20 questions with the Venture Bros.

Andromaton · **Andromaton**

ign film force interviewed the two creators of the Venture Bros each with 10 questions. here's their responses. First up: Jackson Publick

1. What is your favorite piece of music?

To have sex to? Wouldn't you like to know, you naughty thing? I'm not going to give away all my secrets on the first question. But I'll take off my shirt...

(At this point, Publick proceeded to take off his shirt.)

2. What is your favorite film?

I can't pick one. But the list of movies that I'm compelled to watch every time they're on and never get sick of would be: Trainspotting, Rear Window, Goodfellas, To Kill a Mockingbird, Dog Day Afternoon, Godfathers 1 & 2, Fight Club, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Royal Tenenbaums – Wes Anderson is the only person I'd want to see make a Venture Bros. live action movie. All right, I'm lying. For a fat check and the chance to own an X-1 toy tie-in, I'd let Joel Schumacher or Henry Winkler direct a Venture Bros. movie, who am I kidding? Okay, that's kind of a lie, too.

3. What is your favorite TV program, past or current?

I don't watch a lot of TV. I just don't have a whole lot of time and my life is so disorganized I don't have any kind of consistent schedule. Usually I pop in a DVD or flip around when I get home at 4 in the morning and try to fall asleep. The last time I watched a program religiously was probably ten years ago, and it was probably The Simpsons. But the things I like on TV right now when I get to see them are The Sopranos and South Park. I've got the DVDs of Mr. Show, SCTV, Kids in the Hall, Monty Python, I, Claudius, and Rick Burns' New York documentary, though. Those count, right?

4. What do you feel has been your most important professional accomplishment to date?

Three-way tie between: passing 11th grade English, taking the bronze for the men's biathlon in the 1994 Helsinki games, and The Venture Bros. Time for my pants, right? Hang on... 'gotta unlace my shoes...

(Publick removed his shoes and then his pants – leaving his socks on. As we spoke, he kept changing his position.)

5. Which project do you feel didn't live up to what you envisioned?

The Tick live action series. The essential elements were all there: perfectly cast, talented actors who respected and adored the material, a sizeable budget, and the original writing team from the animated series. But somehow it all got bogged down in Hollywood crap. Too much corporate interference, too much of the budget going into everything but the actual production, and, in the end, zero support from Fox once it aired. We were hamstrung by preemptions for holiday specials and a constantly changing timeslot so that even I didn't know when it was going to be on, much less the rest of the public. In the final analysis, I feel like we (the writers) failed on some levels, too, which hurts more than any external interference ever could. Though by the end of our run we were really starting to figure out what worked and what didn't, and we had a concrete plan on how to approach things for a second season. Had we been given that season, I'm confident we would have produced a kickass show. Instead we have to settle for being just a television footnote with a small handful of luminous moments. I did learn a hell of a lot in the process, though, and that's of course how I met Patrick Warburton. Make sure you get some good close ups of my tattoos, okay? I think your subscribers will be really into those.

(We now began to shift uncomfortably, but no exit strategy presented itself. This was mostly due to the fact that Publick had positioned himself in front of the door.)

6. What is your favorite book?

Obviously can't pick just one. Paul Auster is probably my favorite current author, and I've re-read his Moon Palace and Leviathan a few times. Then there's Salinger's Nine Stories and Franny and Zooey. Luc Sante's Low Life... and comics! Maybe they're not "books," but Acme Novelty Library and Eightball are two comics I can't get enough of. Um, are you sure there's enough light in here for the shoot?

7. If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be?

If you mean TV, then that's a long story. Things have been bogged down in the sitcom formula and now the reality thing and just the basic system of fall seasons, specific numbers of episodes, etc. I don't know if there's any helping it, but I'd love to see more educational stuff, and more earnest political stuff. More movies, more mini-series would be nice. More shows like The Sopranos or the British Traffik series or The Office – things that seem to exist for the sake of existing, tell their stories in the amount of time they need and then stop rather than becoming this lame content machine. If you're talking about animation specifically, however... I just wish it didn't take so damn long to make. And I'd like to see more stuff for adults... and, well, more adults caring that there's more stuff for them. How 'bout something like this?

(Publick proceeded to get up on all fours on his chair, his rear end to us, and peer back over his shoulder in what appeared to be an attempt at a "sexy" face.)

8. Who – or what – would you say has had the biggest influence on your career?

The biggest direct influence on my career is Ben Edlund, who gave me my first real professional break and through his friendship and example, turned me into a writer and a more critical thinker in general. But a strange influence I feel compelled to mention came a few years ago when I was having a bit of a creative and personal meltdown – feeling like I was treading water in an industry I hadn't necessarily intended to get into but by then, in my late twenties, was the only industries for which I had any marketable skills. Then I read Dennis Perrin's biography of Michael O'Donoghue, and it rekindled some of the troublemaker in me, made me remember what I enjoy about writing and about comedy and made me feel like I was connecting again with what I was put here to do. "Screw TV!" I thought. I had decided that whatever I did – comic books, single panel comic strips, scripts, whatever – it didn't matter if I was successful or if anyone else read them or saw them, I just had to do them and push myself to be edgier or whatever, for the sheer joy and craft of it. I wrote the Venture Bros. pilot and got hired to write the live action Tick series out in L.A. shortly after that, neither of which would I have had the strength and confidence to do before then.

