HISTORY OF THE DUDERS

Written by Derek L. Vandenberg

In late November 2006 I was skipping my 3rd block of school (Strength & Conditioning) with Kyle Theissen and Jason Midtle – two classmates who I became friends with after switching schools. While we were relaxing at one of the cities parks we got to talking.  At the time I was just getting into flash after a 2 year absence. Kyle made a joke about making a flash series based on our lives. Then joked further saying we could call it “The Duders” (I went throw a stupid few week phase of saying “duder” a lot.) We eventually decided to actually make the series and by the next day I was already drawing Val for the first time.

-The original Val before I got a wacom tablet!

By February 4th 2007 I managed to release the first Duder short – The Duders: Emo Farm.  Already by now Kyle had sadly moved away and couldn’t keep in contact. With Kyle gone it would be just Jay and me for the next few months.

- Emo Farm is the only appearance of Val without a cowboy hat.

On June 21st the same year we released The Duders: Shroom-Random which included the first appearance of MTCaptain – a character created by my good friend Darryl who I met at the end of the school year.

- MTC had hair peaking out of his helmet originally.

For the next while it would be experiments/practice like Jay Short 1 and 2. Until Clockday on Newgrounds.com august 15th 2007 with The DuderClocks! DuderClocks featured every person in Duder Entertainment. It showed how much it grew thanks to old and new friends joining.

By the end of 2007 Jason was gone along with his character, however we brought Jay back for The Duders: Jays Trippin’ Dash! The first Duder game!

-The character Jay was a heavy drug-addict.

On January 26th 2008 we got off with a great start thanks to The Duders: Weather winning Daily 3rd on Newgrounds.com! It was a rough look, but after over a year at working on the style – the Duders were finally starting to come alive. Weather also had the first appearence of Wolf voiced by my long-time friend Justin Surratt.

-Darryl was drunk when he was voice acting for The Duders Weather.

Only a few months later on May 24th MTC: Plane Blastin’ came to the Newgrounds Portal!  In a few days it reached over 40,000 views! (After being featured on the Front Page of Newgrounds. ^^;)

-Over ten upgrades and changes were made days after the release.

For four months I would slack off on flash and before I knew it drinking and nature’s wonders took up a good chunk of my time along with university being added to the mix during the last two months of it.
After much mind wondering I settled down and got back to work.  I worked on the style, figured out the story, wrote scripts and re-wrote many scripts, and actually read some internet art/animation teaching junk to help improve my skills.
Production is slower but quality has got better I believe.

- New and improved Val (With a big mullet!)

For an excuse to screw around I entered Madness Day ’08 with a sequel to my submission last year.

- Derek used his normal voice his first time voice acting in this toon!

One day walking around town in September ’08 I bumped into Kyle Theissen on the street.  He had moved back into town and right away he was back at home with Duder Entertainment.  Eventually Jason Midtle popped over for a visit one day and ended up popping up more and before you know it he was back too.  In a short time the old group had been reunited and mixed with the new group – it was great and got me more motivated.