD news. Also ratings (they have been good this season, but not as good as Family Guy reruns). Also just go read it.

• Stumble
• Tweet

Since there's really nothing worth mentioning in the last... long time... I figured anyone who doesn't own the season two DVD yet might want to check out the AS video show of Hate Floats complete with commentary. It should give you some insight into what you've been missing and maybe, just maybe, you'll want to run out to your local DVD supplier or internet web site which sells DVDs and buy a copy. Or maybe two, in case one of yours breaks.

• Stumble
• Tweet

So my prior information trolling duties used to include poking around the comments of Jackson's blog, however I've been skirting those duties for various reasons... until tonight. Here are a couple tidbits you might be interested in.

First off that ominous shot of a bloody Jonas venture in a cave turned out to actually be Jonas, in case there was any question:

(I was kind of surprised nobody said anything about the Jonas shot myself!)

Next up some extra info about the show being made in HD:

We're drawing the show in the 16:9 ratio and keeping the important action within the 4:3 "TV safety" window. I have no idea yet if we're pulling this off successfully, having not seen any footage back yet. Also, I'm not sure how we'll handle the pre-titles opening scenes, which we've traditionally put a fake letterbox on. Adding to my ignorance, I'm not even sure adultswim broadcasts in HD anywhere yet--but the DVDs will sure look nice.

To add to that, Cartoon Network HD is available if you have DirectTV, but currently no other providers carry it. Continuing this theme, here's a brief thought about releading a HD version of the season 3 DVD:

Honestly, I seriously doubt adultswim will spring for an HD or BluRay release at this point. But we'll at least make sure the DVD features the episodes in their widescreen aspect ratio.

And what about things to appear (or not) in the upcoming season?

As for Underbheit, he almost got a cameo in one episode but we couldn't fit him in (for the record, he got more play in Season 2 than he did in Season 1!). Consider him in exile, wandering the earth in search of a new dominion.

And not to break your heart over and over, but sorry...no Keenan and Kel jokes that I can recall. Maybe a Dune joke or two?

You'll be pleased to know that Holy Diver eventually made his way into an episode.

And what about the ever-present Star Wars references?

If it makes you feel any better, Doc and I had a gentlemanly disagreement just today, while recording an episode, over what constitutes an official Star Wars reference. It seems that one or two jokes we made in this upcoming season could be construed as goofs on that most celebrated space epic, though the verdict is still out. So, there's new hope. But I can at least guarantee 98% less Star Wars references this season.

And finally, when the crap does this season even start, anyway?

I'm actually not sure. Late spring, I think. We don't start delivering finished episodes to the network until January, and then it's one every two weeks after that. Usually they wait until we have 7 or 8 of them finished before airing the first one (they have to wait until we have at least six, because our premier is the sixth episode we're making). So that puts us into at least April, maybe later.

So there you go. Now you don't have to root through those pesky comments yourself!

• Stumble
• Tweet

Except you. Unless you happen to be Justin Epperson, who is the proud winner of the season two DVD. Now if I would only remember to actually mail the stupid thing to him, well that would be sweet (I'm hoping this update will help that). Anyway, everyone curse/congratulate Justin on a job well done! He answered enough questions correctly and his e-mail address actually worked (which is more than the first actual winner can say) so he rules! Also just in case anyone is wondering, I curved it so anyone with 13 or more answers correct (regardless of which 13) was entered in the final drawing. Next time I will try to make it slightly less tricky, but not too much, because what's the fun in that? You can view all the answers and stuff if you want. See ya!

• Stumble
• Tweet

Over on the contest page you may notice I posted the answers to all the questions as well as a brief explanation for each one. There's that. Next thing is, what I will probably be doing is a simple curve on the quiz. Since nobody got all fifteen normally I'd just enter the people who got fourteen right in the drawing and call it a day. However the quiz was pretty tricky and one question (number seven) out of 120 entries only 11 people got it right (remember who David Bowie is). So I'm going to drop that one (coincidently that's the only one the fourteen right answer people got wrong).

