The Mantis-Eye Experiment

As promised, Adult Swim's web store has a physical copy of the "Jacket" EP that you can pre-order for a mere $5. It includes all five tracks from the downloadable version and each CD will be hand-numbered. Quantities will be limited so get while the gettin's good! These will ship on September 6th. On top of that a Shallow Gravy tshirt has also been offered up. It features a picture of the band featured in the album art. Also promises to be the "raddest shirt featuring H.E.L.P.eR." ever sold. The shirt can be yours for only $18.

Last night I finished up the capsule for "From The Ladle To The Grave: The Shallow Gravy Story". However, confession time, music videos are not my forte. In fact they are not even something I am vaguely familiar with since I spent my childhood playing Doom instead of watching MTV. So while I was able to notice a few of the references in the "Jacket" video (for example the Bob Dylan one; one everyone should know) I still need your help! Use the comments (or send me email if you're shy) to tell me what I missed. Also it was very late when I wrote it so feel free to correct any typos. Fly, my editors, fly!

Update (Aug 30, 12:55pm): Adult Swim is also airing the special every night this week at 12:30am, so if you missed it that's probably the best way to catch it. Adult Swim Video also has just the music video, "Jacket", if you want to watch it a few more times.

Original Story: For those of you with $1.99 to spare and a desire for more Shallow Gravy head on over to iTunes for an uncut version of last night's episode. It's 11:46 which is only slightly longer than the 11:18 version that aired last night but if you want as much Venture Bros. as you can handle (especially since it will be quite a while until there's more) then it's worth checking out.

On top of that for those of you with Adult Swim Gold access, the episode is currently up in full HD on that service. That is the standard cut of the episode, but if you want to watch it again (or missed it last night) then it's there for you! For the free, standard quality version Adult Swim will probably have it up next week as is the custom for new episodes.

And don't forget to check out the discussion thread to see what fellow Venture fans think and pop on over to the capsule page to vote on the episode.

Welcome, friends! As is custom with a new Venture Bros. episode comes a new discussion thread. This one is going up a little early thanks to the Venture Bros. marathon preceding the new 11-minute special "From the Ladle to the Grave: The Story of Shallow Gravy". Use the comments of this post to talk about the episode (or episodes) or just the show in general. For people who haven't seen the episode yet note that the comments will contain spoilers so if you don't enjoy that sort of thing then wait until you've seen it to start reading. Enjoy the episode!

MTV Geek! has a pre-special interview with Jackson and Doc that delves into the reason for the special, the reason Shallow Gravy exists, themes of the show, production on season five and more:

Yeah, it’s been a very long time since a whole story kind of popped into my head and that only happens when you are already super-focused on the writing and have immersed yourself in the world. I was writing a totally different story and have all of these characters in my head, and all of the interactions, and the things that will affect other people in my head and that just triggers new stuff.

LA Weekly's often comprehensive Venture Bros. news continues with a quick interview with Jackson and Doc as a preview of sorts for the upcoming Shallow Gravy special. There's info about the special of course, but also some stuff on season five's progress:

"We both have a script a piece, we probably need one more each, or five total, before we start making the show," says Publick (he and Hammer tend to write individual episodes on their own). "Hopefully, in two months at the most, we'll start up."

Why yes, Ken Plume is rather chatty with Venture Bros. creators lately, isn't he? Not that we're complaining, of course. Today you can listen to him chat it up with Doc Hammer about " shirtlessness, humidity, four voices, sports, and vaudeville" which sounds like a good time. I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet but chats with Doc Hammer always deliver so you should give it a listen now or put it on your favorite portable digital music device and listen to it on a bus or train or something.

For those of you attending Dragon*Con this year I have finally managed to cobble together a schedule of all Venture Bros. related items. Their schedule seems to only be available via an iPhone/iPad app that was quickly pulled from the App Store for unknown reasons (though it still updates itself when you start it). That's my only source for this year's schedule so you'll have to take my word for it until it goes online. This year's showing is slightly meager as far as official stuff goes. Adult Swim doesn't look like they will have a booth this year and Jackson informed me that he won't be attending. However you still get an hour-long Venture Bros. panel and all the Doc Hammer and James Urbaniak you can handle. As per usual I've also included the various fan-run events which Dragon*Con is often turgid with. There's a Venture Bros. fan panel right before the official one, a costume party and a number of fan panels and other events being run by Adult Swim Central. Note that there are some conflicts here and there, so choose wisely! Read the full schedule and remember that some times and places may not be finalized yet.

Also a reminder, I'm still looking for awesome folks to volunteer to cover Dragon*Con. I have someone willing to write an article or two but if you want to attend the Venture Bros. panel (or other Venture events) and also enjoy taking photos and having them appear on this web site, please drop me a line!

If a chat with Jackson just wasn't enough to sustain you then you should check out Shadowlock's interview with the Venture Bros. creator/writer/director/etc. There's a fair bit about the writing process for season five (which has begun but isn't quite in full swing yet) as well as themes of the show, how difficult it's been for Jackson to quit smoking and how they hope the process of season five and six will be different from three and four:

We owe the fans more than 'okay' writing. We owe them our best effort, so we've always tried to hold our own feet to the fire as far as the quality of our work and stuff like that. Sometimes it helps to be under the gun when production is actually moving and sometimes it hurts us. Last season was a little too rough on me in the fact that we were always behind and were constantly late with the scripts and there was never a chance to catch up and feel okay.

There's lots more, so go check it out.

Head on over to your favorite place to purchase digital music, including Amazon and iTunes, and spend four dollars to enjoy Shallow Gravy's breakout hit, "Jacket". The EP comes with four versions of the song and also includes a music video of the song. If you're holding out for a physical copy, you should be pleased to know that one is currently in the works. Says Jackson:

We're working on getting a physical CD (with bonus video content) available in the adultswim online store soon, hopefully.

And don't forget the special itself will air this Sunday night after a lengthy Venture Bros. marathon.