Each year, Jackson Publick, Doc Hammer, and the rest of the folks behind The Venture Bros. cover a holiday song in the voices of their animated alter egos. The Monarch, Dr. Girlfriend (now Mrs. Dr. The Monarch), and their henchmen are especially festive during the holiday season.

In 2006, supervillain and superscientist supergroup "Venture Aid" covered Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmastime?"

In 2007, the Monarchs took on The Pogues' "Fairytale of New York."

And last year, in a tragic move, Henchman 21 prerecorded himself and Henchman 24 singing "Wonderful Christmastime." Sadly, Henchman 24 didn't survive to see Christmas that year.

Check out Quick Stop Entertainment for other Venture Christmas carols, including a cover of David Bowie and Bing Crosby's "Peace On Earth"/"Little Drummer Boy" medley, the Monarch and his loyal henchmen taking on Dolly Parton's "Hard Christmas Candy," and this year's Christmas song — The Monarch covering "The Chipmunk Song" with the help of Henchman 21 and the Moppets.

Holiday Havoc: The Venture Bros. [Quick Stop Entertainment via Metafilter]

Whether you're buying for loved ones, loathed ones, ones you barely know but feel an obligation to get something something for or yourself, it's hard to go wrong with a well-chosen toy as a gift. But it's hard to know just what toys you should be looking at, which is where we come in; we've split our choices into three categories: Play, Display and Making Your Life Better, which is to say things that are useful (or, in one case, useless but kind of essential nonetheless). Click through to see our selections.

For Play
LEGO, action figures and things for you to hit other people with safely. After all, isn't that what "play" really means?

For Display
For some people, toys are things to keep on shelves, on their walls or in boxes. Here're a few ideas for the serious collector.

For Making Your (Or Someone Else's) Life Better
In which we suggest gifts offering education, amusement and/or something to hold onto at night. Yes, even that last one.

Additional research by Alex Eichler.

Rick Lacy, a character designer and storyboard office for The Venture Bros., posted this concept art, which he describes as a "female lead in season 4." The images are labeled "Nikki mid-30s" and "Nikki nightgown." So will this Nikki be friend, foe, or just another incredibly screwed up character from the Venture universe?

For folks on the West Coast who ended up seeing the first 15 minutes of last night's episode twice, you can head over to the Adult Swim website to catch the episode in its entirety.

[Rick Lacy Presents]

Update: So it seems the episode we previewed was in fact next Sunday's episode — not the premiere. Hopefully, we'll get more details on what's happened since last season' finale in the premiere.

The Venture Bros returns Sunday with an episode featuring that rainbow-wearing superhero Captain Sunshine. Don't remember Captain Sunshine? The Monarch mentioned him a while back when he was in prison:

You've sent the charred remains of Wonder Boy to his beloved Captain Sunshine?

Needless to say, Captain Sunshine is still holding a grudge. But he'll get distracted from any revenge attempts as soon as he gets entangled with the Venture family.

This Sunday's premiere is at once satisfying and exceedingly frustrating. Superman and Batman have been parodied to death, but Captain Sunshine manages to be a surprising combination of the two with a twist of pure Venture Bros. wrongness. Just when you think you've anticipated the brand of jokes coming, the writers run it a tiny bit farther over the line. So why is it frustrating? For those of us chomping at the bit to see the fallout from last season's finale, we're going to be mostly kept waiting. Yes, we do find out who Rusty's new bodyguard is (although I'm not sure it's someone who will last the whole season). Otherwise, we mostly get little nods to the changes from last season. Yes, the clones have been destroyed and Hank's hair is a little longer, Number 21 is taking even worse care of himself than usual, and the Cocoon is still pretty much a wreck, but the main focus is the stand-alone plot. It looks like the creators are going to be slowly dropping breadcrumbs for a while until they lead us to the bigger answers. Of course, gradually evolving mythology is one of the hallmarks of The Venture Bros., but it's been well over a year since we've had any new Venture action, and I've gotten impatient.

But I'll take what I can get, and what I can get is a quintessential episode with a nice blend of new faces and old standbys. Plus, the episode sets up one of the weirder subplots teased in the trailer. And even if there are still a lot of questions left unanswered, at least we can look forward to some regular Venturing for a while.

The fourth season premiere of The Venture Bros. airs Sunday, October 18th at midnight on Adult Swim.

Titan Maximum, which will premiere on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim on September 27, follows Titan Force Five, a once-proud team of pilots who defend Saturn's moon Titan. Military budget cuts force the team to disband, and one of the pilots, Gibson "Gibbs" Giberstein (voiced by Seth Green), takes the news especially hard, vowing to destroy his former teammates and the whole of Titan.