The next most wrongly answered question was the one about Hank's Batman mask (number three) which was tricky but if you remembered the flashbacks in Powerless in the Face of Death and the very very end of Viva los Muertos! you'd get it right.

A question I do have issue with is number eight. I purposly worded it so you'd need to know the alter ego's of some super heros (though fairly common ones). The obvious ones are there; Hank as Batman, Richard Impossible as Reed Richards and Hunter Gathers as Nick Fury. Then someone pointed out that Dean is a partial parody of Peter Parker (but most yes certainly not Spider-Man), or at least a dorky sort of stereotype and... well yeah it's sort of downhill from there. I meant more of a direct parody from the question, however. And a parody of the hero, not the secret identity.

So here's what you get, kids. I'm doing a simple curve of two questions, so anyone who got thirteen or more questions correct is entered in the drawing to win the DVD. Sound fair? If you have any ideas or suggestions feel free to post them, and I'll probably pick a winner tonight unless someone comes up with a better idea. Yahtzee!

• Stumble
• Tweet

To win the DVD! Indeed! Entering ends at midnight tonight, but there's a good chance I'll either forget or will be busy, and I'm too lazy to cut off submissions automagically, so you might be able to get in some last second entries!

Also amusing is nobody has gotten all fifteen right thus far (and only two people with 14 right), so I may have to curve it or knock off a few of the trickier questions or something. Then there's also the possibility that I have the wrong answers because I'm stupid, but who knows?

At any rate, get in those entries now now now!

• Stumble
• Tweet

In an effort to consolidate and also make up for updates I missed, here's a quote from a recent update from Jackson:

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.

Also the season two DVD is apparently selling very well, which is of course good news.

And what about Doc Hammer? Read:

One of the special features of the Season Two set is a tour of Astrobase Go. In it you learn all you ever wanted to know about Astrobase Go. Well, that is if you didn't want to know much more than how long it takes us to get to our studio. Oh what am I saying? "Deep Inside Astrobase Go" is one of the most exiting features ever to be dubbed "special". It was a phenomenal undertaking. A crew of no less than two hundred and fifty, highly paid professionals were rocketed to a moon orbiting space station to make this documentary. Many of them died of shock or lack of oxygen. Still others suffered from a dementia that space travel hands out like party favors. And believe me, it was all worth it. I'd kill them all again to make this most important Special Feature. I would stare in their eyes as I squeezed the last hiss of life from their neck if had to. Yes, it's that important. The people must know what makes the Astrobase so astro-special!

So if you ever wanted to know a whole crapload about the Astro-Base DVD feature on the S2 DVD, this is the thing you have to read. Okay? Good.

• Stumble
• Tweet

I recommend watching only the first two episodes and then skipping right to Victor. Echo. November. and then Fallen Arches and then skipping to the last two episodes. NO GO AND WATCH!

• Stumble
• Tweet

Loyal minion Jackson Publick has once again updated his live journal with some auctions of art for the DVD we dare not speak the name of! They include sketches of Venture and Brock Samson as well as that loser Phantom Limb and of course, the mightiest sketch of all!



You of course will want to skip the others and bid on just that one I assume. In fact why even bother looking, I will just LINK DIRECTLY TO THAT AUCTION! There, saved you a bunch of time.

• Stumble
• Tweet

Season Two is out on DVD, and the Monarch wants you to buy it because he thinks he gets a share of the profits since he's in it and all. Paying for a wedding is expensive. Sweet deal, plus maybe we'll actually get paid this year? Maybe?

Amazon.com - $20.99
Best Buy - $26.99
Circuit City - $22.99
Deep Discount DVD.com - $23.73

So go forth! The Viceroy commands it! That was awesome.

• Stumble
• Tweet

HEED THIS, MY MINIONS! Even though it's called 'Venture Brothers', this DVD set is still high quality! For you see they detail my daring escape from prison and my stunning recovery from the events of the first season and my climb back to the top of the mountain peak of super villainy. Plus I totally steal Dr. Girlfriend back from that pompous ass, Phantom Limb. Anyway, you can skip like half of the episodes because they lack the presence of the mighty Monarch.

