Jhonen Vasquez (born September 1, 1974), also known by his pseudonyms Mr. Scolex and Chancre Scolex, is a cartoonist living in San Jose, California. He is the creator of a number of alternative comics published by Slave Labor Graphics including Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Squee!, as well as the creator of the animated television series Invader Zim. Many of his works have developed cult followings.
Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (also known as JTHM) is a black-and-white comic book series written and drawn by Jhonen Vasquez. It began as a series of short strips in the goth magazine Carpe Noctem, and was later published in seven issues by Slave Labor Graphics between August 1995 and January 1997. The series later had two spin-offs, called Squee! and I Feel Sick.
The comic is a black comedy laced with irony and social criticism. It is in part a satire of society’s fascination with violence. Despite this, the comic itself has been criticized for glorifying ultra-violence, and has sparked some controversy.
Squee is a fictional character in Jhonen Vasquez's comic book Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, who later received his own four-issue series, published by Slave Labor Graphics. Squee is a small child who lives next door to Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, as well as the Antichrist (Pepito), and is one of the few recurring characters in that series to have met Johnny and survived (Devi being the other exception), thanks to Squee's overabundant cuteness and rapidly-deteriorating innocence. His real name is Todd Casil—the nickname "Squee" comes from the sound he makes when he is frightened, which is quite often within his world.
Invader Zim is an American animated television series created by comic book writer/artist Jhonen Vasquez and aired on Nickelodeon. First broadcast on March 30, 2001 (the same day as The Fairly OddParents), the show's strange animation, quirky humor, and dark, cynical style gave it a devoted cult following, with an audience of an older average age than those of most of Nickelodeon's other cartoons. Because of this, ratings for Nickelodeon's core demographic, 2-11 year olds, were fairly low. Disappointed with its low ratings and high production costs, Nickelodeon canceled the show. One and a half seasons of Invader Zim were completed. It can currently be seen in reruns on NickToons Network and MTV2's Sic'Emation lineup; and in Canada, YTV began airing the series on its Bionix programming block on September 8, 2006. Invader Zim DVD compilations have been released by Media Blasters. The series has since been translated into several different languages for foreign broadcast.
I Feel Sick is a "doubleshot", full-color comic book written and drawn by the popular comic artist Jhonen Vasquez and colored by Rosearik Rikki Simons (who would later go on to do the voice of GIR in Invader Zim). It revolves around Devi D. from Johnny The Homicidal Maniac (JTHM), and her dealings with the same supernatural forces that drove Johnny to lunacy. Originally intended as a single paperback, it was later split into two issues so as to avoid compromising the length of the story. It was published by Slave Labor Graphics.
I know this is a very a**l way of going about showing off these works but Wikipedia does tend to get things right on the target for me.
Other Short Comics:
Anne Gwish
Anne Gwish is a goth woman that has her own strip in the later part of the series. Her name is a pun on the word "anguish." Her storyline is completely unrelated to Johnny’s, though she lives in the same fictional universe. The strips featuring her are largely a satire on goth culture's tendencies towards pretension.
In most of her strips, you can find puns and parodies on gothic subculture. Like "Johnny the Hamicidal Maniac" (with Johnny as a pig), "Ditchspade Symphony" (a parody of the band, Switchblade Symphony), "Nine Inch Heels" (another parody of the band, Nine Inch Nails), "The Shmoe" (a rather obvious parody of "The Crow", who proclaims "I stole this look from KISS!") and "The Dirtman" (a 'The Sandman' joke).
Vasquez ends the Anne Gwish strip with an aside comment, "With just a touch of self-mockery," due to his personal goth lifestyle as well as the cultural category his comic books are placed in.
It is possible that "Anne Gwish" is a precarnate idea of Gaz, the Goth sister of Dib in Invader Zim.
Happy Noodle Boy
Johnny is also the creator of a comic strip called Happy Noodle Boy.