Advance word on the show is that it's a send-up of classic science fiction, with a Robot Chicken twist. In other words, we can expect plenty of sex jokes and bathroom humor sprinkled in with our mecha-powered space battles.

[Sci Fi Wire]

Much of McCarty's work is commercial, commissioned by toy companies, Rockstar Games, and Adult Swim, and his job is to bring art toys to life. In the process, he's amassed an impressive portfolio of playful scenes starring everything from the Hulk to Sasquatch to visitors from another world.

[McCarty PhotoWorks via The Photo Argus via The Presurfer]
[Brian McCarty on Flickr]

Broken Hearted Robot
Alter Ego
Bertie the Pipebomb
Turtle Camper
The God of Animation
Meltdown
Cheez-It
Sasquatch Splash
Mom and Dad
Juke-Bot
Sasquatch Attack!

Bunny Van
Business as Usual
Laughing Squid
YHWH
Gorbo
El Chupacabra
Little A'Le'Inn
Shake-zula, the Mic Rula
Transformers Go to Hollywood

We open, quite appropriately, with the tanks that once contained Hank and Dean's clones, emptied at the end of last season. They don't look quite empty. Is Dr. Venture growing new clones, or is there a new project running? And who'd this new bodyguard.
Now we're back to the season finale, with the Monarch's henchman running around the Venture Compound lawn, with the slaughtered Hank and Dean clones at their feet.
Rusty runs through the Venture Compound while pursued by a violet light, possibly from a certain flying cocoon?
Well, something is going down with those cloning tanks. Sadly, we still don't get a very clear picture of what's inside of them.
And there are Nazis in the cloning room. Are we having a Boys from Brazil moment? Are they looking to clone Hitler? Or Girl Hitler?
Oh, and Rusty's there, too. Hi, Rusty!
Oof. Whatever the Nazis are up to, it doesn't seem to end well for them. Or maybe it turns them into supermen in a glowy, painful way.
It looks like Rusty wastes no time replacing H.E.L.P.eR. An Astro Boy send-up kills a snake in Brock's old room.
The Sovereign of the Guild of Calamitous Attempt makes a return...
...and yes, he's still David Bowie.
An aged Phantom Limb (with his hands now clearly visible) plays the tuba. (Edit: Several commenters note that this is probably one of Phantom Limb's Fantomas ancestors, which makes much more sense given the presence of Buddy Holly. Good call, folks.)
And he appears to be trying to jam with Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper.
21 still lives with his mom. It's nice to know some things don't change.
And we take a moment while Pete White and Master Billy Quizboy dance and mix drinks. But what are those things around their necks? Evidence of spinal cord injuries, or mind control collars?
Evidently, Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer are channeling Avatar. I wonder if this could be anything other than a dream sequence, but in Venture Bros., anything is possible.
Finally, we see Brock, but what happened to his beautiful mullet?
Time has not been kind to hunchback Dean, but he still keeps around mementos of his prettier youth.
Seriously, who gave Hank a gun? I do dig the hair, though.
It looks like another showdown on the Venture lawn. Are those blotches of orange butterfly wings?
Rusty plummets from the top of the Venture compound, possibly in the same episode as image #3.
A somewhat udder-looking gun from the Cocoon. I wonder, do the different canons fire different materials?
What unholy slash fic did this come out of? Also, Billy looks kind of hungover.
General speculation is that this is Captain Sunshine, finally getting revenge on the Monarch for the death of Wonder Boy.
And there goes the Monarch screen.
Dean starts going off about how he loves Hitler. Commenter m-d suggests that he's talking about Girl Hitler, and I suspect he's right. Perhaps this is related to the Nazis in the cloning lab? Also, is that Sergeant Hatred? What is that on his face?
Hank is not only growing his hair to look like Brock's (or at least like Brock's used to), he's spending some questionable time with Dermott Fictel, who might be Brock's son.
Rusty meets 21's LARP crew. He seems less concerned about what 21 is doing there in the first place than all the graffiti on the X-1, making me wonder if he's Rusty's new bodyguard.
It looks like Sergeant Hatred is still hanging around the Ventures. Is he locked in that room to protect Hank and Dean from his urges?
This may take place after Captain Sunshine's attack, as the Monarch screen is now resting on a makeshift stand. Also, the casual way Rusty asks Dr. Mrs. Monarch for 21 suggests that whatever 21 is doing with Rusty, it's no secret from his employers.
The Monarch asks 21 to kill the cab driver downstairs. Funny, the Monarch used to just kill cab drivers himself.
Also, grief has not treated 21 kindly.
Dean really had no chance when Rusty put him in that first speedsuit. Now he's going to be wearing those things for the rest of his life. And Rusty seems be telling Dean about arch-nemeses like he's explaining the Facts of Life. At least he seems to be paying attention to one of his kids.
Commenter tnmnsquare wondered if this was a Spider Jerusalem reference, but I think the bald head just makes it look that way. Those are ordinary 3D glasses — from the future.
I have no words for what is going on here.
Really, none.
Dean's body withers into dust, and we're out. Can't wait for November.