Also you will notice a banner ad for this DVD set at the top of the site. loyal denizen Jackson Publick posted them on his live journal. Shameless. Speaking of shameless, if you purchase the DVD by clicking that little banner ad, you will line the mighty Monarch's pockets with a small amount of extra cash. You know, for snacks.

Addendum: The Monarch is not so good at this web site thing. There's a little dropdown box to select a name of who is updating and the default is that guy who used to work here and I KEEP FORGETTING TO CHANGE IT. I am displeased with this system and someone has to pay for it! Someone needs to figure out how to remove his name!

• Stumble
• Tweet

With that out of the way, in the May 2007 issue of Wizard you can find a nearly one-page preview of the season two DVD of that show whose name we dare not speak! It should be called The Monarch Brothers or, I guess just The Monarch since I don't have a brother... except I hold all copyrights to that name and we would have a field day with that lawsuit! The article, which appears on page 113, details the commentary on the DVD. The only mention of yours truly is the following:

... an emotionally unstable arch-enemy raised by butterflies called The Monarch; and his diabolical yet needy, deep-voiced partner-in-crime, Dr. Girlfriend.

First off, emotionally unstable!? HOW DARE THEY! Wizard shall pay for its insolence! And there is a large tax on insolence! Large indeed. That aside, I can't imagine you'd want to read the article any more since I just wrote out the best part. Save your money for better things, like a non-insolent magazine such as Butterfly Weekly. Emotionally unstable. There is no way to accurately express my disdain in text form!

• Stumble
• Tweet

The insolent Jackson Publick updated his Live Journal with some news of his piddly Venture Brothers show. Bah! That's next on my list of things to "buy out", if you catch my drift. Along with a trailer for the season two DVD there's also some production news, but no mention of any Monarch-related scripts or props, so you may as well just not bother. We all know why you're here! On with it!!

• Stumble
• Tweet

Finally a new update over at Publick Nuisance where Jackson himself has confirmed season three being greenlit as well as Cartoon Network making a commitment to season four (though it's apparently not in stone just yet). As for the important info, no air dates yet, but it looks like it will start around a year from now. Production, meanwhile, will start up on April 9th after Jackson and Doc have a few scripts under their belts. Thirteen new episodes, as is the norm. There's a ton of other stuff there as well, including some rejected artwork for the season two DVD (due out April 19th), so go read it now damn you. Oh, and thanks to mystery man 'Gumby' for e-mailing me about that.

• Stumble
• Tweet

Over at Jackson's he's posted a shot of the season two DVD interior. Cool stuff. There's also some info on the DVD which you may or may not know already such as commentary on every episode, special features and deleted scenes (both animated and animatic). Oh, and you can pre-order it on Amazon.com for $21. So get to it!

Update (Jan 9, 2007 @ 3:47pm): Oh, and because so many people have mentioned it and I am also apparently blind:

Oh, and we've begun writing Season 3...

Woot!

• Stumble
• Tweet

Many thanks to Anthony Papineau for passing along this link to TV Shows on DVD.com with some nifty info and such about the season two DVD. The two-disc set will contain every episode with commentary from Jackson & Doc (plus special guests) plus some deleted scenes and a tour of the Astro-Base. It'll retail for $30 and of course it's out on this upcoming April 17th. And yes, if you're curious, I will be doing another give away. Aren't I generous?

• Stumble
• Tweet

Over on JP's livejournal, Jackson has made a very informative update on the upcoming season two DVD. What do we have to look forward to? Well, there's commentary for every episode, including some with guests James Urbaniak (Dr. Venture) and Mike Sinterniklaas (Dean Venture), there's some more live action extras as well as a bunch of deleted scenes cut after storyboards and animatic. Sounds excellent. Oh, and it'll be out on April 17th, 2007. Do I smell a new countdown? You bet I do!

It's also worth noting (and Jackson did note it, but it bears repeating) that you can purchase the season one DVD on Amazon.com for a mere $8.99 + shipping. So if you don't have it yet, there's really no excuse unless you somehow lack nine dollars. And if you do lack nine dollars, maybe you should stop reading Venture Bros. web sites and get a damned job you dirty hippy! Seriously.

