Jhonen Vasquez

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Jhonen Vasquez (born September 1, 1974) is a comic book artist, music-video director, and writer from San Jose, California. He is the creator of several cult classic comic book series, including Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Squee!, I Feel Sick, The Bad Art Collection (BAC), Filler Bunny, and Happy Noodle Boy, all published by Slave Labor Graphics. Vasquez is also the creator of the popular (but cancelled) animated series Invader Zim, and collaborated with artist Brad Canby on "Everything Can Be Beaten."

Vasquez's cartoon artwork often portrays misanthropic and pessimistic philosophies as well as gothic and even satanic undertones, although the more "spooky" elements are used for the purpose of parody and satire. Similar styles and mannerism can be found in many of his characters as well as running gags and common themes, including constant reference to mooses, meats, chihuahuas, monkeys, tacos, and piggies.

After graduating from Mount Pleasant High School in San Jose, Vasquez went on to become a one-time film student at De Anza College in Cupertino, California.

Contents

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Books by Vasquez

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
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Johnny the Homicidal Maniac

Image:JV4.jpg Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, popularly referred to as JTHM, ran for seven issues. Early one-page strips featuring Johnny were published in Carpe Noctem magazine. Published as a trade paperback under the name Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: Director's Cut, a hardcover edition is also available. Both paperback and hardcover editions have "Z?" on the cover. This logo, which stands for "question sleep", appears frequently throughout Vasquez's work, and relates to insomnia which both Johnny and Vasquez have suffered from. The issues follow Johnny, sometimes called Nny (pronounced "knee"), as he searches for meaning in his life, a quest that rather frequently leads to the violent deaths of those around him. He believes that there is a demon being held behind a wall in his home, and that the wall constantly requires a coat of fresh blood in order to maintain its protective ward. The demon escapes at one point in the series, and procedes to eat Johnny's captives. One human adult provides sufficient blood for a single fresh coat, but this is only one of his motives for mass murder. The issues tend to focus a lot on Nny's inability to fit in with society, and how stupid the general population really is, something that often catalyzes a violent rampage. Most of the people he kills he thinks deserve to die for many reasons, such as tripping him, making fun of him, and even glaring.

After he accidentally shoots himself (largely resulting from a misengaged robot arm and an unexpected call from an ex-girlfriend), Johnny is sent to heaven where he meets God(TM), realizes his use of brain-exploding superpowers, and is subsequently sent to hell. Meanwhile, back on Earth, the demon known as Moose is released from Johnny's wall and plunges the entire house into Oblivion, but eventually returns to Earth. Back in Hell, Johnny meets a demonic entity (who acknowledges being The Devil, but prefers the title Señor Diablo), a number of unhappy souls, and is brought back to life. Upon returning, he realizes the voices belonging to the Dough boys and Nail-bunny are gone, and wonders if he's still crazy (his decision to "grab a cheerleader and saw her legs off" proves the fact that though he has returned to life, he's still crazy and looks to kill). Then, after killing an over-zealous fan, Johnny decides to go "on a little holiday" to get his head together.

When Vasquez ended the 7-issue series, he left fans with a promise to continue someday. Whether this promise will be fulfilled remains to be seen.

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Squee!

Image:JV1.jpg

Squee, a supporting character from JTHM, was made into a four-issue series. It chronicled Squee's encounters with aliens, Satan's son, and eventually Satan himself. The trade version (which features a cover image of Squee with the words "Buy me or I'll die!") contains, in addition to the actual Squee comics, the Meanwhiles that were so glaringly left out of the Director's Cut of JTHM, as well as comics of Jhonen's 'real life' (with slight exaggerations as to the size of the moon and Senor Diablo's height) and Wobbly Headed Bob. Squee was nominated for several Eisner awards, the comic book industry equivalent of the Academy Awards.

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I Feel Sick

I Feel Sick ran for two issues. It was originally intended to be a single issue, but was later broken in half due to it being longer than Jhonen anticipated. I Feel Sick follows a tortured artist named Devi (another character introduced in JTHM) as she tries to maintain her sanity in Vasquez's typical insane societies, despite conversing with Sickness, one of her own paintings. The collection won an International Horror Guild Award in 2000 for Best Illustrated Narrative. I Feel Sick features colors by Rikki Simons, who was later the lead color artist and voice of GIR on Invader Zim.

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Fillerbunny

Fillerbunny ran for three issues, the third having been released in March 2005. A spin-off of a filler comic designed to replace a vacant page usually reserved for advertising space in the Squee comics. Jhonen said that he would procrastinate drawing the cartoon until only hours before the deadline and then rush through and did whatever he could in a small amount of time. The third issue, however, broke this mold - according to the introduction, it took over nine months to complete and is of a much higher quality than the first two.

