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The Art of the Venture Brothers
Dark Horse Books proudly presents The Art of the Venture Bros. This massive coffee table book includes original artwork, character designs, storyboards, painted backgrounds, and props from every episode of The Venture Bros. to date, with accompanying commentary on the development of the series from co-creators Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer!
Check out the earliest sketches of all your favorite Venture Bros. characters and the genesis of the ideas that became some of the shows funniest episodes. To top it off, comedian Patton Oswalt pens a very special foreword!
Check out the earliest sketches of all your favorite Venture Bros. characters and the genesis of the ideas that became some of the shows funniest episodes. To top it off, comedian Patton Oswalt pens a very special foreword!
- GenresArtNonfictionHumor
184 pages, Hardcover
First published October 7, 2014
64 people are currently reading
278 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
August 3, 2020
My husband is a Venture Brothers super-fan. When we started dating, he initiated me into this strange cult: being a music, sci-fi and pop-culture nerd, I took to this genius TV show like a fish to water. When I found out about this book, I bought it for Jason immediately, but I couldn’t resist sneaking a peak when he was done with it.
For those who don’t know, the Venture Brothers is an adult animation series that’s essentially a deconstruction of the superhero/supervillain/boy adventurer or detective trope, and beautifully parodies and deconstructs all the classic elements associated with that genre – with a healthy dose of dark, sarcastic humor, existentialism and pop-culture commentary sprinkled on top. In other words, it’s delightful. Go on Adult Swim and watch it. Now (https://www.adultswim.com/streams/the...).
This gorgeous coffee table book documents each and every episode (from season 1 to season 6) in the voice of the two deranged geniuses that are Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick. One of the things I love most about this show is that every single detail is clearly there for a reason, whether it's an obscure reference to 70s German New Wave or a dig at the Fantastic Four, and it's fascinating to me to see how the minds behind this come up with it.
Any Venture Brothers fan will love flipping through this and re-living the perfect jokes ("Jettison the lunchroom!") and learning about the genesis of the memorable characters (RIP 24) of this animated masterpiece. It will also make them want to marathon all six seasons immediately. The only real problem with this book is that I would have loved for long-time collaborators like James Urbaniak and Patrick Warburton to be included: it would have been fun to have some insight as to what it's like being the voice of the characters.
Go team Venture!
For those who don’t know, the Venture Brothers is an adult animation series that’s essentially a deconstruction of the superhero/supervillain/boy adventurer or detective trope, and beautifully parodies and deconstructs all the classic elements associated with that genre – with a healthy dose of dark, sarcastic humor, existentialism and pop-culture commentary sprinkled on top. In other words, it’s delightful. Go on Adult Swim and watch it. Now (https://www.adultswim.com/streams/the...).
This gorgeous coffee table book documents each and every episode (from season 1 to season 6) in the voice of the two deranged geniuses that are Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick. One of the things I love most about this show is that every single detail is clearly there for a reason, whether it's an obscure reference to 70s German New Wave or a dig at the Fantastic Four, and it's fascinating to me to see how the minds behind this come up with it.
Any Venture Brothers fan will love flipping through this and re-living the perfect jokes ("Jettison the lunchroom!") and learning about the genesis of the memorable characters (RIP 24) of this animated masterpiece. It will also make them want to marathon all six seasons immediately. The only real problem with this book is that I would have loved for long-time collaborators like James Urbaniak and Patrick Warburton to be included: it would have been fun to have some insight as to what it's like being the voice of the characters.
Go team Venture!
August 8, 2018
simply outstanding
can't wait to read the next one in 20 years
can't wait to read the next one in 20 years
November 15, 2018
This is a really cool coffee table book about The Venture Bros, one of my favorite programs currently airing on TV (I don’t watch much tv anymore, so that’s really saying something lol).
It’s not exactly a book to read straight through, but I think it would be fun to read this book during a rewatch of the series so I can get all the background information right after I watch the episode in question.
