Doug Ten Napel

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Doug TenNapel is a writer and cartoonist best known for creating Earthworm Jim, although his work definitely isn't limited to video games. The man has been involved in a wide variety of mediums, and has just recently started dabbling in web comics.

A Doug TenNapel title is very easy to spot due to his love of insane character designs, combined with his love of monsters.

TenNapel is a devout Christian and often includes religious themes in his works. Sometimes its subtle (such as Monster Zoo), sometimes its more overt (Black Cherry or Iron West, for example).

Still, talk is cheap, as they say. It's easy to just say he's helmed a lot of projects. As proof of our claim, allow us to present you with this here list:

Video Games

• Earthworm Jim
• The Neverhood (and its sequel, Skullmonkeys)

Comics

• Gear
• Creature Tech
• Tommysaurus Rex
• Solomon Fix
• Earthboy Jacobus
• Flink
• Iron West
• Black Cherry
• Monster Zoo
• Power Up
• Ghostopolis
• Bad Island
• Cardboard

Web Comics

• Ratfist
• Bigfoot for Hire (sadly cancelled)

Web Original

• Sockbaby
• Go Sukashi
• The Danger Element
• Briefs (sort of)

Western Animation

• Catscratch (loosely adapted from Gear)
• Earthworm Jim (based off of the game series)
• Project Gee Ke R
• Ape Escape (shorts based off of the Playstation game series)

Music

• Doug was a member of the short-lived, mostly-a capella band Truck.
• He's contributed artwork to albums by:
  • Daniel Amos
  • Five Iron Frenzy

Tropes common in his works

• Anti-Hero: If his protagonists aren't idiot heroes or kid heroes, chances are they'll be this.
• Cloudcuckoolander
• Creator Thumbprint:
  • Besides the monsters, he frequently works in at least one scene with a cat.
  • The final page in a lot of his comics is done as a silhouette
  • Also, "ripoff!"
  • Also, references to The Bible are pretty common.
• Hidden Depths
• Hypocritical Humor
• Idiot Hero
• Kid Hero
• Loads and Loads of Characters
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot
• Noodle People
• Our Monsters Are Different / Our Monsters Are Weird
• Unfazed Everyman: A good deal of his characters adjust to the otherworldly madness TenNapel puts them through fairly quickly.
• Widget Series: Every one of his stories.