The Mantis-Eye Experiment

This has I guess been known for a while but I figured since they are out next week (April 17th), I may as well (finally) make a post about it. From a press release on the Kidrobot forums, the figures will be blind box (meaning you don't know what you are getting when you buy it):

We've teamed up with Adult Swim to bring your late night to life. From Robot Chicken and Mad Scientist to Assy McGee, Carl and the Mooninites, ridiculous-ness in a box can be yours for just $7.95 a piece. 18 characters in all, including two secret chases. Badass!

There are 16 known characters including Dr. Girlfriend and the Monarch. So, uh, I guess start mindlessly buying them until you get the ones you want? I know I probably will be.

Okay, not really, but Jackson has an update on it (thanks Gumby!) with his and Doc's thoughts on Adult Swim's crazy airing of the episode (which will be the second episode of the season to air, meaning June 8th):

[If you had tuned in] 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.

Jackson has also provided some more shots of season three, and there's a ton of extra info there as well. For example writing for season four will apparently start within a reasonable timeframe, meaning there probably won't be a huge gap between seasons three and four, which is nothing short of a miracle. Go forth!

As I mentioned yesterday, on March 31st AS aired the first half of The Doctor is Sin during their April Fool's extravaganza (which, among other premiers, included a brand new episode of Metalocalypse). It was a rough cut, so animation and voice were the only things present. The lack of sound effects and music, as well as any post-production cleanup made it sort of eerie at times, but the comedy remained. At any rate, due to the unorthodox airing, I'm not going to write up a proper capsule until it airs in full. However I have posted some (non-spoiler) screenshots so it's not a total loss if you missed it. Take solace in knowing that season three is only two months away.

From April 18 - 20 the annual NY Comic Con will be taking place, and the festivities will include Doc & Jackson. If you can't make it you should at least read their profiles on that page (they're under 'special guests') because it's probably the second best thing to actually going.

Update: (April 3 @ 11:45am EST) - Kuiosikle in the comments was kind enough to remind me that Michael Sinterniklaas and James Urbaniak will also be attending. I guess you can call them Mike & James but that's not quite as iconic as Jackson & Doc so I have to use their last names. Perhaps the duo of Urbaniak & Sinterniklaas are due for a spinoff?

Apparently I missed this a while back, but some storyboards on Stephen DeStefano's blog (which, by the way, is full of awesome stuff that you should check out) spilled the names of some future episode names/numbers. According to the AS schedule episode 32 is the first episode airing (which coincides with Jackson mentioning that they wrote the premiere sixth), so there's no way to know when any of these will air, but here's some info for you nonetheless:

28 - The Doctor is Sin
24 - Murder O'Clock
35 - Now Museum - Now You Don't
?? - The Ant Farm

Remember, those are production numbers, so the episodes will air in a different order.

Also it's worth a mention that a rough cut of The Doctor is Sin aired on the night of March 31st (technically April 1st). I haven't been able to check it out yet myself, but I will be watching it tonight (thanks to the miracle of DVR) and I should have some screen grabs of it tonight for you guys. That's about it for now.

Annnnd we're back. In case you were wondering, yesterday's news and the press release were all false. The press release was also a parody of the recent JPMorgan Chase aquisition of Bear Stearns, something I never thought I'd parody on a site which reports news on an animated television series featuring a man dressed in a butterfly suit (among other things), but I find life is full of unexpected turns. Thanks to everyone who put up with the amazing orange/yellow/fuchsia color scheme. I apologize for any temporary blindness that may have occurred.

NEW YORK - New York - April 1, 2008 - Adult Swim & Co. (NYSE: ASC) announced it is acquiring Mantis-Eye Experiment Inc. (NYSE: MEE). The Boards of Directors of both companies have unanimously approved the transaction.

The transaction will be a stock-for-stock exchange. Adult Swim will exchange 0.05473 shares of Adult Swim common stock per one share of Mantis-Eye Experiment stock. Based on the closing price of March 31, 2008, the transaction would have a value of approximately $2 per share.

Effective immediately, Adult Swim is guaranteeing the trading obligations of Mantis-Eye Experiment and its subsidiaries and is providing management oversight for its operations. Other than shareholder approval, the closing is not subject to any material conditions. The transaction is expected to have an expedited close by the end of the calendar second quarter 2008. The Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and other federal agencies have given all necessary approvals.

