Doug TenNapel
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Doug TenNapel | |
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Born | Douglas Richard TenNapel November 14, 1967 Denair, Stanislaus County, California, United States |
Nationality | American |
Area(s) | Writer and Artist |
Pseudonym(s) | Douglas TenNapel Douglas R. TenNapel Doug R. TenNapel Doug Richard TenNapel |
Notable works | Earthworm Jim, Catscratch, The Neverhood, Ratfist |
Awards | Eisner Award Winner |
Spouse(s) | Angie TenNapel (1995-present) |
Douglas Richard "Doug" TenNapel (born November 14, 1967 in Denair, California)[1] is an American musician, animator, Eisner Award-winning artist, author and essayist. He is best known for creating Earthworm Jim, a character that spawned a famous video game, cartoon series, and toy line.
Early life
TenNapel was born and raised in the town of Denair, California. He got his primary education from Denair High School from 1980 to 1984.[1] From 1984 to 1988 TenNapel studied at Point Loma Nazarene University on art specialty, finishing it with Bachelor's Degree.[1]
Career
TenNapel began as an animator on Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: The Animated Series. 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. 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.
Work on TenNapel's first feature-length live action film, Mothman, began in the late 1990s, although as of 2002, the film was not finished. In television, TenNapel was the creator of the Project G.e.e.K.e.R. cartoon series for CBS, and was a consulting producer on the ABC series Push, Nevada with Ben Affleck.
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. His second graphic novel, Creature Tech (2002), became the focus of a bidding war between movie studios. 20th Century Fox and Regency Enterprises won the war and are developing the script for a live action motion picture based on the novel.
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.
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 latest graphic novel, Ghostopolis was released; it was optioned by Disney[2] in Spring 2009 with Hugh Jackman attached to star and produce.
TenNapel is currently producing an episodic spoof of Japanese Super Sentai-style shows called Go Sukashi!, in association with WestHavenBrook (with whom he collaborated on Sockbaby), Watanabe Entertainment and Dentsu, based on a character by Shoko Nakagawa (who appears in the films), and starring John Soares and Brooke Brodack; as well as an online superhero-genre-spoofing webcomic titled Ratfist.
TenNapel is also the lead singer of an independent band called Truck and is currently working on a Cartoon Network original series called Phibian Mike.
TenNapel is politically conservative and has written articles for Andrew Breitbart's "Big Hollywood" blog.[3]
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)
- "GEAR begins with four incompetent cats who are assigned to hijack a giant killer robot. The plans are made, the cats lay in wait, the robot comes and everything goes wrong. On the other side of town, two detectives find a body and a mystery unfolds. The cat's home town giant robot guardian is attacked by a gargantuan mechanical insect. The whole town is thrown into a panic as they wait for the heroic return of the bumbling cats sent to bring back a giant killer robot protecter. The backstory of a gear-shaped artifact called the Forbidden Mechanism is explored. The cat town is attacked by hordes of insect arimies while the elder contemplates the fate of their world."
- 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)
- "Good battles evil, and the world hangs in the balance! Resurrected by the Shroud of Turin, the zombified Dr. Jameson intends to finish what he started 150 years ago - destroying the earth with a giant space eel. Standing in his way is Dr. Ong, a would-be pastor-turned-scientist who now works in a government research facility known as "Creature Tech." Aided by an unlikely cast of rednecks, symbiotic aliens, and a CIA-trained mantid, Dr. Ong embarks on a journey of faith, love, and self-discovery. All in a day's work at Creature Tech!"
- Top Shelf's fastest selling first printing; 5,000 copies sold out in 90 days.
- 20th Century Fox and Regency Enterprises picked up the feature film rights.
- New Edition rereleased by Image Comics in 2010, ISBN 1-60706-282-8.
- Tommysaurus Rex (Image Comics, 2004, ISBN 1-58240-395-3)
- "A tale about a boy and his T Rex! Ely is an everyboy trying to cope with the death of his dog Tommy. When he finds a live, 40-foot Tyrannosaurus Rex trapped in a cave behind his grandfather's house, Ely embarks on an adventure to tame this seemingly friendly giant, convince the town his new pet isn't a threat, and keep his dinosaur safe from the jealous town bully. With Tommysaurus Rex at his side, Ely discovers what it takes to be a man... and what it costs." It has been optioned by Universal Pictures.
- Earthboy Jacobus (Image Comics, 2005, ISBN 1-58240-492-5)
- "Chief Edwards retires from the Modesto Police Department a lonely man. On his way home, he hits a flying whale with his car, opening the beast's mouth to find a boy from a parallel universe named Jacobus. Chief discovers that a society of insect monsters want to kill this boy due to a mysterious virus that grows on his hand. He becomes a father figure to the boy and trains him how to survive insect monsters by becoming a great American ass-kicker."
- Iron West (Image Comics, 2006, ISBN 1-58240-630-8)
- "Preston Struck is an incompetent outlaw with a heart of fool's gold. He discovers an army of metal men bent on destroying central California. While Struck avoids any form of heroism, he gets a little help from a magical old shaman and his sidekick Sasquatch. Struck is going to need all the help he can get because he's deputized just as the mechanical men have taken over the railroad and are mutating the train into a giant demonic iron monster."