9. What is your next project?

I won't take my underwear off, I'm telling you that right now. I know I said I would on the phone, but now that we're here, I'm uncomfortable. Aren't the chest shots enough? What was the question?

10. What is the one project that you've always wanted to do, but have yet to be able to?

We just started producing a Venture Bros. Christmas short, ostensibly to be included in some sort of Adult Swim holiday special anthology kind of thing, though I haven't heard yet who else will be participating in that. I'm kicking around a few feature film script ideas, but some of them involve a friend whose availability and interest is unpredictable, and others require a ton of research, so I don't know if they'll see any progress this year. I might help Doc Hammer with an idea of his for a short, or another short project we came up with together. I kind of need a vacation, though. I've been working pretty much 12-16 hours a day, six or seven days a week since May of 2003, and every time I see a photo of myself I realize that there is NEVER a time when I don't look exhausted. That said, I'm of course hoping we get greenlit for a second season of Venture Bros. posthaste, which we've only just started discussing jokes and stories for.

So...wait...we're not doing a pictorial? Isn't this for Suicide Girls? I thought you were from Suicide Girls.

Andromaton · **Andromaton**

Now up to bat: Doc Hammer

1. What is your favorite piece of music?

Piece of music, huh? Not song or band... "piece of music." I will rise to the fancy "book-learnin' city-talk" of "piece of music" with the answer "Clair De Lune" by Claude Debussy. It sounds all fancy, but it is really just a pop song. A super-old pop song. We have all heard "Clair De Lune." It shows up in every place copyright-free beauty is necessary. It's a gorgeous cascade of minor chords tumbling down from a better heaven. I have wept openly while listening to this song (incidentally, I have "wept openly" from running in the kitchen with socks on and crashing into the refrigerator) and I consider it the first great "Goth" song. Now don't give me this "It was Richard Wagner" crap, we all know that he was the first metal-head. And if you need a (slightly) more contemporary answer; I would say Echo and the Bunnymen's "Ocean Rain" is a masterpiece. Not a good song, no... I say a masterpiece.

2. What is your favorite film?

These questions of yours are like some horrid MySpace or Friendster questionnaire. I am so afraid that after you ask me what my favorite ice-cream flavor is, you will ask me when the last time I made out with somebody was. And again with the fancy "film," not movie. Okay fine, Ken Russell's The Devils. Beautiful looking movie. It's not only painterly, it's masterful. I know, I know, Tommy was just fine, Altered States was okay with a "not a bad attempt" kinda thing going, and Whore was just crap. But I am telling you, The Devils is incomparable to that stuff. Think Lair of the White Worm with a better script and story, slap Oliver Reed in the lead role (and give him three acting lessons with the great William Shatner) and then get Caravaggio to direct it... Ta Da! The Devils. It's ham-handed, dated, and pretentious; it is also the most beautiful film since Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast.

3. What is your favorite TV program, past or current?

"Program," not "show." I have to give you credit for consistency. Okay, here is about when I put the final nail in my coffin. First I give a classical piece of music as my favorite, then I hit you with arty-farty movies, and now I go and drop the old "I don't really watch TV" chestnut on your lap. But I have on the occasion of the lazy morning, put on the television to drown out the voices in my head. And on those occasions, I watch home improvement shows. Ya know, like Trading Spaces, Room Rivals, Changing Rooms, etc. I will also watch any show that deals with the finding, auctioning, or discussing of antiques. So in a nutshell, I have the same tastes in "programs" as your parents would. I should thank you now for making me feel completely lame-assed.