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The Bad Art Collection

The Bad Art Collection was a 16-page one-shot collection of intentionally terrible drawings. Jhonen has said he did them when he was in high school to get rid of classmates constantly asking him to draw for them.

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Everything Can Be Beaten

Everything Can Be Beaten is an illustrated storybook that tells the story of a strange person who lives in a room in which he can do nothing but beat kittens. However, an adventure into the outside world changes his perspective, and he discovers "everything can be beaten." The book was illustrated by Crab Scrambly (Brad Canby).

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Happy Noodle Boy

Happy Noodle Boy is a short, recurring comic in JtHM of a stick figure doing random, disturbing, and/or obnoxious things. In the storyline, created by Johnny and "very popular with the homeless insane".

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Invader Zim

Invader Zim was an animated series produced for the children's cable network Nickelodeon. During its relatively short run, it garnered a cult following among teenage audiences. The show was cancelled after little more than a year; only 27 episodes were made; most of them 11-minute but several were a half-hour long. In fact, when the series was cancelled, it became apparent that Nickelodeon was trying to phase it out. They did this by airing other animated shorts in it's place, leaving only one 11-minute episode to air. Eventually, the show was pulled off Nickelodeon altogether. Episodes in Season Two never aired in the United States, but they did air in other countries. On May 11, 2004, two years after the cancellation of the series, after much request by fans, Volume 1 of an official Invader Zim DVD collection was released by AnimeWorks, a branch of Media Blasters, featuring the first nine episodes plus audio commentary by Vasquez and various cast and crew, including Richard Steven Horvitz, Rikki Simons, Melissa Fahn, Wally Wingert, Andy Berman, Kevin Manthei, and others. Volume 2 was released on August 31, 2004, the third volume was released October 12, 2004, and a box set was released on April 12, 2005. The box set contained a "Special Features" DVD that had a set of audio-only episodes that never made it to Nickelodeon (with the exception of the Christmas special).

Invader Zim has since been translated into several other languages for foreign broadcast. Reruns of Invader Zim currently air on Nicktoons Network, a second network created by Nickelodeon dedicated entirely to their older programs, like Rocko's Modern Life and the like.

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Trivia

  • Another of his friends, Miss Leah England, has her face in the middle of a portrait collection that served as the cover to Johnny the Homicidal Maniac issue 2. She also gave him the inspiration for a filler comic (i.e. - 'Meanwhile') about a child who was dangerously afraid of losing sight of his mother and the infamous "Somebody put shit in my pants" Meanwhile in JTHM issue #2.
  • According to Jhonen, "So many years ago, Danette St. Onge was the unwitting reason Happy Noodle Boy was created. She was my little romantical friend in high school and always asked me for comics. But I couldn't draw as fast as she requested. Thus, I tried to create the worst abomination of a comic that I could, so as to make her not want comics anymore. That abomination, my friends, was Happy Noodle Boy."
  • Vasquez makes a habit of changing his hair color frequently. His typical hair color is red, but it is naturally either black or a very dark brown.
  • Jhonen is definitely taller than 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m), contrary to popular belief. His actual height is much debated, pointlessly and for no real reason, as the fact that he's of 'normal' height is mostly evident in any picture in which he is not next to Rikki Simons, who stands at 6 ft 4 in. Either that, or every other person who attends comic conventions is a midget.
  • It is difficult to tell if Jhonen really heavily dislikes Goth subculture (a notable satire is Anne Gwish, who features in JTHM), but some of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac's victims happen to be pretentious Goths. More likely, he is making a commentary on a subculture he has sometimes been a part of. In fact, in the first 'Anne Gwish' comic he remarks 'with only a touch of self-mockery.'
  • Jhonen sometimes uses the pseudonyms "Mr. Scolex" and "Chancre Scolex." His minor voice work in Invader Zim was credited under the former, and his short book "Everything Can Be Beaten" was written under the latter.
  • Jhonen was believed to have planned a new comic book series called Saturday Morning Nightmare, which was announced in 2004, but no further news was released about it. It is speculated that Mr. Vasquez may have secretly cancelled the project.
    • On this note, Jhonen announced during a panneling in July 2005 at the San Diego Comic Convention that he was indeed working on a new comic series. Asking the crowd of fans not to laugh, he told them it was about love. A title was not given for this comic series.
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External links

fr:Jhonen Vasquez

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