Doug TenNapel

Doug TenNapel
TenNapel in June 2011
Born	Douglas Richard TenNapel (1966-07-10) July 10, 1966 Norwalk, California, United States
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Writer and Artist
Notable works	Earthworm Jim, Catscratch, The Neverhood, Ratfist, "Cardboard","Ghostopolis","Creature Tech",
Awards	Eisner Award Winner
Spouse	Angie TenNapel (1990-present)

Douglas Richard "Doug" TenNapel (born July 10, 1966 in Norwalk, California) is an American animator, writer, illustrator, and musician whose work has encompassed animated television, video games, and comic books. He is best known for creating Earthworm Jim, a character that spawned a video game series, cartoon show, and a toy line.

Early life

TenNapel was born in Norwalk and raised in the town of Denair, California. He got his primary education from Denair High School from 1980 to 1984. From 1984 to 1988 TenNapel studied at Point Loma Nazarene University on art specialty, finishing with Bachelor's Degree.

Career

TenNapel began as an animator on Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: The Animated Series.^{[citation needed]} He soon began working in the video game industry on projects like 1993's Jurassic Park and Stimpy's Invention for the Sega Genesis and The Jungle Book for the SNES and Sega Genesis.^{[citation needed]} In 1994, he created Earthworm Jim, the character that would star in Shiny Entertainment's video game, toy line, and cartoon series. In 1996, working for Dreamworks, he created for The Neverhood for the PC. The sequel, entitled Skullmonkeys, followed in 1998.^{[citation needed]}

On television, TenNapel was the creator of the Project G.e.e.K.e.R. cartoon series for CBS. He was also a consulting producer on the ABC series Push, Nevada with Ben Affleck.^{[citation needed]} Towards the end of the 2000s, he also created two shorts for Frederator Studios and Nickelodeon, "Solomon Fix" (computer generated 3D) and "Squirly Town" (traditional 2D).

As a graphic artist and cartoonist, TenNapel released his first comic book in 1998: GEAR, a surreal epic based on his real life cats, Simon, Waffle, Gordon and Mr. Black in a war against dogs and insects using giant robots as weapons. The cats from GEAR would eventually become the Nickelodeon series Catscratch.^{[citation needed]}

TenNapel did the cover art for several of Five Iron Frenzy's albums, including a sculpture for their live album, Proof That the Youth Are Revolting. TenNapel has also created album covers and artwork for several Daniel Amos CDs, The 1999 tribute to the band, When Worlds Collide, the Neverhood soundtrack Imaginarium: Songs from the Neverhood and others.^{[citation needed]}

Flink, a graphic novel by TenNapel, was released in late 2007 through Image comics. Monster Zoo, was released in early summer 2008. In June 2009 his graphic novel Power Up was released. In July 2010 his graphic novel Ghostopolis was released. It is being adapted into a film starring and produced by Hugh Jackman.

TenNapel produced an episodic spoof of Japanese Super Sentai-style shows called Go Sukashi! based on a character by Shoko Nakagawa (who appears in the films), and starring John Soares and Brooke Brodack.^{[citation needed]} He has also published an online superhero-genre-spoofing webcomic titled Ratfist.^{[citation needed]}

In September 2012, Fox Ani­ma­tion option­ed the recently pub­lished Graphix novel Card­board, with plans for actor Tobey Maguire’s Mate­r­ial Pic­tures, graphic nov­el­ist Doug Ten­Napel and the Gotham Group to be exec­u­tive producers. Fox plans to have the pic­ture devel­oped under its Wedge­Works sub­sidiary. Wedge­Works direc­tor Chris Wedge (Ice Age) is pro­duc­ing, and is con­sid­er­ing direct­ing the film as well.

TenNapel is politically conservative and has written articles for Andrew Breitbart's "Big Hollywood" blog.

Bibliography

Children's books

• The Strange Kid's Chronicles (a series of five children's books, published by Scholastic)

Graphic novels

• Gear (Fireman Press, 1999, ISBN 1-58240-680-4)

New Edition rereleased by Image Comics in 2007, ISBN 1-58240-680-4. This new edition had all new coloring, as well as a new creator commentary by TenNapel.

• Creature Tech (Top Shelf Productions, 2002, ISBN 1-891830-34-1)

New Edition rereleased by Image Comics in 2010, ISBN 1-60706-282-8.

