Earthworm Jim
Let's discuss Earthworm Jim and it's creator Doug TenNapel, I mean like: memories of the series, favorite game, etc.
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He's such a groovy guy.
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Doug TenNaple's a libertarian.
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Doug TenNaple's a librarian.
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I take it you never watched the Earthworm Jim TV show. I'd better not be the only person with the theme stuck in my head now.
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Of course I did, that and The Tick are my all time favorite cartoon shows.
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I more remember the games of course, but I did have the Jim figure from the cartoon, where you could launch his head from the suit. I miss when Dan Castellaneta used to do some work outside of The Simpsons.
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I had a few of the toys, I always hated the accessories they came with, Jim's machine gun wasn't even red it was green O.o WTF
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Earthworm Jim 3D, how frustrating was that?
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yeah it was ugly.
the best EWJ game was the first. it was just "GROOOVY!!". i can't help but think about duke nukem when i think about ewj, both went into development hell. |
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I have an Earthworm Jim game on the GBA, I thought it was pretty fun, although I never finished it.
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I've followed TenNapel's work for a while now.
He's a classic case of "Love the work, hate the guy" (still dwarfed by John K in this department, mind you). Well, "hate" is a strong word... but "Love the work, disagree with the guy's political and theological standpoint" doesn't sound as good. Back when I was a regular on his forums, I witnessed/participated in several discussions with him. To be blunt, he has some very... screwy ideals. It's one thing to be Christian, but he's so incredibly right-wing about some things that it's scary. With people like that I try to have a live-and-let-live attitude, but he's so combative and douchey about it that it's damn near impossible. All that aside, EWJ and The Neverhood remain two of my favorites to this day. I also love their respective soundtracks. His comics aren't bad either, though some of them get a bit preachy. |
I've only played the game once or twice in my life, sadly. Despite this, when I was a kid, I also had an Earthworm Jim action figure where you could pop off his head. No idea where it came from, though.
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I haven't been playing much of that HD remake of it for some reason but from what I played I really like it, besides some of the voice acting. Also EWJ 3D really isn't that bad, I made it to the last section of levels but didn't have enough marbles to get into any of the levels so I kind of gave up, some day I'll finish it, it's just so hilarious.
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I posted on TenNapel's forums as well, and yeah, the guy's kind of nutty for the Jesus, but he's still a really nice guy from what I saw. He even liked something I wrote way back when!
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I never hold that kind of thing against artists, as surprising as that may sound. One of my favorite musicians is a devout Christian, as is this artist who I own five original paintings from.
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Exaculertly, they have a passion and they use it. Or whatever.
I must say though, much as I love Creature Tech and treasure chancing upon it the way I did, it is damn preachy at the end. |
He is indeed very passionate about his art, and he's very nice to his fans. Back in the day (he actually might still do this, I dunno), he would invite several (like 25) of his fans to be treated to dinner after he shut his comic con booth down for the day. He would often invite pretty much all of his collaborators and fellow artists/performers as well, so it's a pretty epic night for the geeks in attendance.
The last comic of his that I read was Earthboy Jacobus, which was basically a reversed allusion to the story of Jonah, 'cept with alien insects and death guns. He's published like five or six since then, including a travel-sized reprint of his first GN "Gear", on which his ephemeral cartoon "Catscratch" was based. I have not gotten around to reading these, but my friend who follows his work says it's getting increasingly preachy and wishy-washy. Omitting the Christian propaganda, he's a damn fine read and his works read more like movies than graphic novels. Good stuff. |