Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
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''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac'' (often abbreviated ''JtHM'') is the first
comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
by
Jhonen Vasquez 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''—along with its spin-off comics ...
. The series tells the story of a young man named Johnny “Nny” C. as he explores the psychological and possibly supernatural forces which compel him to commit a string of murders with which he always seems to get away. ''JtHM'' began as a
comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...
in the 1990s, then ran under
alternative comics Alternative comics cover a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to mainstream superhero comics which ...
publisher
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, Jhon ...
as a
limited series Limited series may refer to: *Limited series, individual storylines within an anthology series *Limited series, a particular run of collectables, usually individually numbered *Limited series (comics), a comics series with a predetermined number of ...
of seven issues, later collected in the trade paperback ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: Director's Cut''. The series produced three spin-offs: ''
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 ...
'', ''
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 ''Fillerbunny''.


Creation

Vasquez started drawing in kindergarten. He attended Mount Pleasant High School, where he took a part in a contest to design the
Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...
as a school's
mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...
. Vasquez submitted an entry, but the judges rejected it. On the back of a preliminary drawing for the contest, he drew his first sketch of the character he would later name
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. Variant ...
Vasquez's high school's
student newspaper A student publication is a media outlet such as a newspaper, magazine, television show, or radio station produced by students at an educational institution. These publications typically cover local and school-related news, but they may also repor ...
published a number of
comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...
s titled ''Johnny the Little Homicidal Maniac''. Vasquez says the character originated as a personal avatar who could carry out his own revenge fantasies. Comic book artist and filmmaker
Rob Schrab Robby Christopher Schrab (born November 12, 1969) is an American comic book creator, screenwriter, director, and producer. He is the creator of the comic book '' Scud: The Disposable Assassin'', co-writer of the feature film '' Monster House'', co ...
makes the same observation. However, Vasquez later distanced himself from the character, saying that Johnny should not be mistaken for an
author surrogate As a literary technique, an author surrogate (also called an author avatar) is a fictional character based on the author. The author surrogate may be disguised, with a different name, or the author surrogate may be quite close to the author, with ...
. Vasquez also created Happy Noodle Boy while attending Mount Pleasant as a way to stop his girlfriend from asking him to draw comics for her. In the early 1990s, ''Carpe Noctem'', a
magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
about the
goth subculture Goth is a music-based subculture that began in the United Kingdom during the early 1980s. It was developed by fans of Gothic rock, an offshoot of the post-punk music genre. The name ''Goth'' was derived directly from the genre. Notable post-p ...
, published several one-page strips featuring Johnny, now called ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac''. Though he never planned to create comic books, Vasquez submitted samples of his artwork to alternative comics publisher Slave Labor Graphics. Between August
1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...
and January
1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
, the publisher released a series of seven full-length issues based on the character. Vasquez describes the production process for ''Johnny'' as a "mess" and a "spew". As Vasquez worked on the comic, he prepared less and less, foregoing outlines and sketches and writing dialogue as he inked. Vasquez wishes that he had taken more time to plan the series, and feels that the quality of the dialogue suffered from his haphazard approach. A photograph of one of Vasquez's friends, Leah England, serves as the middle of a portrait collection on the cover of 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 "Meanwhile..." strip in the second issue. The two were discussing an event that had happened to a cheerleader, and thinking up the worst excuse possible. Jhonen based Psychodoughboy and Mr. Eff on two real Styrofoam
Pillsbury Doughboy Poppin' Fresh, more widely known as the Pillsbury Doughboy, is an advertising mascot for the Pillsbury Company, appearing in many of their commercials. Many commercials from 1965 until 2005 (together with some for GEICO between 2009 and 2017) en ...
display figures that he found and painted. He created Nailbunny as he was drawing the first page on which the character appears. Vasquez modeled for himself while drawing the characters. Vasquez intended a tapeworm named Scolex to be one of Johnny's voices, but the character never made it into the finished series. Vasquez now uses Chancre Scolex as a
pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...
for ''Everything Can Be Beaten'' and his
LiveJournal LiveJournal (russian: Живой Журнал), stylised as LiVEJOURNAL, is a Russian-owned social networking service where users can keep a blog, journal, or diary. American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick started LiveJournal on April 15, 1999, as ...
. Like many alternative comics, and other Slave Labor Graphics titles, ''Johnny'' is creator-owned. By September
1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...
, Vasquez announced in his introduction to the sixth issue of ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac'' that he had reached sufficient success in his artistic career to be able to quit his day-job and devote himself full-time to his art. As his comics moved from dedicated comic book shops into
shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...
s, Vasquez bemoaned the attendant change in his audience. Vasquez created his own 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 ...
'', and became uncomfortable with younger fans of ''Zim'' reading ''Johnny'', because of the violence depicted.


''Director's Cut''

''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: Director's Cut'', a trade paperback released by Slave Labor Graphics in July 1997, collected the series. Slave Labor also released a hardcover version of the collection.
Rob Schrab Robby Christopher Schrab (born November 12, 1969) is an American comic book creator, screenwriter, director, and producer. He is the creator of the comic book '' Scud: The Disposable Assassin'', co-writer of the feature film '' Monster House'', co ...
provides a foreword. The trade paperback includes a "Gallery of Ancient Horrors" that features a few strips previously published in the Mount Pleasant High School newspaper and ''Carpe Noctem'', as well as some strips previously unpublished, all with commentary by Vasquez. The paperback also introduces some new supplementary materials such as sketches, an issue-by-issue synopsis, character profiles, and a fictional interview with Vasquez, but leaves out many of the filler strips from the original series. The cover of the trade paperback features the logo "Z?", meaning "question sleep". "Z?" appears frequently throughout Vasquez's work and Question Sleep is the name of his official website. "Z?" is a reference to
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, ...
, a condition from which several of his characters suffer.


Spin-offs

''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac'' spawned two spin-offs: a four-issue series titled ''
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 ...
'', and a double-shot titled ''
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' ...
''. The trade paperback release of ''Squee!'', titled ''Squee's Wonderful Big Giant Book of Unspeakable Horrors'', includes the filler strips left out of ''Director's Cut''. Johnny makes
cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly eit ...
s at the end of ''Squee!'' and in the second issue of ''I Feel Sick''. Vasquez also maintains
Twitter account
from the perspective of Johnny.


Style

The comic is high-contrast
black and white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...
with stylized and geometric cartoon characters.
Graphical perspective Linear or point-projection perspective (from la, perspicere 'to see through') is one of two types of graphical projection perspective in the graphic arts; the other is parallel projection. Linear perspective is an approximate representation, ...
is often very loose. The panel borders are jagged, and certain strips have messages hidden in the complex designs of the borders. Many of the characters are 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. Several of the characters, including Johnny, wear T-shirts with expressive messages that change from panel to panel. Vasquez often breaks the
fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...
with side comments to talk about the book, its audience, or himself. The
speech balloon Speech balloons (also speech bubbles, dialogue balloons, or word balloons) are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comics, and cartoons to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing a char ...
s change with the moods of the characters. For example, Johnny's word balloons grow thorns when he becomes angry.


Main characters


Johnny "Nny" C.

The series focuses on Johnny C., a man who elaborately slaughters anyone who irritates him. He drains his victims of blood to paint over a wall in his house to prevent a monster from escaping. He is five feet, nine inches and one hundred and fifteen pounds. He likes stars, the emotionless function of
insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...
s, watching people get abducted by aliens, Cherry 'FizWiz', Cherry 'Brain-Freezies', all kinds of movies, Fruity Pops, the moon, little chubby babies,
pop rocks Pop Rocks, also called popping candy, is a candy, owned by Zeta Espacial S.A. Pop Rocks ingredients include sugar, lactose (milk sugar), and flavoring. It differs from typical hard candy in that pressurized carbon dioxide gas bubbles are emb ...
and
soda Soda or SODA may refer to: Chemistry * Some chemical compounds containing sodium ** Sodium carbonate, washing soda or soda ash ** Sodium bicarbonate, baking soda ** Sodium hydroxide, caustic soda ** Sodium oxide, an alkali metal oxide * Sod ...
, and drawing Happy Noodle Boy. He dislikes humidity, sleep, the physical and mental need for ''anything'', being abducted by aliens, people who've " GOTTA HAVE A SMOKE!", certain words (such as "wacky"), losing his mind, Satan's attitude and getting shot in the head (or just using a gun in general). Not much is known about Johnny's history. All that is known is that his parents were killed by an evil man, thus setting the course for Nny's life as a masked crime fighter, or, perhaps not. At present, Nny is more his own enemy than any external mind could be. What with the decomposure of what may have been, at one time, a fine, intelligent mind, Johnny is, possibly, more hideously mentally malformed than the people he seems to think have ruined his world.


Todd "Squee" Casil

Todd Casil (known as "Squee" due to the noise that he makes when frightened) is a young boy who lives in the house next to Johnny. Neither of his parents care for him, especially his father, who works countless hours at a dead end job and leads a miserable life after raising Squee. Squee's closest friend is a small teddy bear named Shmee. Shmee tells Squee that all of his fears and nightmares are inside of him in a dream. Squee is also friends with Satan's son, with whom he attends school. Squee has his own series called ''
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 ...
'', which was later collected in the TPB Squee's Wonderful Big Giant Book Of Unspeakable Horrors''.


Setting

The series is set in the mid-1990s in an unspecified city. Decaying urban streets, shadowed back alleys and filthy convenience stores serve as the series’ backdrop. Crumbling and covered with litter and graffiti, everything is in a state of bleak decay, overlit by the neon signs of trashy
consumer capitalism A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...
. Johnny lives in a decrepit, single-story house with the street address
777 777 may refer to: * 777 (number), a number * AD 777, a year of the Julian calendar * 777 BC, a year in the 8th century BC * Boeing 777, a commercial jet airliner :* Boeing 777X, the newer generation of the Boeing 777. Art and entertainment Alb ...
. The house has an extensive labyrinth of tunnels underneath. Johnny uses the subterranean rooms as dungeons and torture chambers, as well as a storage place for corpses, though he also buries the remains of his victims. The tunnels also provide him with a network to various locations, such as his neighbor Squee's residence. Johnny perceives the layout of the house as constantly changing, though he does not state if this shifting is the result of the supernatural forces at work within the house or his own psychosis. Johnny states that he found the house and moved in some time ago. He also constructed an
unidentified flying object An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...
landing pad on the roof. Throughout the series, there is no case where the authorities or the
police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...
are looking for Johnny, and they seem unaware of his existence. A later part of the story takes place in the
afterlife The afterlife (also referred to as life after death) is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's identity or their stream of consciousness continues to live after the death of their physical body. The surviving ess ...
. After accidentally shooting himself, Johnny journeys first to
Heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...
and then to
Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...
, and both turn out to have more in common with Earth than he expected.


Synopsis

The story is told in
vignettes Vignette may refer to: * Vignette (entertainment), a sketch in a sketch comedy * Vignette (graphic design), decorative designs in books (originally in the form of leaves and vines) to separate sections or chapters * Vignette (literature), short, i ...
that reflect Johnny's disjointed mental state. Vasquez leaves unexplained which events in the story are objective and which are subjective, and provides no
back-story A backstory, background story, back-story, or background is a set of events invented for a plot, presented as preceding and leading up to that plot. It is a literary device of a narrative history all chronologically earlier than the narrative of p ...
about Johnny's origins. The series begins when Squee wakes in the middle of the night to find Johnny in the bathroom of his family's new house. After a confrontation with Squee's
teddy bear A teddy bear is a stuffed toy in the form of a bear. Developed apparently simultaneously by toymakers Morris Michtom in the U.S. and Richard Steiff under his aunt Margarete Steiff's company in Germany in the early 20th century, the teddy bear, ...
, Shmee, Johnny leaves, informing Squee that they are neighbors. Later, Johnny goes on a rampage with a
spork A spork is a hybrid form of cutlery taking the form of a spoon-like shallow scoop with two to four fork-like tines. Its name is a portmanteau of spoon and fork. Spork-like utensils, such as the terrapin fork or ice cream fork, have been manuf ...
in a " Taco Hell" restaurant, incited by an elderly patron referring to him as "wacky". Following the slaughter, Johnny watches its coverage on the news. Later, Johnny captures and kills a patient and calm man named Edgar Vargas after discussing with him about his need to collect blood to paint a wall in his house, and later kills a beautiful woman after contemplating over their internal ugliness. He goes on a date with Devi, a cashier, and attempts to stab and kill her when he gives into his fear of losing his happiness, but Devi escapes after nearly killing Johnny. Sometime afterward, he kills everyone in the Café le Prick, the joint he despises the most, and kills a convenience store clerk over the inability to purchase a slushee. Johnny realizes he cannot seem to die or be brought to justice for his murders. He and the sentient floating head Nailbunny journey through the bowels of his house and discuss the nature of Johnny's psychosis, realizing the various forces at play with his mind. Johnny alludes to a mysterious evil force kept behind a wall, which needs to be kept from escaping through continuously repainting the wall with the fresh blood of his victims, as the urges of Eff Boy, one of two Doughboys who are psychically empowered by the entity behind the wall, and who wishes to keep it from escaping so that it cannot reclaim him. This is contrasted by Psycho-Doughboy, who urges Johnny to kill himself so that the seal will break, releasing his "master" from behind the wall. While journeying through the underground of his home, Johnny kills a cockroach named Mr. Samsa (after
Gregor Samsa ''Metamorphosis'' (german: Die Verwandlung) is a novella written by Franz Kafka which was first published in 1915. One of Kafka's best-known works, ''Metamorphosis'' tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himsel ...
, the main character of
Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...
's short story ''
The Metamorphosis ''Metamorphosis'' (german: Die Verwandlung) is a novella written by Franz Kafka which was first published in 1915. One of Kafka's best-known works, ''Metamorphosis'' tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himsel ...
''). Johnny also rigs a robotic arm and handgun to shoot him if he were to answer the phone if someone calls, further flaunting his belief in his own immortality. When Devi calls him on the advice of a friend (as seen in an earlier scene), Johnny answers out of curiosity and is shot in the head immediately after resolving not to kill himself. Around this time, a pair of his victims escape from the bloody wall as a formless monstrosity breaks free, and the world seems to be erased. Eventually, Johnny's soul arrives in
Heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...
, where he meets St. Peter, who becomes physically ill with all that Johnny has done throughout his life. With him distracted, Johnny enters Heaven and meets a demon woman named Damned Elise who gives Johnny a tour. Johnny starts a massive psychic battle when he discovers that the souls in Heaven are immortal and have mental powers which includes the ability to explode people's heads. Later on in the tour, Johnny is brought before
God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...
, who is a lazy, obese man sitting in a chair in a state of exhaustion. Johnny starts a tirade that ends with Elise sending him to
Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...
. Johnny meets Señor Diablo, who gives Johnny a tour of the underworld and reveals that Johnny is a "flusher" or "waste lock", a creature chosen to concentrate the spiritual byproducts generated by humans into a specific object or point in space, in this case the wall in Johnny's house. As Johnny died, the wall unleashed the built-up negative energy, in the process destroying the universe, which was then restored. Johnny instantly despises Hell as he interacts with the obsessively negative and selfish citizens, and is sent back to life by Senior Diablo. Later on Earth, Johnny is unsure if he really died or if he experienced some kind of hallucination, and he resolves to become emotionless in order to retain his control over himself. When a
copycat Copycat refers to a person who copies some aspect of some thing or somebody else. Copycat may also refer to: Intellectual property rights * Copyright infringement, use of another’s ideas or words without permission * Patent infringement, a v ...
killer named "Jimmy" pays Johnny a visit and confesses to several murders and a rape, Johnny eviscerates Jimmy out of pure disgust. Afterward, Johnny visits Squee and tells him that he should look out for himself, otherwise he may become as mentally damaged as Johnny himself. The series ends with Johnny sitting on a cliff overlooking the city, writing in his diary, with the hopes that he will be "as cold as the moonlight" that touches the diary's pages.


Filler strips

''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac'' features several filler strips, which, for the most part, have nothing to do with the main storyline. ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: Director's Cut'' collects "Happy Noodle Boy", "Public Service Announcement", and "Anne Gwish" while ''Squee's Wonderful Big Giant Book of Unspeakable Horrors'' includes "Wobbly-Headed Bob", "Meanwhile...", and "True Tales of Human Drama".


Happy Noodle Boy

There is also a comic within a comic in the form of "Happy Noodle Boy", written and drawn by Johnny himself.


Public Service Announcement

In a few issues, there are "Public Service Announcement" strips that parody television
public service announcement A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film (PIF); in Hong Kong, ...
s on topics such as
teen pregnancy Teenage pregnancy, also known as adolescent pregnancy, is pregnancy in a female adolescent or young adult under the age of 20. This includes those who are Legal adult, legally considered adults in their country. The WHO defines adolescence as the ...
and
substance abuse Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods which are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder. Differing definitions of drug abuse are used in public health, ...
.


