The Mantis-Eye Experiment

Well, end of the year, kids. The Mantis-Eye Experiment started up in November of 2004 after season one ended, so this has been the first full year the site has been up. It's been a pretty good year; lots of changes made from the initial site. I switched to PHP so I could actually make stuff like polls, the encyclopedia (which seems to get quite a few advertisements submitted every so often) and all sorts of other nifty stuff like themes and such. It's been a great learning experience for me, and even though no new episodes aired this year, I think that may have been a good thing (for me anyway) since I got to play around with fixing stuff up.

Of course I want to thank you guys, my readers. The site had an average of 15.8k hits per month, with the highest coming in October with a whopping 20,774 hits, which is pretty good I think. Most successful web site I've ever run anyway. All your comments and e-mails have been much appreciated. All you folks who sent in stuff for me to add to the episode notes get a big thank you as well. Finally we'll have more to add this year! Only a few more months. You can hang in there... because you don't have a choice.

Many thanks in specific, to anonymous reader who sent in this announcement which helped cement this site's status. Also livingfruitvirus from the SA forums (among others) who has supplied me with lots of excellent information since he's all crafty and has insider info. Also to Havocware, who has sent in a ton of episode notes. You guys kick ass!

Another big thanks are in order to Mike (not me), owner of Mancubus.net who, like you, is a big Venture Bros. fan, and has been awesome enough to host this site free of charge. I'd give him a big hug if he wasn't in another state and I didn't have this cold (I hope it's not bird flu, I heard I should be worried about that).

Thanks are also in order to Cartoon Network for finally renewing the damned show and not making all my efforts for naught. I know the show didn't have amazing ratings at first, but they improved a ton, and it has pretty good word of mouth, and all the AS execs really seem to like the show. Be sure to tell your non-Venture watching friends about it when season two starts so we can assure a season three, maybe even a season three with a bigger budget? Let them borrow your season one DVD set if they don't believe how great you say the show is.

And finally an extended thanks to the Venture Bros. crew. You know, those crazy guys and gals who actually make the show come to life. They're probably working their asses off on it at this very moment, and without them this site wouldn't exist. I've actually been in contact with a few crew members who have sent me notes, corrections, tips or just plain 'great site, keep it up' remarks. They've all been super nice (and, in the case of Doc Hammer, super funny, though I still say Violator is better than Black Celebration) and I just wanted to mention that to score some points or something. Seriously guys, I'm a 45 min train ride from Manhattan, and I own a camera. You know where I'm going with this!

Jackson Publick, in specific (who I have never talked to), since he seems to be just about the nicest guy in the animation industry. Not only did he create (along with write, direct, act in, produce, storyboard, design and so on) this super-awesome show, but he takes the time out to write a production journal and answer questions in the comments. That's pretty much unheard of in this industry, so you guys should consider yourselves lucky.

So that's it. Sorry for the stupidly long update, but I just felt some things had to be said. Everyone have a safe and happy new year, and remember, new episodes in 2006! The year of Venture! Have a good one.