Before he became a student at
Rutgers University, Christopher McCulloch worked in his hometown comic-book shop and wrote comics stories in his spare time. His employer published his superhero spoof
Cement Shooz, and when McCulloch promoted it at a
comic book convention in New York, he was approached by
Ben Edlund, creator of the comic-book character the
Tick, who had read
Cement Shooz and offered McCulloch the chance to write for a spinoff of
The Tick. McCulloch wrote
The Tick" Karma Tornado #1-4, additionally penciling issue #3. When the
Fox Kids Network increased its order of Edlund's
animated series The Tick, McCulloch was drafted as a staff writer and a storyboard artist.
The Venture Bros. was conceived as a short comics story for a comics anthology by Monkeysuit Press, of which McCulloch is the editor. Working on
The Tick (and listening to
J.G. Thirlwell's first
Steroid Maximus album) helped McCulloch translate the story into cartoon form. He wrote the first draft in 2000 while he was attempting to pitch something else to
Comedy Central, which turned it down. At the time, he was also working as a storyboard artist for
Mo Willems's
Sheep in the Big City and for
PB&J Otter. McCulloch was also known for his work on
Codename: Kids Next Door,
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and
King of the Hill. After this,
The Tick was picked up in its
live action form, and McCulloch moved to California. During this he met
Patrick Warburton, who later went on to voice
Brock Samson. When
The Tick was canceled, he moved back to New York City and pitched a revised version of
The Venture Bros. to Comedy Central again. Though it was turned down again, he contacted Jeff Nodelman of Noodlesoup Productions (which became World Leaders Entertainment).
Adult Swim later picked up the series and the pilot was produced in 2003. In addition to
The Venture Bros. on
Adult Swim, Christopher also voices several background characters in the
Adult Swim animated series
Superjail!. Two characters in the series (Jean and Paul, the gay inmates) had originally started out as minor characters in the show's first season, but by the second season they had become more active members of the cast, participating in major events of episodes, and even gaining entire episodes centering on them for the second and third seasons. McCulloch has provided additional guest voices in a season 4 episode ("
Prankklok") of
Brendon Small's
Metalocalypse and a season 5 episode ("
Casablankman II") of
Seth Green's
Robot Chicken on
Cartoon Network's late-night block
Adult Swim. He also voices Hiram McDaniels, the literal five-headed dragon/mayoral candidate, on the podcast
Welcome to Night Vale. McCulloch is the voice of Orangusnake, Boss Hosstrich and Cluckins in
Cartoon Network's
Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart. == References ==