Doug TenNapel
Douglas Richard TenNapel 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, animated series, and a toy line.
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 The Ren & Stimpy Show: 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. Shiny Entertainment head David Perry later commented on working with TenNapel, "I wish I could find 100 Dougs, then I realized I was lucky to have been able to work with one. He is crazy talented, both crazy and talented! He also generates an enormous amount of amazing content and ideas, I wouldn’t be surprised if he sleeps with a sketch-book!" In 1995, he left Shiny Entertainment and founded his own company, Neverhood, with several other former Shiny employees. 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" and "Squirly Town".
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, ', the Neverhood soundtrack ' 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 May 2009 his graphic novel Power Up was released.
Between January and October 2009, TenNapel was a regular contributor to Breitbart News' "Big Hollywood" section, covering topics from movie reviews and the state of the comics entertainment industry to criticisms of the Obama administration and the environmental movement.
In July 2010, his graphic novel Ghostopolis was released. In 2009, it was announced the book would be adapted into a film starring and produced by Hugh Jackman, but no update has been given since then.
TenNapel produced an episodic spoof of Japanese Super Sentai-style shows called Go Sukashi! based on a character by Shoko Nakagawa, 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 planned to have the picture developed under its WedgeWorks subsidiary. WedgeWorks director Chris Wedge was producing, and considered directing the film as well. As of 2020, no update has been given on the film, especially given the acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets by The Walt Disney Company.
TenNapel has used Kickstarter to produce a bound collection of his sketches, named Sketchbook Archives.
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. It was successful, and reached its stretch goal for a Wii U version.
In 2018, TenNapel self-published the graphic novel, Bigfoot Bill, launched as an Indiegogo, successfully funded and reaching various stretch goals.
In May 2019, TenNapel and other members of the original Earthworm Jim team announced a new Earthworm Jim game, to be released as an exclusive for the upcoming Intellivision Amico. He also self-published the graphic novel, Earthworm Jim: Launch the Cow, again on Indiegogo, raising over US$100,000 in less than 24 hours. It has since been successfully funded, with various stretch goals achieved. As of August 2019, Earthworm Jim: Launch the Cow is the second-highest-grossing crowd-funded comic book of all time, trailing only The Order of the Stick Reprint on Kickstarter, and overtaking the comic book anthology Ctrl+Alt+Del.
Personal life
He has been married to Angie since 1990. The couple have four children. TenNapel was personal friends with Andrew Breitbart prior to the latter's death.Controversies
TenNapel has attracted criticism for some of his remarks on the LGBTQ community and its issues, including vocal opposition to gay marriage and misgendering of a transgender journalist who criticized the Earthworm Jim video game.He alleges that this criticism amounts to a "culture war" and has resulted in pressure on major publishers to withdraw or withhold work from him, saying that it's more important than ever that pro-family comic lovers support his work.
Graphic novels
Web comics
Children's books
Filmography
Television
Video games
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 | ' |
| 2003 | The End Is Near |
| 2004 | ' |
| 2013 | Engine of a Million Plots |