• Stumble
• Tweet

Time for the monthly update at Publick Nuisance to top off today's abnormal amount of updates. Lots of stuff about the upcoming episodes (there are four left, five if you count State Dinner which hasn't aired yet but is on ASFix), the season two DVD (yes, there will be one) and even... season three? Might there not be a year long wait before a renewal announcement this time? Be still my heart. Jackson also recaps Dragon-Con a bit and answers some questions about the continuity errors present in season two due to the episode airing order (VEN before Assassinanny, and Love-Bheits possibly before Twenty Years) and even explains the sourpussin' joke in Twenty Years to Midnight that had so many of us puzzled. So yeah, go check it out.

• Stumble
• Tweet

Well I don't have any more (except for my own copy), but I was sent word by the editor that the Washington Obfuscator is giving away the DVD. All you have to do is link their website on your own page and you're elegible to win. It's a fancy way to get more hits, which I like (I wish I'd thought of it), plus you can win a DVD, so everyone wins! I think.

• Stumble
• Tweet

Too poor to afford Venture Bros. season one on DVD? Too lazy to go out to the store to buy a copy? Too busy to buy it?! Just flat-out don't own it yet? Already have a copy but need a second one in case something happens to the first? Well then this is the place for you!


Click that link and you could win a brand new, unopened Venture Bros. season one DVD set! All you have to do is answer fifteen Venture-related questions (all of which can be answered by poking around this site) and you'll be entered in a random drawing on June 25th. Check the contest for the rules and stuff, and good luck!

• Stumble
• Tweet

Thanks to Turner inside man, livingfruitvirus, for pointing out that season two (which starts June 25th), will air Sundays at 10:30pm (EST of course), with an encore Thursdays at midnight. So if you're keeping up new episodes will air from June 25th until September 17th. Lead-in on Sundays is normally either Futurama or Family Guy, both of which get very strong numbers, which is good news for the show that follows them.

As for the DVD, it's currently number six on Amazon, after a long stay at #3, so it's had very strong sales, which is of course great news since potential DVD sales always come into play when you're thinking about, for example, if or not you should greenlight a third season. Oh and don't forget, VB isn't airing tomorrow, but be sure to check out the Korgoth pilot in VB's normal timeslot. I caught it on FNF last night and it was totally over the top in a good way. Most of you guys will probably enjoy it.

• Stumble
• Tweet

I never imagined I'd write so many updates in such a short timespan, but then I forgot I had almost daily updates even after season one ended, so I guess five updates in two days is okay.

Anyway, I forgot to mention that Jackson updated with an original image of the DVD insert art as well as a screenshot of VB reaching #1 on Amazon.com. It's down to #3 right now, but it's quite awesome that it made it to #1 earlier. I'm starting to believe that the ratings for season two are going to be insane. An explosion of viewers, if you will.

Secondly, Mr. McCulloch did an interview with SuicideGirls (the page is fairly work safe, if not pink) that you might want to check out. I added that to the interviews section of the articles page.

Also for all you late comers and cheap bastards, I will be having a DVD giveaway contest, as soon as I come up with a contest, that is. Hopefully within the next week or two.

Finally, Venture Bros. will not be airing this week. The pilot of Korgoth of Barbaria will play at 10:30pm on Sunday and then the following week VB will take that timeslot. I believe season two will have either the 10:30pm or 11:30pm Sunday timeslot.

• Stumble
• Tweet

And other information you might learn from the DVDs! After entirely too much commentary track listening and extra-feature watching, I've completed my review of the season one DVD complete with screengrabs. As you might expect from a Venture Bros. fansite, I give the Venture Bros. DVD a favorable review. All in all it's a steal considering how much you get for a mere $20 - $30, and well worth picking up.

• Stumble
• Tweet

• Stumble
• Tweet

In my continuing coverage of DVD day, I've noticed that it's currently ranked #8 on Amazon's best selling DVDs. Very good sign, though it is losing to Charmed. Let's at least get ahead of that, people!

Update (4:23pm EST) - It's now at #6. Good job! Keep it up!

