The Mantis-Eye Experiment

- Doug Nelson sent in some guitar tablature for Look Away, the song at the end of 111.
- 'Zonerunner' was kind enough to send me some info on Hajime Sorayama for episode 112.
- Bryan Hornschu sent me a buttload of great info on Led Zeppelin which I added to the notes for 104.

Aside from that I've gotten lots of suggestions and compliments from others, and that's been quite awesome. So thanks to all you people out there. Buy yourselves something pretty.

As for show news, the ratings for last Saturday's airing of Return to Spider-Skull Island were quite nice with 517k viewers. Sadly, Sunday's showing of Trial of the Monarch didn't place in the top three (most likely due to the fact that it was on the Saturday before that), but still this is the sixth time the show has gotten over 500k viewers on the weekend.

So...do we have a second season or what? Here's the thing about that: you don't just get a call one day saying "go...make a second season." It's a process. Interest is expressed, research is done, and ultimately a budget has to be met. So, if we dot all our i's, cross all our t's and get a budget and schedule together, we will be making a second season of The Venture Bros.. If we don't...well, then more discussing has to be done, more number crunching, etc. Everyone wants it, it's just not official until it's official, hence no official announcement.

So there you go, these things just take time, but, as you probably know, it will happen.

Who says you need Jackson Publick for behind the scenes info? Now you can get some from Doc Hammer too, along with a nifty image to boot:

Jackson has come to save these little graphic jobs for me to do. Why? Because I am a nut who will spend way too much time on it, and do it for free. If I don't do it, I see the results of a little gem in the making left in the hands of an overworked animator, and I flip-out, like a child... "Ahhh, come on! It should be way more cool than that!" So I do it myself. You guys will never understand how much little pieces of shit Jackson and I have to do ourselves... Thankless crap. Yet... It's worth it. Isn't it? We think so.

The image provided is the cover of the Guild of Calamitous Intent Handbook which appeared in episode 110 and also 113 I think. And we thank you Doc Hammer. Ha, it's not thankless any more! Much thanks to livingfruitvirus for finding that.

Go Team Comments! I spent the last couple of days writing and testing a comment system for the site, with much thanks to the guy who hosts the site, who also happens to be named Mike. Anyway, you can sign up for an account and then log in and stuff and then post comments by either clicking on the news date or the link on the right that says the number of comments. This is still a beta, so if you happen to find a way to break it, I'd really appreciate it if you told me about it so I could fix it. They're pretty limited right now, but in the future I hope to expand upon it. Enjoy!

Oh right, the update everyone has been linking to the last day or two (thanks very much for that by the way) about season 2 is right below this one. If you want to link directly to it you can use this link.

First off I just want to say thanks to all the people who e-mailed me with kind words about the site. I love you guys! One e-mail in particular was, however, especially relevant to the topic of season two. My prior source (and I assure you that I have a legit source; I'm not just making stuff up) is reliable and I have no reason not to believe him, but two sources, well, you can't put a price on that. Here's that e-mail:

I participate in a professional graphics group (AIGA) and last Thursday Ed Murrieta, creative director of Cartoon Network, gave a presentation to our local chapter (there's a write-up here: http://southcarolina.aiga.org/). Asked point-blank, he confirmed that VB season 2 is a go! (VB also happens to be his favorite show).

So now we have some confirmation (albeit second hand) right from one of the high-ups at Cartoon Network. Cartoon Network normally holds off new show announcements until February, so you can expect an official announcement in the next couple of weeks, most likely after the show finishes its Sunday at 11pm run (which ends on the 4th).

Wowza. Sitting through Super Milk Chan has finally had some payoff. Ratings for last weekend follow:

But on a good note, Jackson promises good things VB-related things are to come tonight, including the ratings for last weekend's showings, and perhaps more? Who can tell. I'll be sure to update about the news when it's aired in a few hours, and don't forget to watch tonight's airing of Are You There God, It's Me Dean at 11pm and tell all your chums.

Finally on a site-related note, I'm thinking of adding a simple comments section to the site so you could post your thoughts on each update or the show in general, but I think that the lack of comments would just make me sad. But if you think it's a good or bad idea tell me about it, and we shall see.