Doug TenNapel

Doug TenNapel

TenNapel in June 2011
Born Douglas Richard TenNapel
(1966-07-10) July 10, 1966
Norwalk, California, United States
Nationality American
Notable works
 Earthworm Jim, Catscratch, The Neverhood, Ratfist, Ghostopolis, Nnewts
Awards Eisner Award Winner
Spouse(s) Angie TenNapel (1990–present)

Douglas Richard "Doug" TenNapel (born July 10, 1966)[1] is an American animator, writer, cartoonist, video game designer, and comic book artist 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.[1] He got a master's degree in art from California State University Fullerton in 2012.

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 1995 he left Shiny Entertainment and founded his own company, Neverhood, with several other former Shiny employees.[2] Working for DreamWorks Interactive, Neverhood created The Neverhood for the PC and PlayStation. The sequel, entitled Skullmonkeys, followed in 1998.

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. Towards the end of the 2000s, he also created two shorts for Frederator Studios and Nicktoons, "Solomon Fix" (computer generated 3D) and "Squirly Town" (traditional 2D).[3]

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.

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 graphic novel Ghostopolis was released. It is being adapted into a film starring and produced by Hugh Jackman.[4]

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. He has also published an online superhero-genre-spoofing webcomic titled Ratfist.

In September 2012, Fox Animation optioned TenNapel's 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.[5]

TenNapel and other former members of the Earthworm Jim team at Pencil Test Studios launched a Kickstarter campaign in May 2013 to fund a PC game project called Armikrog, described a spiritual successor to The Neverhood and also being animated using clay animation techniques.[6] It was successful, and reached its stretch goal for a Wii U version.

Personal life

TenNapel is a politically conservative Christian and has written articles for Breitbart.com's "Big Hollywood" blog.[7]

Bibliography

Graphic novels

Year Title Publisher
1991 They Called Him Evil Mockingbird Studios
1999 Gear Fireman Press
2002 Creature Tech Top Shelf Productions
2004 Tommysaurus Rex Image Comics
2005 Earthboy Jacobus Image Comics
2006 Iron West Image Comics
2007 Black Cherry Image Comics
2007 Flink Image Comics
2008 Monster Zoo Image Comics
2009 Power Up Image Comics[8]
2010 Ghostopolis GRAPHIX[9]
2011 Bad Island GRAPHIX[10]
2012 Cardboard GRAPHIX[11]

Web comics

Year Title
2011 Ratfist
2012 Nnewts

Children's books

Year Title Publisher
1998 The Strange Children's Chronicles Scholastic Press

Filmography

Films

Year Title Note
TBA The Neverhood Writer and director[12]

Television

Year Title Note
1991 Attack of the Killer Tomatoes Animator
1995 Earthworm Jim Creator, executive producer, and writer
1996 Project G.e.e.K.e.R. Co-Creator and executive producer
2000 Koghead and Meatus Short
Director and writer
2002 Push, Nevada Consulting producer
2004 Sockbaby Director, writer and voice of Sockbaby
2005–2007 Catscratch Creator, executive producer, director, and writer
2007–2008 Random! Cartoons Creator, writer, character designer, storyboard artist, and voice director
Episodes: "Squirly Town" and "Solomon Fix"
2009 Ape Escape Writer and storyboard artist
2012 Adventure Time Writer
Episode: "Sons of Mars"
2012 It's a SpongeBob Christmas! TV special
Stop Motion animator
2014–2016 VeggieTales in the House Writer and executive producer
2017–present VeggieTales in the City Executive producer

Video games

Year Title Note Publisher
1993 Jurassic Park (Sega Genesis) Animator Blue Sky Software
Ren & Stimpy: Stimpy's Invention
1994 The Jungle Book Virgin Interactive
Earthworm Jim Creator, writer, designer, voice of Earthworm Jim Shiny Entertainment
1995 Earthworm Jim 2
1996 The Neverhood Creator, writer, designer, voice of Hoborg, Bil and Klogg DreamWorks Interactive
1998 Skullmonkeys Creator, writer, designer, voice of Klogg
1999 BoomBots Creator, writer, designer
2015 Armikrog Creator, writer, designer, artist, additional animation Versus Evil

Discography

Cover art

Year Album
1994 BibleLand
1997 Our Newest Album Ever!
1998 Quantity Is Job 1
1999 Proof That the Youth Are Revolting
2000 When Worlds Collide: A Tribute to Daniel Amos
2003 The End Is Near
2004 Imaginarium: Songs from the Neverhood
2013 Engine of a Million Plots

References

  1. 1 2 "Doug op Myspace". Myspace.com. 2008-02-09. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
  2. ↑ "Gaming Gossip". Electronic Gaming Monthly. Ziff Davis (74): 44. September 1995.
  3. ↑ Random! Cartoons
  4. ↑ Kit, Borys (May 3, 2009). "Hugh Jackman to haunt 'Ghostopolis'". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on May 7, 2009. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  5. ↑ Anderson, Paul (September 8, 2012). "Fox Animation helping Maguire bend "Cardboard"". Big Cartoon News. Retrieved September 8, 2012.
  6. ↑ Matulef, Jeffrey (May 31, 2013). "The Neverhood creators launch Kickstarter for spiritual successor Armikrog". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved June 8, 2013.
  7. ↑ "$name". Breitbart.com. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
  8. ↑ "Heroes + Villains: All Powered Up.". Chicago Tribune. 2009. Retrieved October 12, 2012.
  9. ↑ "Ghostopolis.". Kirkus Review. June 15, 2010. Retrieved October 12, 2012.
  10. ↑ "Review of the Day:Bad Island by Doug TenNapel.". June 4, 2011. Retrieved October 12, 2012.
  11. ↑ "New tweener graphic novels by Doug TenNapel, Raina Telgemeier and Royden Lepp are hitting the shelves.". Los Angeles Times. August 26, 2012. Retrieved September 8, 2012.
  12. ↑ http://variety.com/2007/digital/markets-festivals/toon-trio-starts-frederator-1117967622/
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Doug TenNapel.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.