Update (12:49am EST) - Seems to have topped out at #4.

• Stumble
• Tweet

On this lovely Memorial Day weekend (if you're in the US), you may want to check out this interview with Jackson Publick, aka Christopher McCulloch (that should probably be the other way around, but whatever). He touches on various happenings with the show and various tidbits like where the name Jackson Publick comes from (answer: nowhere, really) and some of what's happening in season two. Interesting interview, for sure. What would I do without James Urbaniak's LiveJournal telling me where these things were? I can't answer that, my friends.

• Stumble
• Tweet

How about a DVD review? Not from me, because I don't have an advanced copy (I figure if I complain enough eventually I'll get my way... probably not though), but over at DVD Talk there's a very comprehensive review of the upcoming season one DVD. One of the parts I'm interested in is the commentary tracks (since I've seen every episode a billion times), which will appear on episodes 104, 106, 108, 111 and the pilot. As far as other extras, we get a twenty-minute movie entitled Behind The Scenes Of The Live-Action Movie, which is the voice actors discussing how they were cast in a fictional live-action Venture Bros. film. So there you go, looks like it's going to be pretty cool. I'll have a review of it up next week of course, after I pick it up. Many thanks to Jeff for informing me of this.

• Stumble
• Tweet

On sale now! Well, in less than a week anyway, you could have season one in your grubby mitts. Here's some pricing and such:

$20.99 at Amazon.com
$24.99 at Best Buy
$22.63 at Walmart
$24.99 at Circuit City
$25.37 at Buy.com
$23.58 at Deep Discount DVD

The DVD of course contains all the episodes from season one as well as the pilot and Christmas special. A few episodes (I don't know how many right now) will also have commentary from Jackson/Chris and Doc. Along with that there will be deleted scenes and various goofy shorts like the one on AS Fix last week. I might also be running a small contest to give a lucky reader the DVD, but I'm not sure yet. Maybe if someone at AS wants to send me a free copy to give away, hint, hint is anyone reading this?! I'm the fifth result on a Google search for 'venture bros' and I get 500 hits a day on average! Come on people, hook a brother whitey up! Okay that's all.

• Stumble
• Tweet

I'm in Washington, DC on a business trip (there's something I never thought I'd say), but I still have a little bit of time for you guys! If you want to check out a sneak preview from the upcoming season one DVD, look no further than Adult Swim Fix which has a five minute feature that, uh, features Jackson and Michael Sinterniklaas in leotards. Yeah, I don't know either. Still, it's a funny feature and if the rest of the stuff on the DVD is of this quality then we're all in for a treat. And hey, less than ten days to go!

• Stumble
• Tweet

I'm a couple days late, but Adult Swim posted some info on the season one DVD set a few days ago.

The DVD will feature all 13 episodes of the first season, as well as the pilot and the "A Very Venture Christmas" special. Bonus features include creator commentary, deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes of the Venture Bros. live-action movie and original packaging art by comic-artist/god Bill Sienkiewicz.

Release is on May 30th, two weeks before season two is scheduled to begin (June 11th). Also you may have noticed I've brought back the DVD countdown in the box along with a countdown to season two's start. Good times. I've also got a bunch of e-mail to sort through, which I will get to one of these days. Going to have to start doing some actual work with this place soon I guess.

• Stumble
• Tweet

Two updates on the same day! I just felt the need to point that out. The ever articulate Jackson Publick hath updated once again, mentioning the eBay auctions which I mentioned already in the update below this one. Aside from that you get a lot of vague info on the current season (recordings by Brendon Small and Jon Benjamin of Home Movies fame are complete), and a bit of extra DVD news:

On the DVD front, I'm told the official release date is officially March 14, 2006 now. It will be a 2 disk set. Due to space limitations inherent in the format, we won't be doing commentary on ALL the episodes, but we are hoping to cover at least a few of them, possibly as many as five. Trust me, you don't want to hear either or both of us babble for seven hours anyway...

So there you go; official DVD release news! Also the season premier script is being worked on, so if my knowledge of the animation industry is accurate, that episode should be completed sometime in May or June, which should give you a rough idea of when the new season will begin. That's all for now folks!

