A scene from season five of The Venture Bros. l to r: Sgt. Hatred, Dr. Thaddeus S. “Rusty” Venture, Hank Venture, and Dean Venture.
It’s hard to think of two more beloved figures in the world of animation right now tha...
A scene from season five of The Venture Bros. l to r: Sgt. Hatred, Dr. Thaddeus S. “Rusty” Venture, Hank Venture, and Dean Venture.
It’s hard to think of two more beloved figures in the world of animation right now than Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer. For ten years the duo have written and produced four seasons of one of the most popular original shows on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block — The Venture Bros. What started in 2003 as a clever spoof of ’60s adventure cartoons like Jonny Quest has since evolved into a wholly unique program that boasts a rich world of characters, storylines, and of course laughs.
To the delight of its fans, The Venture Bros. was renewed for seasons five and six in March 2011. After a nearly two-and-a-half year wait since the conclusion of the fourth season, the premiere of season five is just days away (Sunday, June 2nd at midnight ET/PT to be precise). Publick and Hammer sat down for a phone chat with yours truly to discuss the upcoming season, the merits of fan fiction, and smoking. And they even accidentally provided Popdose with exclusive information about an upcoming character making his on-screen debut in season five.
Popdose: Just to make you guys more comfortable, and so you can feel like you’re at a convention, I am actually wearing a costume for this interview.
Jackson Publick: You’re kidding me. One of our characters, or some anime bullshit?
Doc Hammer: Are you dressed as Sailor Moon?
No, I don’t have the midriff for that.
DH: Well, since all we have is our imagination here, I’m painting you as an Adonis in my head. You look beautiful in your Sailor Moon costume.
I appreciate it. Actually, I come off more like a bearded, slightly pudgy Henchman 24.
DH: 24 or 21? The older one?
The dead one.
DH: I would’ve chosen the Sailor Moon costume by the way.
So we’re about a week and a half away from the season five premiere. Can you share where you are in the production schedule of the show right now?
JP: Done. Like, super-done for two months.
DH: Right now we’re worrying about season six and we’re doing Shirt Club.
Yeah, I read about that and I was unreasonably excited for it because I had an Order of the Triad shirt that disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
DH: Well they’re designed to do that.
JP: They’re made to only last four years.
DH: They’re made for ex-girlfriends. They’re door prizes for carnal congress, my friend. This year, when Shirt Club comes out get a whole set just to reward that lucky lady.
In this case I’m married, so that would be kind of depressing if she ended up taking my shirts away from me.
DH: You could find them at least, they’re just in the drawer next to yours.
Yes, I really should make more of a habit of rifling through my wife’s drawers. And I just realized how that sounded out loud.
DH: Yeah, that’s a good one.
Dr. Mrs. The Monarch closely assists her husband, The Monarch.
Can you give us any hints as to the designs for this year’s shirts, or are you still working on that?
DH: They’re just as insider-y. We actually have a couple that went into five colors. Last year, when it was two-color we were like, “Oh no, how are we gonna afford this?”
JP: One shirt is five-color. I think the most we go to is three. Maybe there’s four. I don’t know.
DH: Once you see our use of five-color, you will look at us like we’re completely idiotic. [Jackson laughs at this.] There’s one color, and then we have like three different colored dots. But the shirts will be great. We get real excited about Shirt Club because it really is two people that have better things to do, by hand worrying about t-shirts for our fans.
I think it’s a nice touch and it’s a great signifier of fandom because you know who’s a fan when you walk down the street and every, oh, fifteenth person giv
