Douglas Richard "Doug" TenNapel is the creator/writer/executive producer of Catscratch for Nickelodeon. The series is based on Doug’s graphic novel Gear and focuses on the ongoing animated antics of cats Mr. Blik, Gordon, and Waffle, three of whom were based on real life cats that TenNapel had as pets at the time.
Tennapel.com Description[]
Doug TenNapel is the acclaimed author and illustrator of GHOSTOPOLIS, BAD ISLAND, CARDBOARD and TOMMYSAURUS REX, all published by Graphix. Among other honors, GHOSTOPOLIS was an ALA 2011 Top Ten Great Graphic Novel for Teens, a 2010 Kirkus Best Book of the Year, and a School Library Journal Top Ten Graphic Novel for 2011 and a 2012 ALA Great Graphic Novels for Teens selection. CARDBOARD was named to the list of School Library JournalTop Ten Graphic Novels of 2012.
Doug is also the creator of the hugely popular character Earthworm Jim. He lives in Franklin, Tennessee, with his wife and their four children.
Early Life[]
According to Wikipedia, 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. He got a master's degree in art from California State University Fullerton in 2012.
Career[]
As stated on Wikipedia, 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. 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).
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 Upwas released. In July 2010 his graphic novel Ghostopolis was released. It is being adapted into a film starring and produced by Hugh Jackman.
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.
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.
Notes[]
- He has severe vision problems.
- He ADORES his nerdy/dorky-type division of fans. He generally has no interest in people who have it all together.
- In his teens, he felt like a geek and was uncomfortable in his own skin.
- He is a devout Christian.
- His description on his recently revamped website at the time had a small typo, stating he lives "is" Franklin, Tennessee.
- It was fixed here.
- He tends to misspell Mr. Blik as "Mr. Blick".
- He has been married for 27 years, and has four children.
- He refers to Waffle's newt Gomez as "A man after my own heart".
- Doug’s website (tennapel.com), used the background graphic of our own Catscratch Wiki (and even had a link to the site) for its representation in the Television tab.
- The graphic artist was eternally honored when he first saw it.
- The screenshots of Catscratch he has in the Television tab of his aforementioned website are from the paired episodes of "Unicorn Club" and "Go Gomez! Go!"
External Links[]
- Doug TenNapel at Wikipedia
- Doug TenNapel at Moby Games
- Doug TenNapel Skype Interview