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Jhonen C. Vasquez (; born September 1, 1974) is an American cartoonist, animator, screenwriter, music video director, and voice actor. He is best known for creating the comic book ''
Johnny the Homicidal Maniac ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac'' (often abbreviated ''JtHM'') is the first comic book by Jhonen Vasquez. The series tells the story of a young man named Johnny “Nny” C. as he explores the psychological and possibly supernatural forces which ...
''—along with its spin-off comics ''
Squee! ''Squee!'' is a four-issue comic book series by Jhonen Vasquez, published by Slave Labor Graphics, featuring a supporting character from Vasquez's previous series ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac''. The series was eventually collected as the trade ...
'', ''Fillerbunny'', and ''
I Feel Sick ''I Feel Sick'' is a comic book created by artist Jhonen Vasquez, with colors by Rosearik Rikki Simons. Published in August 1999 through May 2000, it is a spin-off of Vasquez's comic book series ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac''. ''I Feel Sick' ...
''—and the
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...
animated series ''
Invader Zim ''Invader Zim'' is an American animated science fiction dark comedy television series created by comic book writer and cartoonist Jhonen Vasquez for Nickelodeon. The series centers on an extraterrestrial named Zim (voiced by Richard Steven Ho ...
''.


Early life

Vasquez was born on September 1, 1974, in
San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...
. He grew up in
East San Jose East San Jose (abbreviated as ESJ), commonly called The East Side and less commonly as the East Valley, is the eastern region of the city of San Jose, California. The East Side is made up of numerous neighborhoods grouped into two larger distric ...
and attended Mt. Pleasant High School, where he often spent much of his class time drawing in sketchbooks and took part in a contest to design a new look for his school's mascot. He earned no prizes, but on the back of a preliminary drawing for the contest, he drew his first sketch of the character who would later become
Johnny C Johnny is an English language personal name. It is usually an affectionate diminutive of the masculine given name John, but from the 16th century it has sometimes been a given name in its own right for males and, less commonly, females. Varian ...
who would later star in Vasquez's first completed comic book series. While Vasquez read his older brother's superhero comics as a child, but first became interested in exploring the medium through the original independent ''
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' is an American media franchise created by the comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael, four anthropomorphic turtle brothers (named after It ...
'' comics by
Peter Laird Peter Alan Laird (born January 27, 1954) is an American comic book writer and artist best known for co-creating the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with writer and artist Kevin Eastman. Early life and career Laird was born on January 27, 1954, in ...
and
Kevin Eastman Kevin Brooks Eastman (born May 30, 1962) is an American comic book artist and writer best known for co-creating the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with Peter Laird. Eastman was also formerly the editor and publisher of the magazine '' Heavy Meta ...
: Vasquez's high school student newspaper published a number of his comic strips featuring Johnny C, titled ''Johnny the Little Homicidal Maniac''. After graduating in 1992, Vasquez became a film student at
De Anza College De Anza College is a public community college in Cupertino, California. It is part of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, which also administers Foothill College in nearby Los Altos Hills, California. The college is named after th ...
in
Cupertino, California Cupertino ( ) is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 57,82 ...
. He also created Happy Noodle Boy while attending Mt. Pleasant. Despite having little formal artistic training, he soon dropped out of De Anza to pursue a career as a professional cartoonist. He met
Roman Dirge Roman Dirge (born Roman Elliot; April 29, 1972) is an American comic book writer, artist, and former magician. He is best known as the creator of the comic book series ''Lenore, the Cute Little Dead Girl''. Career Told by his art teachers that he ...
,
Rosearik Rikki Simons Rosearik Rikki Allen Simons (born September 8, 1970) is an American voice actor, writer, cartoonist, and animator. He is best known as the voice of GIR in the Nickelodeon animated series, ''Invader Zim''. Simons has also written a number of nov ...
, and Simons' wife Tavisha at
Alternative Press Expo The Alternative Press Expo (APE) was a comic book festival and alternative comics convention that operated from 1994 to 2017. Founded by Slave Labor Graphics publisher Dan Vado, APE focused on self-published, independent, and alternative cartoon ...
in 1995. Dirge later became a writer on Vasquez's series ''
Invader Zim ''Invader Zim'' is an American animated science fiction dark comedy television series created by comic book writer and cartoonist Jhonen Vasquez for Nickelodeon. The series centers on an extraterrestrial named Zim (voiced by Richard Steven Ho ...
'', while Simons became a member of the show's coloring team and the voice of the title character's crazed robot sidekick, GIR. Simons also worked with Vasquez on the coloring seen in his two-issue comic ''
I Feel Sick ''I Feel Sick'' is a comic book created by artist Jhonen Vasquez, with colors by Rosearik Rikki Simons. Published in August 1999 through May 2000, it is a spin-off of Vasquez's comic book series ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac''. ''I Feel Sick' ...
''. By September 1996, Vasquez announced in his introductory text to the sixth issue of ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac'' that he had reached sufficient success to be able to quit his day job and focus on his art. Vasquez is Mexican-American.


Career


Comics

''Carpe Noctem'' magazine published early one-page strips featuring Johnny in the early 1990s. In 1995,
Slave Labor Graphics Slave Labor Graphics (SLG) is an independent American comic book publisher, well known for publishing darkly humorous, offbeat comics. Creators associated with SLG over the years include Evan Dorkin, Roman Dirge, Sarah Dyer, Woodrow Phoenix, Jh ...
began publishing a series of Johnny comics after Vasquez submitted samples of his artwork to them. Vasquez's first comic, ''
Johnny the Homicidal Maniac ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac'' (often abbreviated ''JtHM'') is the first comic book by Jhonen Vasquez. The series tells the story of a young man named Johnny “Nny” C. as he explores the psychological and possibly supernatural forces which ...
'', ran for seven issues and was collected as a hardcover and a trade paperback book named ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: Director's Cut''. The cover features the logo "Z?", meaning "question sleep", which appears frequently throughout Vasquez's work and relates to his characters'
insomnia Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder in which people have trouble sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low energy, ...
and his own hypnophobia. The series follows Johnny as he searches for meaning in his life, a quest that frequently leads to the violent deaths of those around him as well as, briefly, his own. A photograph of one of Vasquez's friends, Leah England, serves as the middle of a portrait collection on the cover for the second issue of ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac''. England also gave Vasquez the inspiration for a filler strip about a child who was dangerously afraid of losing sight of his mother, as well as the notorious "Meanwhile" filler piece in the second issue of ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac''. Vasquez's next project was ''The Bad Art Collection'', a 16-page one-shot comic. He stated that he did the book's art while he was in high school to discourage classmates from asking him to draw for them. In 1997, Vasquez gave Squee, a supporting character from ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac'', his own four-issue series. It chronicles 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 left out of the Director's Cut of ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac'', as well as comics of Vasquez's "real life" and '' Wobbly-Headed Bob''. Vasquez's next project was ''
I Feel Sick ''I Feel Sick'' is a comic book created by artist Jhonen Vasquez, with colors by Rosearik Rikki Simons. Published in August 1999 through May 2000, it is a spin-off of Vasquez's comic book series ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac''. ''I Feel Sick' ...
'', colored by Rikki Simons. ''I Feel Sick'' follows a tortured artist named Devi (another character introduced in ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac'') as she tries to maintain her sanity in an insane vision of society, despite conversing with Sickness, one of her own paintings. Slave Labor has published three ''Fillerbunny'' mini-comics, the third having been released in March 2005. The mini-comic was a spin-off of a filler comic designed to replace a vacant page usually reserved for advertising space in the ''Squee!'' comics. Vasquez said at the 2007
New York Comic Con The New York Comic Con is an annual New York City fan convention dedicated to Western comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, cosplay, toys, movies, and television. It was first held in 2006. History The New York Comic Con is a ...
that the original ''Fillerbunny'' comics would be done in a single night and he would rush through and do 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 he feels it is of much higher quality than the first two. At Comic-Con 2005, Vasquez mentioned that his next comic was a love story. Since this, however, he attended an event in early 2007 and stated he was not working on his "own" comics – he was collaborating on two comics in the style of ''Everything Can Be Beaten'', acting only as author. The first, titled ''Jellyfist'', was intended for release on July 25, 2007, but the initial print run of ''Jellyfist'' was incredibly poor, and so it was re-released in October 2007. In 2009, Vasquez collaborated with other alternative artists in
Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...
' ''
Strange Tales ''Strange Tales'' is a Marvel Comics anthology series. The title was revived in different forms on multiple occasions. Doctor Strange and Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. made their debuts in ''Strange Tales''. It was a showcase for the science ...
'', issue 2 of 3, with a story about
MODOK MODOK (also written as M.O.D.O.K.; an acronym for Mental/Mobile/Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first MODOK is George Tarleton, a former e ...
.THE WALKING DEAD #110 First Look
Newsarama.com (May 1, 2013). Retrieved on January 19, 2014.
It sold extremely well and all three issues have been collected into a hardcover trade paperback. The next year he returned for Marvel's ''Strange Tales'' II, issue 1 of 3, with a story about
Wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscul ...
. In 2012,
DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...
announced that Vasquez joined the writing team for their digital comic ''Beyond the Fringe'', based on the Fox TV series ''
Fringe Fringe may refer to: Arts * Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival, known as "the Fringe" * Adelaide Fringe, the world's second-largest annual arts festival * Fringe theatre, a name for alternative theatre * The Fringe, the ...
''. In May 2014, Vasquez announced on his
Tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...
page that he would be re-releasing his previous ''Fillerbunny'' comics into a new collection and additionally releasing his first new comic book in ten years.


Television

At
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...
, Vasquez created the animated television series ''
Invader Zim ''Invader Zim'' is an American animated science fiction dark comedy television series created by comic book writer and cartoonist Jhonen Vasquez for Nickelodeon. The series centers on an extraterrestrial named Zim (voiced by Richard Steven Ho ...
'', which aired on the network and then later on Nicktoons. It focuses on the daily life of Zim, a naïve alien from the planet Irk who tries to conquer
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
and enslave humans, before his attempts are constantly thwarted by a young paranormal investigator Dib, who believes that Zim is an alien but no one believes him. The first episode aired on March 30, 2001. The series lasted for two seasons, before it was cancelled by Nickelodeon, saying that its main causes were low ratings, over-budget production and lack of interest in continuation of the series. The last episode before the show's cancellation, "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever" (a Christmas special), aired on December 10, 2002. Episodes of the third season and a finale then remained unfinished. Vasquez provided the voices for Zim's computer, Old Kid, Minimoose, and various characters including himself as a background character (being credited as "Mr. Scolex"). Vasquez later returned to Nickelodeon in 2016 to write '' Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus'', a TV movie based on ''Invader Zim''. Vasquez also did character designs for the Disney XD show '' Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja'', as well as wrote for an episode of the online series ''
Bravest Warriors ''Bravest Warriors'' is an American-Canadian animated series. Set onwards from the year 3085, it follows four teenage heroes-for-hire as they warp through the universe to save adorable aliens and their worlds using the power of their emotions. It ...
''. In July 2014, it was revealed that
Disney Television Animation Disney Television Animation (DTVA), formerly known as Walt Disney Pictures Television Animation Group and Walt Disney Television Animation, is the television animation production arm of Disney Branded Television, a sub-division of the Disney G ...
had picked up the pilot ''Very Important House'', co-created by Vasquez and ''
Rick and Morty {{Infobox television , image = Rick and Morty title card (cropped).png , alt = , caption = , genre = {{Plainlist, * Animated sitcom * Adult animation * Science fiction * Black comedy * ...
'' production designer Jenny Goldberg, who previously collaborated with Vasquez on ''Jellyfist''. However, on September 30, 2016, Vasquez announced on his official blog that ''Very Important House'' was ultimately not picked up for a full series.


Other work

Vasquez collaborated with Crab Scrambly to produce the storybook ''Everything Can Be Beaten'', published by Slave Labor in 2002. Vasquez, credited as Chancre Scolex, wrote the story and Crab Scrambly illustrated it. ''Everything Can Be Beaten'' is about 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 that "everything can be beaten". The storybook inspired Urban Squall in 2008 to create the puzzle
browser game A browser game or a "flash game" is a video game that is played via the internet using a web browser. They are mostly free-to-play and can be single-player or multiplayer. Some browser games are also available as mobile apps, PC games, or on ...
'' Bloody Fun Day''. Vasquez did the entire artwork for the deluxe edition of the Mindless Self Indulgence album '' If'' as well as the digital single "Mastermind". He also directed the music videos for Mindless Self Indulgence's "
Shut Me Up "Shut Me Up" is a single by Mindless Self Indulgence, released on September 12, 2006. It is the first track on their third studio album, '' You'll Rebel to Anything''. "Shut Me Up" peaked at number 7 on the ''Billboard'' Hot Singles Sales chart a ...
" and The Left Rights' "White". Jhonen made the cover art for the album '' Zero Day'' by
MC Frontalot Damian Hess (born December 3, 1973), better known by his stage name MC Frontalot, is an American rapper and web designer. Hess began releasing music as MC Frontalot in 1999. His first successes came through Song Fight!, an online songwriting and ...
and also indicated that he shows his artwork in galleries from time to time. He also did an art rendition of '' BioShock 2'' called "The Sisters". He was quoted saying the following about the rendition: He also worked on a ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' short called ''Don Vs Raph'', where Donatello and Raphael compete to see who is better, but the two always end up tying.


Style

Many of the characters in Vasquez's cartoons are usually highly geometric and thin, nearly to the point of being
stick figure A stick figure, also known as a stickman, is a very simple drawing of a person or an animal, composed of a few lines, curves, and dots. On a stick figure, the head is most often represented by a circle, which can be either a solid color or som ...
s with heavy black outlines. The protagonists in his comics are typically mentally unstable characters who live in dysfunctional societies, and whose manias are able to speak through inanimate objects. His storylines tend to follow the basic
black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discu ...
formula. His art style is very edgy and eccentric, and
smiley faces "Smiley Faces" is a song by American soul music duo Gnarls Barkley from their debut album, ''St. Elsewhere (album), St. Elsewhere'' (2006). It was released July 17, 2006, as the second single (music), single from that album in the United Kingdom ...
are often found in his artwork, trying to evoke an ironic sense of happiness in a world of chaos and darkness. Vasquez's writing often conveys misanthropic and pessimistic themes, often used for the purposes of parody and satire. Several of his works have featured
goth A Goth is a member of the Goths, a group of East Germanic tribes. Two major political entities of the Goths were: *Visigoths, prominent in Spanish history *Ostrogoths, prominent in Italian history Goth or Goths may also refer to: * Goth (surname) ...
characters or depictions of the goth subculture for the purpose of satire. In an interview on the show ''
The Screen Savers ''The Screen Savers'' is an American TV show that aired on TechTV from 1998 to 2005.Fost, Dan (17 May 1999)A Day in the Life of ZDTV's `The Screen Savers' ''San Francisco Chronicle'' The show launched concurrently with the channel ZDTV (later k ...
'' in 2005, Vasquez responded to host
Kevin Pereira Kevin Elder Pereira (born December 28, 1982) is an American television personality and host. Early life While he was 14, Pereira hosted ''Pointless Audio'' under the pseudonym Captain Immy.Stephen A. Johnson (April 15, 2006)AOTS hosts Kevin Pere ...
's comment that fans considered him "a goth king", saying jokingly, "King, yeah, but not goth... I mean, that's arrogant."


Bibliography


Filmography


Awards and nominations

* ''Squee!'' was nominated for 1998
Eisner Awards The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books, sometimes referred to as the comics industry's equivalent of the Academy Awards. They are named in ...
for Best New Series and Best Humor Publication. * ''I Feel Sick'' won an International Horror Guild Award in 2000 for Best Illustrated Narrative. * ''Invader Zim'' won an Emmy, an Annie, and the award for Best Title Sequence at the 2001 World Animation Celebration awards. It also garnered seven other nominations. * Vasquez and his work were honored in the National Design Triennial: Inside Design Now, a 2003 exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution.


References


External links

* *
An Interview on SuicideGirls.com

Revolution Science Fiction (October 26, 2001): "Death and Morons: The Jhonen Vasquez Story"
(online-chat transcript)
Jhonen Vasquez Spotlight (2007 New York Comic Con speech Podcast. 54:12m)Downloadable mp3

Interrogation Special with Zoetica Ebb
(August 22, 2007) {{DEFAULTSORT:Vasquez, Jhonen 1974 births Living people American comics artists American comics writers Writers from San Jose, California De Anza College alumni American artists of Mexican descent Slave Labor Graphics Showrunners American music video directors American people of Venezuelan descent American writers of Mexican descent Alternative cartoonists American people of Mexican descent Animators from California Hispanic and Latino American artists Hispanic and Latino American writers Hispanic and Latino American people