In addition to the financing the Federal Reserve ordinarily provides through its Discount Window, the Fed will provide special financing in connection with this transaction. The Fed has agreed to fund up to $30 billion of Mantis-Eye Experiment's less liquid assets.

"Adult Swim stands behind Mantis-Eye Experiment," said Mike Lazzo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Adult Swim. "Mantis-Eye Experiment's clients and counterparties should feel secure that Adult Swim is guaranteeing Mantis-Eye Experiment's counterparty risk. We welcome their clients, counterparties and employees to our firm, and we are glad to be their partner."

Lazzo added, "This transaction will provide good long-term value for Adult Swim shareholders. This acquisition meets our key criteria: we are taking reasonable risk, we have built in an appropriate margin for error, it strengthens our business, and we have a clear ability to execute."

"The past week has been an incredibly difficult time for Mantis-Eye Experiment. This transaction represents the best outcome for all of our constituencies based upon the current circumstances," said Mike Watson, President and Chief Executive officer of Mantis-Eye Experiment. "I am incredibly proud of our employees and believe they will continue to add tremendous value to the new enterprise."

The transaction is expected to be ultimately accretive to Adult Swim's annual earnings.

"This transaction helps us fill out some of the gaps in our franchise with manageable overlap," said Lazzo. "We know the Mantis-Eye Experiment leadership team well and look forward to working with them to bring our two companies together."

"Acquiring Mantis-Eye Experiment enables us to obtain an attractive set of businesses," said Lazzo. "After conducting due diligence, we're comfortable with the quality of Mantis-Eye Experiment' business, and are pleased to have them as part of our firm."

"Adult Swim's management team has a strong track record of effective merger integration," continued Lazzo. "We will work closely in the coming weeks with Mantis-Eye Experiment's clients and management to execute the transaction quickly."

Adult Swim will host a conference call today, Tuesday, April 1st, 2008, at 8:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) to review the acquisition of Mantis-Eye Experiment. Investors can call (800) 555-1337 (domestic) / (719) 555-8008 (international), with the access code 614424, or listen via live audio webcast. The live audio webcast and presentation slides will be available on http://investor.shareholder.com/adultswim/presentations.cfm under Investor Relations, Investor Presentations. A replay of the conference call will be available beginning at 11:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) on April 3, 2008, through midnight, Wednesday, April 30, 2008 (Eastern Time), at (888) 555-7007 (domestic) or (719) 555-0455 (international) with the access code 614424. The replay also will be available on www.adultswim.com.

While there's been no formal announcement that I have noticed (dear god someone correct me if that's wrong), if you check out the latest AS TV schedule (which was revised on March 26th), you will note if you look at the June 1st at 11:30pm (EST) slot you see 'Venture Bros 32 (p)'. I assume the (p) stands for 'pending', however (cuavsfan pointed out the (p) means 'premier', thanks dude!) An early June premiere sits well with everything we've heard about production, so rejoice, hooray! Mark your calenders for unnamed Venture Brothers episode #32!

By the way not to confuse anyone, but the 32 is the production number, meaning it was the 32nd episode written, however it takes place 27th in the series (with Cremation Creek II being 26th). It's also worth noting that the schedule is subject to change, but either way this can be taken as a good indicator of things to come.

Popshifter has posted an interview with Venture Bros. music dude JG Thirwell. It's a lengthy interview, but it covers a bunch of Venture-related things as well as the non-animated series portion of Thirlwell's career.

What are you currently working on or with? Is 2008 shaping up to be as busy as the last two years?

I am preparing a Venture Bros. soundtrack album.

Also a Foetus album of archival minimal recordings made between 1980 and 1983 (some radically updated or redone where the quality of the original is bad or unfinished). This will be packaged as a digipack with a 48-page booklet of minimal artworks.

And also a new Foetus studio album for release in 2009.

I'm also working on the score of season three of The Venture Bros.

Read the whole thing for more.

Just in case you haven't been paying attention to the schedule, starting this upcoming Saturday AS will be airing a full hour of Venture Bros. with episodes at 11pm and 11:30pm (eastern). So that's pretty awesome if you need to do some last minute catching up on season two before three starts in a couple months. That's all for now I think.