TVSquad

Those of you Venture Bros. fans that watched the Season Three teaser I posted in my NY Comic-Con report probably didn't catch all the jokes. After all, the footage was a recording of a recording and the massive auditorium was packed with people screaming and laughing throughout the entire thing. Heck, I was actually there in-person and I could barely tell what was going on.

Quickstop Entertainment has finally posted high-quality versions of the exclusive teaser. Now you can watch it crouched over your laptop, ears pressed to your cheap speakers, the way media is meant to be enjoyed. Regardless, it looks like we are in for quite a season. According to Jackson Publick, Doc Hammer only had three and a half completed episodes to use for this trailer and this is definitely not a collection of the best of Season Three. If the best is truly still to come, then I'm sure the new season, starting June 1, will be nothing short of crazy spectacular.

Okay, I'm finally back from the New York Comic-Con and I still smell like the Javits Convention Center. Fandom seeps into the deepest layers of one's skin and take at least a few weeks to wash out. It's a scientific fact.

The first panel I attended wasn't even TV-related. Worrying that the Battlestar Galactica room would fill before I could even step into the line, I sat through the preceding panel for Wall-E and Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian to guarantee a seat. As it turns out, the theater is absolutely huge and two big screens were on either side of the stage, so my worry was kind of pointless. I was reminded of what I already knew: Wall-E looks insanely cute, Chronicles of Narnia has a greasy-haired new guy and the Jesus lion again. However, this is when I began to play a game that lasted throughout the entire weekend: Analyze the differing levels of scary devotion throughout various fanbases!

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.

(S05E09) "Well... I'm about to update your "MyFace" page with my ass unless you get in there and read us a story!" - Shake

Well, not the best episode of ATHF, but I liked certain parts of it. The addition of new or temporary characters is always so touch and go on this show. Sometimes it's huge and repeat appearances are warranted. Think Mooninites, Plutonians, and MC Pee Pants. The Bible Fruit? Despite the extra points for being a well-done knock off of the openly Christian themed VeggieTales, I'll be glad if I never see them again.

(S05E08) "Listen, when we dock, I'm gettin' a tattoo of an anaconda that's coming outta my groin region!" - Shake

Every episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force should be this good. Hands down, the best and funniest installment of the current season. This is definitely not a show that I would ever expect to have even the slightest bit of relevant social commentary, but what do I know?

(S05E07) "You seen my fingers?" - Carl

Right from the beginning, I was ready to hate this episode. But I just couldn't. At first, it seemed so corny and felt like a rip-off of Chucky merged with a bad R.L. Stine novel. But the character of The Dummy (despite his limited vocabulary) was hilarious and the decision to knock on every horror movie cliché imaginable was well done too. It's always great when a show like ATHF branches out and tries to do something different like mocking an entire genre in ten minutes.

(S05E06) "The flames are tickling your buttocks!" - Shake

Frylock's eyes. Who knew they could become the basis for a whole episode? Heck, I didn't even realize that he wore contact lenses. I thought his eyes just launched laser canons naturally. I mean, he is a talking carton of french fries so I figure anything is possible. But leave it to Shake and his megalomaniacal delusions (remember The Drizzle?) to steal his good friend's "laser lenses."

The Venture Bros. storyboard artist (and all-around awesome cartoonist) Stephen DeStefano has decided to update his art blog a little more often and if this is any sign of things to come, VB fans are in for a treat. As most of you know, there are three things that I love in life: drawing, The Venture Bros, and fine cheeses. DeStefano's latest update covered two of those categories, so I grabbed a handful of aged cheddar cubes and basked in its greatness.

(S05E05) "I shook it! Only processed meat makes that sound!" - Shake

Blame the President's Day holiday weekend, but I completely forgot about Aqua Teeen Hunger Force on Sunday night. If anything, it was a pleasant surprise when the lightbulb went off in my head this morning and I realized I had something funny to watch. Then... I watched it. Not so funny. To be honest, I thought this episode jumped around a lot. It actually felt more like a few different elements that got folded together to make one big mess.

(S05E04) "Women don't get turned on by "safe!" They crave danger!" - Shake

Back to normal. Markula is gone, the Aqua Teens are back in their house, and Carl is back to being Carl. It's like the first three episodes of this season never happened. As much as I enjoyed that little trilogy, this is the type of stuff that I've been missing: Shake shoving kittens into the microwave.

(S05E03) "...and how was your fix? Did you ride the white horse?" - Markula

Wait just a second. Last week was mind-boggling enough, but did we just witness the completion of a trilogy? An actual episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force that required you, the viewer, to have seen the previous two episodes to know what was going on? Inebriated college students around the country are surely cursing at their TVs in an effort to understand why their favorite drunken hobby has suddenly required them to think.

(S05E02) "Sing for him John Kruk!" - Chrysanthemum

Wait a second... I'm going over this whole series in my my mind. Did we just get a continuation of a story line? An actual episode that picked up where last week's installment left off? Is ATHF going serial? This is madness! Sure, there are recurring characters that come back now and then, but there's never been an on-going plot that warrants two whole episodes. The one downside (it's really not all that bad), is that we went another week without Frylock, Shake, and Meatwad. But I'm sure they're having plenty of fun with Marcula's military desert spiders or whatever the hell kidnapped them.

(S05E01) "Hey, you got kids? If I were married to her... we'd be pumping 'em out!" - Carl

The return of everyone's favorite talking fast-food crime fighters. Except... they weren't in the episode at all, save for a brief phone conversation Carl had with Frylock. Many may have already seen this episode. It was a special feature on the recently released "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am" video game. I never bought it, so it was new to me. Here's where it gets confusing though. In the grand scheme of ATHF, this is the 69th episode. However, if you reference the most recent Adult Swim TV schedule, the 70th episode was supposed to air tonight and this episode wasn't scheduled to have a TV premiere until March 23rd. Not like it's that much of a surprise. Adult Swim is known for just airing stuff whenever they feel like it. Remember last season's finale? Carl Wash? That one ended up airing almost a week early on a Friday night at around 3:00AM and it was never announced.

According to PopCandy, there's some snark going on between Venture Brothers creator Jackson Publick and Stephen Colbert. Colbert, who also has this Comedy Central show you may have heard of, is the voice of the character "Professor Impossible" on the show (the character is a sadistic version of Marvel Comics' Mr. Fantastic).

Apparently, Colbert (or more likely one of Colbert's assistants) blew off Jackson Publick with a rather rude e-mail in which he "has neither the time nor the interest in participating in your project" (um, but he had time for the first two seasons, right?). Publick then shot back on his own blog, "Well, maybe I'm not interested in your ice cream, mister!"

Well, the guys behind the Venture Bros. have finally kicked things into post-production, working hard on the third season, which will most likely not premiere until June of 2008. At least it's going to look super-sexy in the new HD widescreen format, right?

Doc Hammer, one half of the writing team and the voice of Dr. Girlfriend and #24, attended Dragon*Con to share the Venture love but, as always, refused to share any spoilers. We still don't have anything juicy at the moment, but storyboard artist Stephen DeStefano just updated his blog with some small sneak peeks.