4. What do you feel has been your most important professional accomplishment to date?

I have had almost no professional aspirations. I actually think I was drafted by Jackson to work on The Venture Brothers. I don't remember submitting a resume or anything like that. Ya see, it went like this – Jackson and I were both writing partners with Ben Edlund. Jackson worked with him on The Tick and I worked with him on numerous unfinished and unfilmable movie scripts. The Tick got so much ax (for like the umpteenth million time) and Jackson slid back to NYC. Here, he joined the AstroBase and was promoted to the rank of Colonel Aquaman. Before Ben could enter the hallowed air-locks of the AstroBase, he was whisked away to work on Angel or Tarzan or Strawberry Shortcake or whatever, leaving Jackson and I to find each other. And we did, as men will do. There was no discussion, no tears, no more tangles... we just got down to work. So, it's strange to even consider myself a professional at any of this crap. What I do consider myself to be professionally interested in is painting oil portraits. Now don't start thinking "Oh man, another Hollywood delusional nut-bag who thinks he can paint... spare me." I'm not like other celebrity painters. Ya know, like Ron Wood, John Mellencamp, Jennifer Aniston, Fred Gwynn, or even that murderer-turned-incompetent painter John Wayne Gacy. I'm just not like that. (Wait... I don't think I am even a celebrity.) I have been painting for as long as I can remember; it is the thing that keeps me up at night, the thing that makes me a walking skeleton of anger. It is the thing that gives me hope. So "What do I feel has been my most important professional accomplishment to date?" The simple fact that I don't suck as bad as I used to at portrait painting.

5. Which project do you feel didn't live up to what you envisioned?

It's all painting-talk from here on in. Super-sorry. There is a slight chance I might get back on-topic, but don't count on it. You start a portrait with the best intent. You are all, "This is gonna be a masterpiece," and you begin to fix the blank canvas, you have to – it looks nothing like a girl. And as you move along, you feel the slip. You can't stop it, for the slip is small... if it were just a bit larger, you could see it, name it, erase it. But it is tiny. And like all trips down the road of failure, you seem to collect more and more tiny "slips." It's like a road-trip, wherein you pickup a cast of hilarious, hitchhiking stoners. Okay, that is a crap-ass metaphor, but you get the idea, you just keep adding to your tiny mistakes 'til you are completely off course. It is inevitable, and at times charming. Now here comes the sad part: All of my work falls into this pitfall. All of it. The "good" paintings of mine are the ones where the tiny slips are less evident. But they are always there. I will keep trying to lessen the occurrences of my "slips," and eventually paint a masterpiece. Will I make it there? Your guess is as good as mine. To answer your question more succinctly: All of them.

6. What is your favorite book?

J K Huysman's Au Rebeau. Beats the crap out of Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray.

7. If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be?

Painting. I warned you that I was all "painting talk" from here on in. So, I guess I would kill the dinosaur of Post-Modernism. I would expose the lazy "cult of genius" for the naked emperor it is. I am tired of young art students getting into the crap-ass school of their choice and getting all hopped up on figurative painting, then getting the smack-down from their bitter teacher who leaned to paint during the Sixties when craftsmanship was a dirty word. The student is "reminded" that figurative painting is dead, and the hundred-year-old path of Modernism is where it's at. The poor student looks up to this antiquated jackass in his rumpled, pleated, khaki clown-suit and actually believes his rhetoric. The student also learns that it is a s***load easier to be considered a genius when you have work that functions as a smokescreen for your incompetence. Look, if you chuck poo-poo at a piece of cardboard and call it "The Throws of Man's Discontent," you could be considered a genius pretty fast. But if you have to learn how to paint flesh... man, that could take years (if it ever happens). Who has time for that? You see what I mean about painting making me angry? I get way too into this crap. Anyway, I would change the way the "industry" looks at figurative painting.

8. Who – or what – would you say has had the biggest influence on your career?

Rembrandt, Whistler, Sargent... and a few other painters.

9. What is your next project?

As far as this cartoon junk goes, Jackson and I have ideas coming out of our rectums. As unsavory as this metaphor is, it is the truth. So when (or if) they decide to toss The Venture Brothers in the garbage pail, I am sure we will try again with some almost-palatable show about people talking too much. When two men inhabit an AstroBase together, a TV show ("program" for you fancy types) is the inevitable offspring of such an unholy union. As far as painting goes, I just gotta keep trying not to suck.

10. What is the one project that you've always wanted to do, but have yet to be able to?

I always wanted to make one of those hover-crafts from a home vacuum cleaner. Ya know those ads that used to litter the pages of old comic books? I so wanted to do that. I would imagine my slender frame in the pilot seat of a homemade flying wonder-craft. I would paint the "Mark 4" (a name I used for everything back then) with the flakiest of tempera paints, being that it was the only paint my younger self had any access to. Man, I would fly that bad-boy to school, and you know the girls would have gone wild for me and my spacecraft. Oh, just picture it: my bowl haircut tousled with so much breeze, my bathing-suit (with built-in underpants) all puffed-up with hot, angry wind. I would slide into class with a flying saucer. A flying saucer! I would be a hero! The girls would all circle around me. Each one of them would vie for my attention. Within minutes, they would be competing with one another for just a measly glance from my super-cool head (a head that was popping out of a FLYING SAUCER!) "No girls, don't fight," I would say as I pulled my action-style goggles to the top of my head. "There is enough space-pilot-inventor-romance-boy for all of you." But... I never got around to ordering the directions.

Fodder · **Fodder**

Strangely it fits the series doesnt it? I saw the intervew on the new Screensavers with the Megas guys and they fit their show as well.


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