This is a really niche book, but it has a lot of information in it for the topic and it’s really well made. It sucked having to wait for it to be published after it kept getting pushed back, but it was definitely worth the way!
It’s not exactly a book to read straight through, but I think it would be fun to read this book during a rewatch of the series so I can get all the background information right after I watch the episode in question.
This is a really niche book, but it has a lot of information in it for the topic and it’s really well made. It sucked having to wait for it to be published after it kept getting pushed back, but it was definitely worth the way!
December 14, 2018
Damn, I thought I loved the Venture Bros, but enough to read this big-ass book about 'em? Well, I'll give it a skim...
Very mixed bag for very enamored fanboys/fangirls. You've got your character sketches, your episode commentaries, your secret histories. It's probably nothing more than you could cobble from a few (dozen) repeated viewings and a few (hundred) hours trolling Reddit and The Mantis-Eye Experiment. But having this title on hand saves you the time of having to construct your own pushpins-and-string detective obsession board.
3.5 stars out of 5. Not a good balance between new trivia and just basic episode summaries. For severe niche audiences' eyes only.
Very mixed bag for very enamored fanboys/fangirls. You've got your character sketches, your episode commentaries, your secret histories. It's probably nothing more than you could cobble from a few (dozen) repeated viewings and a few (hundred) hours trolling Reddit and The Mantis-Eye Experiment. But having this title on hand saves you the time of having to construct your own pushpins-and-string detective obsession board.
3.5 stars out of 5. Not a good balance between new trivia and just basic episode summaries. For severe niche audiences' eyes only.
Currently reading
January 7, 2019Todd is the best for giving us this book! We now have a project: read this book while rewatching all of the episodes, one by one. Who knows how long that will take us, but we’re gonna start tomorrow!
We’ll see how this goes...
We’ll see how this goes...
November 1, 2018
It's a luxuriously produced $40 coffee table book that covers the first six seasons of The Venture Brothers. You get an introduction to each season along with a few pages about each episode along with background paintings, sketchbook drawings, and a photo-collection of related paraphernalia (t-shirts, glasses, DVD sets, etc...)
And I'm not quite sure it's worth it.
Here's the issue. Ken Plume, in compiling this behemoth, has included copious interviews with Jackson Publick (show creator, writer, director and major voice actor) and Doc Hammer (writer, painter, and major voice actor).
And nobody else.
There's nothing from any of the other voice talent (most notably, nothing from Patrick Warburton). There's nothing from anyone from Adult Swim. There's nothing from anybody else who regularly works on the show. You get a teensy introduction from Patton Oswalt.
And, yes, it's Jackson's and Doc's baby. You absolutely need to get their take on almost everything. But there's no other perspective. And the emphasis on just those two leads to two problems.
1) There's often more focus on how they work together than on the nuts and bolts of the show. It's cool to see how they develop as a team, but I was yearning for more details on characters and creative decisions than what I got.
2) It's repetitive. The first time you get an insight about how they write shows out of order or how Jackson falls apart around show eight or how the backgrounds are designed, it's cool. The second or third or fourth time, it's just filler. So when I was (again) hoping for more details on characters and plotlines, I get filler.
Now, if you are a Venture Brothers fan, you're probably getting this anyway. And I don't blame you --- there's still a ton to learn. (For me, I loved the early glimpses of the comic book origins of the show and the kerfuffle over the season 2 cliffhanger.) But the whole didn't really work for me.
And I'm not quite sure it's worth it.
Here's the issue. Ken Plume, in compiling this behemoth, has included copious interviews with Jackson Publick (show creator, writer, director and major voice actor) and Doc Hammer (writer, painter, and major voice actor).
And nobody else.
There's nothing from any of the other voice talent (most notably, nothing from Patrick Warburton). There's nothing from anyone from Adult Swim. There's nothing from anybody else who regularly works on the show. You get a teensy introduction from Patton Oswalt.