• Tommysaurus Rex (Image Comics, 2004, ISBN 1-58240-395-3)
• Earthboy Jacobus (Image Comics, 2005, ISBN 1-58240-492-5)
• Iron West (Image Comics, 2006, ISBN 1-58240-630-8)
• Black Cherry (Image Comics, 2007, ISBN 1-58240-830-0)
• Flink (Image Comics, 2007, ISBN 1-58240-891-2)
• Monster Zoo (Image Comics, 2008, ISBN 1-58240-911-0)^{[citation needed]}
• Power Up (Image Comics, 2009, ISBN 1-60706-093-0)
• Ghostopolis (GRAPHIX, 2010, ISBN 0-545-21027-5)
• Bad Island (GRAPHIX, 2011, ISBN 978-0-545-31480-0)
• Ratfist (Image Comics, 2012, ISBN 978-1607064787)
• Cardboard (GRAPHIX, 2012, ISBN 978-0545418737)

Other comic book work

• TenNapel has also contributed to several other comic books, such as issue #5 of Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror, issue #3 of Scud: Tales from the Vending Machine (TenNapel also contributed cover art to the 24th and final issue of the main Scud: The Disposable Assassin series, as well as penciling a single page on the same issue), the Fractured Fables anthology graphic novel, 9-11: September 11, 2001 (Artists Respond), and Flight Volume 2. Earlier in his career, TenNapel produced a short comic entitled They Called Him Evil, published by Mockingbird Studios in 1991, which introduced the character Evil the Cat, who later became one of the central villains in the Earthworm Jim series.

• On January 1, 2011 TenNapel began a webcomic called Ratfist. The webcomic is semi-comical work featuring a 40 year old human protagonist with a pet rat who is transformed into a semi-human with rat features, then promptly lops off his tail (which gains sentience) and uses it in a fashion analogous to Spiderman's web-shooters. The series ended on August 5, 2011, and the graphic novel was released January 3, 2012.

• On May 2, 2012 TenNapel began a webcomic called Nnewts. The webcomic features amphibians that wield magic, weapons, and perform heroics, as recounted by the ancient storyteller and keeper of Nnewtian history, Sayer Nok.

Video games

• Jurassic Park (Sega Genesis), (Blue Sky Software), 1993
• Ren & Stimpy: Stimpy's Invention, (Blue Sky Software), 1993
• The Jungle Book, (Virgin Interactive), 1994
• Earthworm Jim, (Shiny Entertainment), 1994
• Earthworm Jim 2, (Shiny Entertainment), 1995
• The Neverhood, (Dreamworks Interactive), 1996
• Skullmonkeys, (Dreamworks Interactive), 1998
• Boombots, (Dreamworks Interactive), 1999

Discography

• When Worlds Collide, 1999 Daniel Amos tribute album of various artists

Filmography

• Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: The Animated Series, cartoon
• Earthworm Jim, cartoon
• Project G.e.e.K.e.R., cartoon
• Mothman
• Koghead and Meatus, animated short
• Push, Nevada, consulting producer
• Sockbaby, Director and Actor
• Catscratch, cartoon
• Random! Cartoons, creator ("Solomon Fix" & "Squirly Town")
• Ape Escape, animated shorts (writer/storyboards)
• Random! Cartoons, cartoon
• Phibian Mike, cartoon
• Geekdad, cartoon

Voices

• Chipmunk 1, Chipmunk 2 - Random! Cartoons in the first episode short, Solomon Fix
• Earthworm Jim - Earthworm Jim video game
• Robot Bil, Klogg, Hoborg - The Neverhood

References

• Dumesnil, Sébastien (February 22, 2006). "Interview: Doug TenNapel". Futureal Studio. Retrieved 2007-05-27. 
• Young, Sarrah (August 2005). "Father Figures: God Is in the Details of Earthboy Jacobus". Exclaim! (Canada). Retrieved 2007-05-27. 
• Kit, Borys (2008-03-12). "Paramount nabs 'Zoo'". The Hollywood Reporter. 
• TenNapel, Doug (January 1, 2011). "Webcomic: Ratfist". Wordpress with Comicpress. 

External links

• Doug TenNapel at the Internet Movie Database
• www.TenNapel.com
• www.Sockbaby.com
• Doug TenNapel's profile at MobyGames
• Go Sukashi! Official website
• Ratfist
• Nnewts