• Stumble
• Tweet

Thanks to the wonders of Internet Comment Technology^TM, you can have a couple questions answered about the inevitable Venture Bros. season one DVD by Jackson himself:

DVDs--right now the plan is to get them out some time before season two premieres, potentially with a teaser for season two as one of the extras. However there's no official release date yet and we haven't started production on it. Just talking right now.

Part of me wants to hear the cussing in all its inappropriate glory, part of me thinks it's funnier and somehow more impactful when you hear bleeps. In the end, it may not be up to me. It could be that taking the bleeps out would change the "rating" on the DVD and cause it to require a "for mature audiences only" sticker or some crap that would hurt sales. Or maybe it will already have to have that because it's TV-14, which now seems to be quickly becoming TV-MA. I'll have to find out from the powers that be.

[The pilot episode] would probably be included as sort of a "special feature" and not as the first episode in continuity. I think we're stripping the episodes of their confusing production numbers, too, and just referring to them by their titles (to this day I still see people on the message boards insisting that the boys are still alive on the grounds that the trial episode takes place after "Return to Spider-Skull Island").

Commentary: It is doubtful that you could keep a pair of chatty, complainy idiots like us from commenting on our failures. And commentaries are so easy to do, we could record them all late one night at the Astrobase if need be.

So all of this is indeed good news for everyone asking about the pilot, bleeps and commentary. No word yet on what's up with Past Tense though.

So in a similar vein, I've (finally) added a new Mantis-Poll which asks what special feature you'd most like to see on the S1 DVD.

Update - Aug. 30, 10:47am - Quick update here... two months later, but I thought I'd mention this DVD set will not be the official design. I've gotten a few e-mails and questions about this. While very cool, it's designed by an aspiring DVD box artist and is in no way official.

• Stumble
• Tweet

Okay, before I run off to dreamland for the night, I just want to touch on a couple things I forgot to get into last update. First off, the DVD of Season 1 appears to now be in the works, though the release date is not final, but estimations put it happening sometime in early 2006, though very early CN projections said October, but that seems unlikely at this point. So it will be a nice compliment to an already in-progress season 2, or something to cry and get drunk over if the show is canceled.

Nextly, and I didn't even notice this until an hour or two ago, the showing of 104 last Sunday (the 6th) managed to pull in a whopping 698k viewers (males between 18 and 34 anyway) which are the highest weekend ratings the show has ever gotten. Not too shabby for 12:30am on Sunday.

And finally I have all the screencaps for the full-length episodes done, which means I only have the Christmas episode left. Note to anyone who hasn't seen Return to Spider-Skull Island, you might not want to look at the last image as it's pretty spoiler-tastic. I figure it's aired enough times by now that it's okay, but fair warning I suppose.

• Stumble
• Tweet

One great thing about the SA Forums is that there's always somebody who has gone to some big and interesting thing. In this case the man only known as 'The Jizzer' attended the AS Q&A I mentioned in the last update; so here's some of the same Venture Bros. news:

• Coming out soon on DVD (1st 13 episodes)
  
• [AS] is still contemplating renewing the show -- so WRITE SOME GODDAMN LETTERS AND SUPPORT IT, ASSWADS.

Sooooo... yeah. I gotta say, I'm starting to get worried here. At any rate, you can e-mail AS at adultswim@turner.com, which I believe will be forwarded to a number of people. Let them know (nicely) that you really, really like the Venture Bros. and you'd really appreciate it if they renewed it. They do read their e-mail (or so I'm told), so go ahead and do it, and tell anybody else who's a fan of the show to do it too.

Site news? Screencaps are actually easier to put together than I thought (since I don't mind watching each episode again), so I have up to Mid-Life Chrysalis done, and I may do the next episode later tonight. Enjoy, and send out an e-mail!

• Stumble
• Tweet

Keep in mind that the following isn't official at all, but check out this neat season one DVD set. It's made by a fan of the show who also happens to be an aspiring DVD case designer, but it's still quite cool. Muchas gracias to nfreakct on SA for finding that.

• Stumble
• Tweet