And, yes, it's Jackson's and Doc's baby. You absolutely need to get their take on almost everything. But there's no other perspective. And the emphasis on just those two leads to two problems.
1) There's often more focus on how they work together than on the nuts and bolts of the show. It's cool to see how they develop as a team, but I was yearning for more details on characters and creative decisions than what I got.
2) It's repetitive. The first time you get an insight about how they write shows out of order or how Jackson falls apart around show eight or how the backgrounds are designed, it's cool. The second or third or fourth time, it's just filler. So when I was (again) hoping for more details on characters and plotlines, I get filler.
Now, if you are a Venture Brothers fan, you're probably getting this anyway. And I don't blame you --- there's still a ton to learn. (For me, I loved the early glimpses of the comic book origins of the show and the kerfuffle over the season 2 cliffhanger.) But the whole didn't really work for me.
August 10, 2018
Essential, hilarious, and fascinating reading for any fan of the 21st century’s greatest animated show.
September 29, 2018
Beware dear reader, this book is set to stun.
November 9, 2018
Love getting to look behind the curtain of one of the best shows on television. A lot of fun, you get the sense that Doc and Jackson are just a couple of buddies hanging out and churning on something they really care about.
August 28, 2018
If you're a super fan of "The Venture Bros." then this book is a must read. Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer go into full detail about the making of the series. It's what their episode commentaries would be like if they didn't go off on such lovely tangents. The book covers the episodes season by season, with a few more details about the Shirt Clubs, toys, DVD production art, etc. The amount of love that went into this book can be felt on each page. It's great to see that Publick and Doc's love for this show has not wane in the slightest. As a fan, I've never felt as part of Team Venture as I do now.
October 25, 2018
If the DVD commentaries involved Doc and Jackson actually discussing the making of the series, this book would be a transcription of those
September 12, 2022
God this is so delicious . I didn’t spend the $200 current asking price on this but it would have been worth it if I did. Doc hammer talks like an insane person I want to put him in charge of global economics
October 9, 2018
Utterly hilarious, and an excellent addition for the 'All Things Venture' completist. I have waited years to read this, and I laughed throughout every page.
June 8, 2025
This might be the most niche thing in my library. The Venture Bros is already a show that attracts a very small, very passionate audience, and to read this you need to also be the kind of sicko that likes in-depth (like down to the atom) discussion of how the sausage gets made, reading the conversations of two very creative, unique people who share a single brain.
This book is an absolute tome of lore, but at its core it's a love story between two unique creators with a strong vision. Hammer and Publick have a lot to say about the creative process, and this book reinforces what I believe is key storytelling:
You have to be the biggest fan of your own work, and
Trusting your audience leads to greater, richer results
Hammer and Publick make it clear that even if there was no audience, they would still be creating this world, because they are continuously making things that they want to see.
Any good parody has to be made with love, because otherwise you’re just being a bully, and you won’t have the understanding to make something that’s funny or engaging for the audience. (Note: this is why The Boys falls flat).
The Venture Bros is a show that wears this love on its sleeve, and throws the kitchen sink of everything its creators love and were inspired by, and then created a world full of characters who they love just as much, and gladly put in the work to make you care about them. It’s a true pleasure to experience the world these writers created, and just as great to peel back the curtain and know that the writers are having just as much fun creating it.
This book is an absolute tome of lore, but at its core it's a love story between two unique creators with a strong vision. Hammer and Publick have a lot to say about the creative process, and this book reinforces what I believe is key storytelling:
You have to be the biggest fan of your own work, and
Trusting your audience leads to greater, richer results
Hammer and Publick make it clear that even if there was no audience, they would still be creating this world, because they are continuously making things that they want to see.
Any good parody has to be made with love, because otherwise you’re just being a bully, and you won’t have the understanding to make something that’s funny or engaging for the audience. (Note: this is why The Boys falls flat).