When last we left The Venture Bros., Hank and Dean's clones had been sacrificed during an all-out assault on the Venture compound, Brock had quit his job as the Ventures' bodyguard, and Henchman 21 was holding the decapitated head of his bosom buddy, Henchman 24.

The creators have promised that now that their clones have been destroyed, Hank and Dean will actually age past their perpetual sixteen years, physically if not mentally. Dean may be harboring sympathetic feelings for fascist dictators, but at least now Hank has better hair.

Now that Brock has quit the bodyguarding business, it looks like Rusty will be employing a new bodyguard (Brock will reappear, but it may be a few episodes before we see him). With all of the interactions between 21 (or Gary, if you prefer) and Rusty, I can't help but wonder if 21 is Rusty's new bodyguard, perhaps moonlighting when he's not working for the Monarch. Also, I wonder how far we have to get into the season before Sergeant Hatred decides Master Billy Quizboy is the perfect outlet for his pederastic urges. Sadly, we'll have to wait until November for the full episodes to begin.

[via AICN]

Cartoon Network has ordered nine episodes of Titan Maximum, a new series from the Robot Chicken creators as part of the network's Adult Swim programming. The show - a continuing story, as opposed to Chicken's sketches - follows former members of a Voltron-esque team whose vehicles formed the eponymous Titan as they try to reunite to save the universe from one of their own, voiced by Green himself. Producer Root explains the appeal of the show:

There were always teams of extraordinary young people with the fate of the universe in their hands... In reality, that would end terribly. The last thing you want when giant monsters attack is a bunch of teenagers in charge of defending you. 'Titan Maximum' is about what would really happen if a team of idiot kids was in charge of a 6-story-tall robot.

Even if the premise doesn't appeal to your inner cynical six-year-old, the writing staff might; amongst their number is Green Lantern's Geoff Johns and Amazing Spider-Man's Zeb Wells. The series launches in September; the Voltron revival has been postponed indefinitely as a result.

Adult Swim orders 'Titan' [Variety]

Superjail comes from animators Christy Karacas, Stephen Warbrick and Ben Gruber. who named classic animators like Tex Avery, Bob Clampett and John Kricfalusi as influences... which may fail to explain this series about a "psychedelic prison" run by a megalomaniacal warden (who's in love with his transvestite nurse) and staffed by a series of violent robots. But then, when you have a show like this to watch, who wants an explanation?

Superjail is on Adult Swim every Sunday at 11:45.

[Superjail]

Starting this Sunday, in time for that night's season 3 premiere, Venture Bros. production house Astrobase Go is offering an exclusive t-shirt to accompany that week's episode:

Each week we premiere a brand new episode of The Venture Bros. television program, we will premiere a brand new t-shirt to go with it RIGHT HERE. The shirt will remain on sale for one week only—until the next episode and the next shirt premiere. We'll only print as many shirts of each design as we receive orders for (okay, we'll probably make a couple for ourselves, too) and once the ad for a shirt is removed, that shirt will never be available again.

Fire up the Murdermobile and call your arch nemesis—because you're about to become a fully licensed member of The Guild of Calamitous Intent the moment you slide one of these 100% cotton American Apparel fine jersey short sleeve black beauties over your cybernetic exoskeleton or henchman's tunic! Emblazoned in gold with the official logo of the recognized leader in organized havoc, this shirt says to the world: "I come in separate cuts and sizes for Men and Women!

"But wait..." you say. "Two weeks equals 14 days, not 13. I'll have to go the laundromat every 13 days now, which is an odd number and completely throws off my weekend plans. What are you trying to pull?" To which we say..."HOW ABOUT A BONUS T-SHIRT?!"

That's right, Venture Bros. Shirt Club subscribers will also receive the coveted SUPER-LIMITED EDITION BONUS BROCK SAMSON KODOKAN BLOOD JUDO T-SHIRT, which is available to SHIRT CLUB SUBSCRIBERS ONLY and is included FREE OF CHARGE with your subscription.

The Amazing Shirt of the Week Club [Astrobase Go]

How To Draw The Venture Brothers, Part Two, Part Three [Stephen DeStefano]