Happy Noodle Boy is a stick figure appearing in a comic drawn by Johnny and read mainly by "the homeless insane". Every issue has (at least) one single-page insert of the Happy Noodle Boy comic itself, detailing the often completely nonsensical adventures (mostly cursing, screaming, and being shot, or in the instance of the first issue ranting while upside down while making hypocritical decisions for other people at a funeral). Happy Noodle Boy spends much of his time standing on a wooden box and yelling nonsense at hapless pedestrians, often provoking his own death.
He appears in the backgrounds of many of the strips of the main storyline (the mall, the movie theatre, etc.), usually in crowd scenes, and pictures of him appear frequently in Squee's room. He also appeared in 'I Feel Sick' (comic series, JtHM spin off) issue 1 in a crowded dance floor. Johnny seems to be in the habit of leaving his drawings lying around.
It is believed that Happy Noodle Boy's name is a reference to Johnny's extraordinarily thin figure. In one particular comic, Johnny says that when he was young, other kids taunted him for this, calling him "Noodle Boy."
Public Service Announcement
In a few issues there is a "Public Service Announcement," often with exaggerated messages involving events such as a 15-year-old girl taking a bite out of her baby (a la A Modest Proposal) and a drug addict's horrendous puking which results in his left eyeball exploding (The moral at the end of this particular "Public Service Announcement" is "Kids, drugs won't help things. They'll only turn you into a hideous little freak troll-baby with exploding eyeballs.").
Wobbly-Headed Bob
Receiving his own one page comic in each book of the series, Wobbly-Headed Bob is a sort of conceited person, but believes himself to be the 'Ultimate Being' as he is so 'smart'. He is tortured by his own intelligence, and tries to commit suicide. It is impossible for him to commit suicide, even if he jumps off a cliff. Although he cannot die, his words can make people commit suicide. In one comic, he makes everyone he sees either kill themselves or another; a happy couple, two friends (one who is trying to keep his friend from committing suicide, one who is trying to commit suicide), a man who got a perfect score on his SATs, and two happy parents and their newborn. A girl professes her love for him, but ages 33 years in two minutes, and runs off, leaving Bob 'SO alone'. He finds a dog and a cat, the dog falling off a cliff, but the cat sitting next to him on a grassy hill. At one point, he is actually happy and feels good about himself, but one of his 'friends' says, "...Undying friendship, hope for world peace, the potential of children, and yes!! TRUE LOVE!!" which turns off Bob's happy light, and causes him to be his normal crabby self.
Meanwhiles
The Meanwhiles are strips unrelated to—but in the same fictional universe as—the main storyline. They are usually only a few pages long. They begin with the title, "Meanwhile..." Jhonen Vasquez himself makes an appearance in several of the Meanwhiles.
While absent in the JTHM: Director's Cut trade paperback (which collected issues one through seven), the Meanwhile strips were later compiled in Squee's Wonderful Big Giant Book of Unspeakable Horrors.
True Tales of Human Drama
These are silly little stories the author created presumably because he wanted to do something different. Most often in these stories things happen that make little or no sense, such as a baby exploding or a man expelling something out of his nose so evil that a priest commands him to jump off a building.
Fillerbunny
Fillerbunny is a character created by comic book artist and writer Jhonen Vasquez. Fillerbunny first appeared in an issue of Vasquez's Squee! series, where Vasquez used him to quickly fill up a vacant page usually reserved for advertising space in the comics in order to maintain the correct page order (otherwise pages that should be opposite each other would be across the turn of a page).
In the comics, Fillerbunny is a pink bunny genetically engineered to be unceasingly entertaining. He is made to undergo all sorts of painful procedures and sadistic experiments. If Fillerbunny dies, he is revived. He is made to entertain the audience for however long he is needed. Fillerbunny's two greatest wishes are to die and be released from his miserable existence or to have something that makes him happy in his life.
FAN ART:
(NNY from JTHM VS GAZ from Invader Zim)
(Dib, Gaz, Zim, and Tak all from Invader Zim)