The Venture Bros is a show that wears this love on its sleeve, and throws the kitchen sink of everything its creators love and were inspired by, and then created a world full of characters who they love just as much, and gladly put in the work to make you care about them. It’s a true pleasure to experience the world these writers created, and just as great to peel back the curtain and know that the writers are having just as much fun creating it.
November 18, 2018
How apropos that I finish this book the week of William Goldman’s passing, as the revelations I garnered while reading it were eerily similar to Goldman’s much-publicized affirmations about working in the entertainment industry at large:
“Nobody knows anything...... Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what's going to work. Every time out it's a guess and, if you're lucky, an educated one.”
I love the Venture Bros as pop-satire. If I had the option to emulate any career and series (in tone and spirit), this will be the one. Here’s hoping that the Ventures are around for well over another decade; I’d love to read Go Team Venture: Vol. 2!
“Nobody knows anything...... Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what's going to work. Every time out it's a guess and, if you're lucky, an educated one.”
I love the Venture Bros as pop-satire. If I had the option to emulate any career and series (in tone and spirit), this will be the one. Here’s hoping that the Ventures are around for well over another decade; I’d love to read Go Team Venture: Vol. 2!
December 11, 2019
"Ignore Me!" Loved this. Five million stars.
September 9, 2020
Do you love the show? Then you need this book. Stop messing around. You know this is what you want it to be. It’s Doc and Jackson. It’s The Venture Bros.
August 23, 2018
Required reading for any true Venture fan.
March 4, 2023
Best. Show. Ever.
March 12, 2020
After just watching the entirety of The Venture Bros series again it seemed fitting to finally sit down and jam through this massive art book I've had on my shelf for over a year now. And fucking massive it is. I didn't realize that it was essentially a 300 page interview with the creators as well as an "art of book." I don't really give a shit what the creators have to say about the making and evolution of the show. Nothing against them, because I fucking love The Venture Bros. I just want to enjoy it how I do now, which is almost uninformed about any of the behind the scenes goings-on. However, the art I'm highly interested. Everything in the visual development category I'm all about. This book just further proves why this show is in a class of it's own. If only for the design alone. Particularly the set designs.
While flipping through the book I was thinking about how cool all these character designs, prop designs, set designs, and weird, world-building (a phrase I fucking never want to hear again) props and visual gags that aren't ever seen truly are. It's something I'd love to be a part of, or more exactly, creating my own ideas like this but without the hangups of having the story to back it up. Just all the cool accessories and ideas. What kind of art product is that? Regardless, The Venture Bros. is amazing and you'd do well to put it in your eyes.
While flipping through the book I was thinking about how cool all these character designs, prop designs, set designs, and weird, world-building (a phrase I fucking never want to hear again) props and visual gags that aren't ever seen truly are. It's something I'd love to be a part of, or more exactly, creating my own ideas like this but without the hangups of having the story to back it up. Just all the cool accessories and ideas. What kind of art product is that? Regardless, The Venture Bros. is amazing and you'd do well to put it in your eyes.
November 5, 2019
I feel pretty comfortable in saying that The Venture Bros. is the greatest animated sitcom ever made. It's a pitch-perfect satire of vintage adventure cartoons and superhero comics. The bureaucratic mundanity of the villain/arch-rival relationships. The ridiculous, yet simultaneously all-too believable characters. The sheer amount of care heaped into every bit of the smallest detail, whether it comes to lore, continuity, characterization, design, every part of this show was made with the utmost amount of care and love. And this book is, as Doc Hammer states in the afterword, basically just one long love letter to the long, often tortured, always fruitful production of this show. For a fan like me - I've been watching this thing since it first came out and loved it the whole time - this is just about the best thing I could've expected. It's filled with concept art, storyboards, character models, sketches, background art, behind-the-scenes stories and knowledge that most sane people neither covet or need. It's perfect. I can only hope the show goes on long enough to necessitate another volume someday.