- Black Cherry (Image Comics, 2007, ISBN 1-58240-830-0)
- "Down-on-his-luck Mafioso, Eddie Paretti is so desperate for cash he's agreed to steal a dead body from his own mob boss! Things only get worse when he discovers the body isn't human! With few options and fewer people he can trust, Eddie calls on the man who raised him, Father McHugh. The priest tells Eddie that the body was stolen from his monastery by the Mafia. Father McHugh is accompanied by a beautiful woman Eddie swears looks just like a stripper he once fell in love with named Black Cherry."
- Flink (Image Comics, 2007, ISBN 1-58240-891-2)
- "A boy survives a plane crash and is rescued by a bigfoot named Flink. They form a close bond by learning about the lost of each other's family members."
- Monster Zoo (Image Comics, 2008, ISBN 1-58240-911-0)
- "Monster Zoo tells the story of a young boy who discovers his local zoo may be more frightening than he imagined!"
- Monster Zoo was optioned by Sam Raimi & Josh Donen's Buckaroo Entertainment in March 2008 for Paramount Pictures.[citation needed]
- Power Up (Image Comics, 2009, ISBN 1-60706-093-0)
- "The comedic story of Hugh Randolph, a family man down on his luck. He works as a mindless drone at a local printer until he discovers a mysterious video game console that gives him the power to produce endless riches, manipulate his work day, and even cheat death!"
- Ghostopolis (GRAPHIX, 2010, ISBN 0-545-21027-5)
- "Imagine Garth Hale's surprise when he's accidentally zapped to the spirit world by Frank Gallows, a washed-out ghost wrangler. Suddenly Garth finds he has powers the ghosts don't have, and he's stuck in a world run by the evil ruler of Ghostopolis, who would use Garth's newfound abilities to rule the ghostly kingdom. When Garth meets Cecil, his grandfather's ghost, the two search for a way to get Garth back home, and nearly lose hope until Frank Gallows shows up to fix his mistake."
- Bad Island (GRAPHIX, 2011, ISBN 978-0-545-31480-0)
"When Reese is forced to go on a boating trip with his family, the last thing he expects is to be shipwrecked on an island-especially one teeming with weird plants and animals. But what starts out as simply a bad vacation turns into a terrible one, as the castaways must find a way to escape while dodging the island's dangerous inhabitants. With few resources and a mysterious entity on the hunt, each secret unlocked could save them...or spell their doom. One thing Reese knows for sure: This is one Bad Island."
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. [1]
- 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 tennapel has said that a graphic novel will be released sometime in December.
- Another webcomic by Doug TenNapel was set to launch on September 19, 2011, titled Bigfoot for Hire. However, it has been cancelled due to scheduling conflicts.
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
- Earthworm Jim 3D, (VIS Entertainment), 1999
- Earthworm Jim 4, (Relativity Interactive), 2012
Discography
- When Worlds Collide, 1999 Daniel Amos tribute album of various artists
- The News at When?, album of Zebrahead
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
- Ape Escape, animated shorts
- Random! Cartoons, cartoon
- Phibian Mike, cartoon
- MitchBot, cartoon
- The Mammal Team, cartoon
- Geekdad, cartoon
Voices
- Chipmunk 1, Chipmunk 2 - Random! Cartoons in the first episode short, Solomon Fix
- Gerry - Camp Lazlo
- MitchBot - MitchBot in season 1
- Earthworm Jim - Earthworm Jim video game [4]
- Robot Bil, Klogg, Hoborg - The Neverhood
- Stinko - The Mammal Team
- Fish 1, Fish 2 - What a Cartoon!
Personal life
TenNapel is married to his wife Angie (b. 1968),[5] with whom he has four children. They currently live in Glendale, California.
Notes
- ^ a b c Doug's MySpace profile.
- ^ Kit, Borys (May 3, 2009). "Hugh Jackman to haunt 'Ghostopolis'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 18, 2010. [dead link]
- ^ http://www.breitbart.com/Columnists/Doug-Tennapel
- ^ Earthworm Jim at IMDb
- ^ Based on information obtained from Intelius.
References
- Dumesnil, Sébastien (February 22, 2006). "Interview: Doug TenNapel". Futureal Studio. Retrieved May 27, 2007.
- Young, Sarrah (August 2005). "Father Figures: God Is in the Details of Earthboy Jacobus". Exclaim! (Canada). Retrieved May 27, 2007.
- Kit, Borys (March 12, 2008). "Paramount nabs 'Zoo'". The Hollywood Reporter.
- TenNapel, Doug (January 1, 2011). "Webcomic: Ratfist". Wordpress with Comicpress.
External links
- Doug TenNapel at IMDb
- www.TenNapel.com
- www.Sockbaby.com
- Doug TenNapel's profile at MobyGames
- A review of TenNapel's Gear at The Daily Cross Hatch, from March 4, 2007
- Review of Black Cherry, Silver Bullet Comic Books, August 29, 2007
- Go Sukashi! Official website
- Ratfist