DOUG TENNAPEL

Creature Tech

1. Where did the story of Creature Tech find its germination, and how long did it take you to develop?

I'm not sure how the story started but I always liked the idea of a man with a living creature attached to his body that helped him do things. This is a similar premise to Earthworm Jim. The worm is helped by a super suit.

I first coined the name Creature Tech in 1995. I spent four years writing the story that ended up being the graphic novel. I think part of what makes the story so fun is that I had a lot of time to cram complicated detail into the framework of the story. After Top Shelf approved the script I started illustrating the pages which took me just over four months. I inked two pages a day for 104 days!

[ed. - Doug helped create Earthworm Jim, he's not just ripping off the idea]

2. Dr. Michael Ong, the central character in Creature Tech, is tapped by the Government to fill shoes once worn by his father and investigate an number of religious and occult artifacts at a research facility in his hometown of Turlock. Do you really think that the U.S. Government actually funds supernatural research in small towns and if so, when is Tom Ridge going to smite you for letting the cat out of the bag?

I have no comment.

3. After battling the contents of one of the boxes he is supposed to investigate, Dr. Ong is joined with a multi-limbed symbiote who learns kung-fu from late nite television movies. Do you think this negates the concept that TV is bad for kids?

I don't think any parent ever disliked the fact that children can learn solid Drunken Master kung fu from martial arts movies. TV is bad because of all that educational crap. Have you seen that drivel?! We watch TV to have a "pizza experience" not an "enema".

4. At one point in Creature Tech, the Villain – a 150-year old zombie named Dr. Jameson – uses the Shroud of Turin to animate the contents of a butcher shop. Don’t we all just want to be loved?

Isn't that what you'd do if you could raise anything from the dead? I'd probably resurrect Ruth Buzzi's career.

5. Your work (Creature Tech, Gear, the Neverhood, an issue of Scud the Disposable Assassin that I remember from a few years back) seems centered around questions of faith and the pursuit of redemption. Issues with the afterlife, Doug?

I like making epics. To me, it has to deal with that moment where the hero looks into the face of a kind of eternal death and comes back from it a changed person. I think everyone wonders about issues of faith and we really don't talk about it (or joke about it) that much in our stories. It's good for us to think about such things. It's good for me to write about these things since it helps get the images out of my head.

6. Speaking of the afterlife, rumor has it that Creature Tech was optioned by Disney even before it was released. Is this true, and did they let you see Walt’s frozen corpse as part of the deal?

I think Disney made an offer and we went with somebody else. And for the record, Walt's corpse is not frozen. It's standing right here next to me. I'm trying not to think about how it just got there.

7. Did you even ask?

No, but they let me see Michael Eisner's frozen corpse.

8. People Magazine has referred to you as “generation X’s answer to Dr. Seuss”. Has that praise dimmed any since they referred to Ben Afleck as the “Sexiest Man Alive”?

I'm waiting for them to start the "Sexiest Man Dead" contest. And I mean show the corpse. I'd go toe to toe with Ben on that one any day because I really think I'd hold up pretty well.

9. Whose work do you pull inspiration from?

I like Mike Mignola's Hellboy. I zip throught those pages and it makes me want to draw! But I have other strange sources will probably make for a more interesting answer to the question. I get inspiration from amphibians like newts and salamanders. The first time I learned about amphibian metamorphosis I flipped out that those things really existed! A lot of my creations try to mimic that feeling of discovering something fabulous that seems like it should be fiction but it's real. So that would be God's work I'm drawing from there.

10. Has all the success gone to your head?

You bet. Like a blood-clot.

Douglas TenNapel is the creative maelstorm behind Earthworm Jim, the Neverhood, Gear, and Creature Tech. He also is the lead singer for a band named Truck. He also writes for TV and fancies himself something of a painter - like Thomas Kindcaid, only without all the money...or the beard.

Visit Doug at www.tennapel.com