TVSquad

Okay, okay. It's been a while since we've had a solid update on the Venture Bros. and I suppose we're due for another one. With no new episodes to fill that Venture-shaped void in your hearts, it's cruel to deprive you all of this delicious information. We've got a lot of news to cover, from conventions to soundtracks to Adult Swim super-sneakiness, so let's get started.

All right, best news first: The official premiere date for Season Three is June 1! It has been confirmed by Jackson Publick, so you know it's good. The crew is about to get back to work and start Season Four, which means the wait for a new season won't be quite as painful as usual.

Secondly, Jackson, Doc Hammer, James Urbaniak and Mike Sinterniklaas will be returning to the New York Comic-Con on April 19 for an afternoon Venture Bros. panel. It looks like Steven Ratazzi isn't coming back to grace us with his Doc Orpheus-ness, but it has been announced that Quickstop Entertainment's Ken Plume is moderating. I guess that's sort of a replacement because it'll be a bit like having a real-life Number 21 in the room. Anyway, as things stand now, I'll be attending, so expect an excruciatingly detailed account of how things go once I calm down from the trip.

Thirdly, the world may be getting a Venture Bros. soundtrack! Yes, it's looking more and more likely. Fans have been begging for a soundtrack of the show's score for a really long time, but Jackson and Doc have always said that the music belongs to the composer, JG Thirlwell, so it's up to him if he wants to do anything with it. I've already gotten a bunch of his albums in a desperate attempt to make myself feel better (Steroid Maximus' "¡Quilombo!" is great background music for inking drawings, by the way), but it's still not quite enough. In a recent interview with Popshifter, Thirlwell mentioned that he's preparing a Venture Bros. soundtrack album. No additional details were provided but this brief news alone is incredibly exciting. I'm definitely going to pump up that soundtrack on my iPod when I go grocery shopping so that I can feel bad-ass when I'm purchasing produce.

And in case you didn't know, on April Fools' Day, Adult Swim aired a rough cut of first half of "The Doctor Is Sin", a Season Three episode. I'd like to share what it was about or how it looked, but, umm, I missed it. In my defense, I -- Actually, I don't really have a good excuse. I was probably asleep or busy getting Rickrolled by YouTube that day. However, I feel like less of a bad fan knowing that Jackson and Doc, the brains behind the damn show, had no idea either and only found out after the rough cut had aired and people on the Internet started talking about it. Mantis-Eye Experiment has a few screencaps.

Lastly... I'm always looking out for my fellow fans. Every little bit of related information that will help soothe the twitchy withdrawal, I share. So, here's the most pointless non-newsy piece of information ever: I'm pretty sure the season contains at least one Guitar Hero reference geared towards the Henchmen. I can't remember where I heard about that. You know me, I'm too lazy to ever fact-check. I just cull this crap from all the blogs that I obsessively follow and then I let the tiny bits of information float around my oddly shaped head until I feel competent enough to regurgitate it to you guys. For all I know, the Venture Bros. may not be a cartoon and, to be quite honest, I'm not even that sure that it even exists. Anyway, watch the new season (of the cartoon that may or may not exist) and if they say some throwaway line about the Henchmen playing Guitar Hero, you can say, "Wow, Annie totally called that. I'm sure glad she warned me about the reference, otherwise I would have been too caught off-guard to continue watching the episode." And if they don't make the reference, it's not a big deal either, because you probably will have forgotten by June.