July 30, 2022
Go Team Venture! is one of the most comprehensive art books for a television show I've ever read. The beginning details the struggles to realize The Venture Bros., how early Adult Swim operated, and the process of getting the show picked up. Beyond this incredible insight, it goes though every episode, including the specials, and shares old notes, character sketches, and what things the creators learned as they went. I am saving up to buy it after renting it from the library.
This book is not only insight to the creation of the Venture Bros., but also into animation itself. Any animation nerd should have this as a must-read, though the episode-by-episode analysis won't make sense if you haven't seen the show.
I guess what I'm saying is that if you're an animation nerd, you should watch The Venture Bros. and then read this book.
Go Team Venture! details an adult swim animated show first aired in 2004. As a result, it will contain culturally insensitive or poorly aged material.
This book is not only insight to the creation of the Venture Bros., but also into animation itself. Any animation nerd should have this as a must-read, though the episode-by-episode analysis won't make sense if you haven't seen the show.
I guess what I'm saying is that if you're an animation nerd, you should watch The Venture Bros. and then read this book.
Go Team Venture! details an adult swim animated show first aired in 2004. As a result, it will contain culturally insensitive or poorly aged material.
March 8, 2019
"The Venture Bros" is probably my favourite programme of all time. Initially a spoof of 60s adventure cartoons, it became what Archer did for spy tropes with a huge cast of realistic villains, heroes and outright jerks. Just when I thought I couldnt love it more I read this official art book where the creators say one scene was written to the backing of The Divine Comedy's Sweden whilst another was an unnamed Neil Innes track, neither of which Cartoon Network would pay for. Not enough swooning in the world.
November 17, 2019
If you're a Venture Brothers fan and want to get a little more into the idea and show making process (and more explanation into some of the long hiatuses and between-season gaps) as well as a ton of concept art, check it out. Grab a magnifying glass for the scans of Jackson Publick's show notebook pages. It's partially a series companion but it doesn't really recap the episodes. Almost like a visual creators' commentary.
November 16, 2020
Most “Making of” books have either too much about the production and not enough process work to be helpful, or it’s basically a picture book and includes no useful info on how the show was made. I have read a LOT of art books and this one comes closest to having it all. I would kill for some character turn arounds but honestly the fact that I can nitpick that far is a testament to how good it is. Some of the anecdotes are hilarious to boot.
December 7, 2020
This took me a long time to finish because I was basically reading it as I re-watched The Venture Brothers. I don't have a lot of bingeing time, so 6 seasons takes a while. Hence the year-and-a-half reading time.
But the book is cool. It's filled with a lot of fun facts and sweet art. Getting to know the behind-the-scenes thinking of Doc Hammer and and Jackson Publick was... kind of weird, honestly.
But the book is cool. It's filled with a lot of fun facts and sweet art. Getting to know the behind-the-scenes thinking of Doc Hammer and and Jackson Publick was... kind of weird, honestly.
January 23, 2022
A wonderful look into the making of The Venture Brothers. I enjoyed it not just as a fan wanting more time with the world and the creators of it, but also as a writer wanting to learn just how a show gets made, episode-by-episode and season by season. I would recommend it to anyone wanting the same.
January 30, 2023
4.5 ⭐️ LOVED This book. I was expecting more of an art book that I could flip through, but the interviews with Jackson Public and Doc Hammer made sure I read the entire thing. I felt so reminiscent that I watched a few episodes. The art backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous. And I just love the character designs.
December 24, 2023
I paired this book with the TV show, of course, rewatching seasons 1-5 and seeing season 6 for the first time. Love hearing the thoughts behind the episodes and the decisions that they made for characters. The book has tons of concept art as well. A really great package. Now I need to watch season 7 and the movie that got released this past summer.
November 11, 2019
If you’re a fan then this is the ultimate book for you. Filled with behind the scenes info, sketches, art, etc it’s an invaluable companion to an amazing show. Wish it could auto update with each new season!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews