TenNapel began as an animator on
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. He soon began working in the
video game industry on projects like 1993's
Jurassic Park and ''
The Ren & Stimpy Show: Stimpy's Invention for the Sega Genesis and The Jungle Book'' for the
SNES and Sega Genesis. In 1994, he created
Earthworm Jim, the character that would star in
Shiny Entertainment's video game, toy line, and cartoon series. Shiny Entertainment head
David Perry later commented on working with TenNapel, "I wish I could find 100 Dougs, then I realized I was lucky to have been able to work with one. He is crazy talented, both crazy and talented! He also generates an enormous amount of amazing content and ideas, I wouldn’t be surprised if he sleeps with a sketch-book!" In 1995, he left Shiny Entertainment and founded his own company, Neverhood, with several other former Shiny employees. Working for
DreamWorks Interactive, Neverhood created
The Neverhood for the PC and PlayStation. The sequel, entitled
Skullmonkeys, followed in 1998. On television, TenNapel was the creator of the
Project G.e.e.K.e.R. cartoon series for
CBS. He was also a consulting producer on the
ABC series
Push, Nevada with
Ben Affleck. Towards the end of the 2000s, he also created two shorts for
Frederator Studios and
Nicktoons, "Solomon Fix" (computer generated 3D) and "Squirly Town" (traditional 2D). As a graphic artist and cartoonist, TenNapel released his first comic book in 1998:
Gear, a surreal epic based on his real-life cats, Simon, Waffle, Gordon and Mr. Black, in a war against dogs and insects using giant robots as weapons. The cats from
Gear would eventually become the
Nickelodeon series
Catscratch. TenNapel did the cover art for several of
Five Iron Frenzy's albums, including a sculpture for their live album,
Proof That the Youth Are Revolting. TenNapel has also created album covers and artwork for several
Daniel Amos CDs, The 1999 tribute to the band,
When Worlds Collide, the
Neverhood soundtrack
Imaginarium: Songs from the Neverhood and others.
Flink, a graphic novel by TenNapel, was released in late
2007 through
Image Comics.
Monster Zoo was released in early summer
2008. In May
2009 his graphic novel
Power Up was released. Between January and October 2009, TenNapel was a regular contributor to
Breitbart News' "Big Hollywood" section, covering topics from movie reviews and the state of the comics entertainment industry to criticisms of the
Obama administration and the
environmental movement. In July 2010, his graphic novel
Ghostopolis was released. In 2009, it was announced the book would be adapted into a film starring and produced by
Hugh Jackman for
Walt Disney Pictures, but no update has been given since then. TenNapel produced an episodic spoof of Japanese
Super Sentai-style shows called
Go Sukashi! based on a character by
Shoko Nakagawa (who appears in the films), and starring
John Soares and
Brooke Brodack. He has also published an online superhero-genre-spoofing webcomic titled
Ratfist. In September 2012,
Fox Animation optioned TenNapel's published Graphix novel
Cardboard, with plans for actor
Tobey Maguire's Material Pictures, graphic novelist Doug TenNapel, and the
Gotham Group to be executive producers. Fox planned to have the picture developed under its WedgeWorks subsidiary. WedgeWorks director
Chris Wedge (
Ice Age) was producing, and considered directing the film as well. As of 2020, no update has been given on the film, especially given the
acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets by The Walt Disney Company. TenNapel has used
Kickstarter to produce a bound collection of his sketches, named
Sketchbook Archives. TenNapel and other former members of the
Earthworm Jim team at Pencil Test Studios launched a
Kickstarter campaign in May 2013 to fund a PC game project called
Armikrog, described a
spiritual successor to
The Neverhood and also being animated using
clay animation techniques. It was successful, and reached its stretch goal for a
Wii U version. In 2018, TenNapel self-published the graphic novel
Bigfoot Bill, launched as an
Indiegogo, successfully funded and reaching various stretch goals. In May 2019, TenNapel and other members of the original
Earthworm Jim team announced a new
Earthworm Jim game, to be released as an exclusive for the upcoming
Intellivision Amico. He also self-published the graphic novel
Earthworm Jim: Launch the Cow, again on Indiegogo. ==Personal life==