Anne Gwish

Anne Gwish is a young 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 the goth subculture.


Wobbly-Headed Bob

Wobbly-Headed Bob lives in a separate
fictional universe A fictional universe, or fictional world, is a self-consistent setting with events, and often other elements, that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed, or fictional realm (or world). Fictional universes may ...
from the main storyline, one inhabited by anthropomorphic animals who, with the exception of Bob, live in a state of innocence and bliss. In contrast, Bob is a
megalomaniac Megalomania is an obsession with power and wealth, and a passion for grand schemes. Megalomania or megalomaniac may also refer to: Psychology * Narcissistic personality disorder * Grandiose delusions * Omnipotence (psychoanalysis), a stage o ...
who believes himself to be the most intelligent person in the world, and the only one who understands the true nature of reality, which he sees in entirely
pessimistic Pessimism is a negative mental attitude in which an undesirable outcome is anticipated from a given situation. Pessimists tend to focus on the negatives of life in general. A common question asked to test for pessimism is "Is the glass half empt ...
terms. His extreme negativity leaves him isolated and depressed. He overwhelms anyone he meets with his despair and often causes them to either commit suicide or flee from him in horror.


Meanwhile...

In one "Meanwhile..." strip, a group of
piñata A piñata (, ) is a container, often made of papier-mâché, pottery, or cloth, that is decorated, filled with candy, and then broken as part of a celebration. Piñatas are commonly associated with Mexico. The idea of breaking a container filled ...
s come to life to exact revenge on a girl whose birthday party claimed one of their own. In another, two ancient gods of war possess a pair of grade school
crossing guard A crossing guard (North American English), lollipop man/lady (British, Irish, and Australian English), crosswalk attendant (also Australian English), or school road patrol (New Zealand English) is a traffic management personnel who is normally ...
s to reenact an epic battle. In yet another, a naïve goth teenager, a character who also appears in ''I Feel Sick'', dreams of becoming a sexy vampire like those found in ''
The Vampire Chronicles ''The Vampire Chronicles'' is a series of gothic horror novels and a media franchise, created by American writer Anne Rice, that revolves around the fictional character Lestat de Lioncourt, a French nobleman turned into a vampire in the 18t ...
'', but transforms instead into a vampire more like
Count Orlok Count Orlok (german: Graf Orlok), commonly but erroneously known as Nosferatu, is the main antagonist and title character portrayed by German actor Max Schreck (1879–1936) in the silent film ''Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens'' (1922). He ...
. In one of the more infamous "Meanwhile..." strips, a nervous man on a date with Devi D. tries to conceal his explosive
diarrhea Diarrhea, also spelled diarrhoea, is the condition of having at least three loose, liquid, or watery bowel movements each day. It often lasts for a few days and can result in dehydration due to fluid loss. Signs of dehydration often begin wi ...
. In an act of
self-insertion Self-insertion is a literary device in which the author writes themself into the story as a fictional character. Forms In art, the equivalent of self-insertion is the inserted self-portrait, where the artist includes a self-portrait in a pain ...
, Jhonen Vasquez himself appears in other "Meanwhile..." strips.


True Tales of Human Drama

The strips titled "True Tales of Human Drama" tell stories about things such as a baby exploding, a plane crashing into a bus full of boy scouts, and a man blowing something out of his nose so horrible that a priest commands him to jump off a building.


Reception

On 5 April 2008, '' Wizard'' placed the third issue of ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac'' at number 151 in its rundown of the 200 greatest comics since the magazine started in July 1991.


Merchandise

Over the years, Slave Labor Graphics has sold ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac'' merchandise such as clothing, posters, and toys. Slave Labor released a Spooky squeeze toy, first shown in ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac'' #4, as part of its promotion for ''I Feel Sick''. Several years ago, a mug based on the design of the wall monster with the Question Sleep logo was under development.


References


External links

*
Official website of Slave Labor Graphics, publisher of JTHM
at
Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

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from the original on October 8, 2016. * * {{Authority control 1995 comics debuts Fictional rampage and spree killers Comics characters introduced in 1995 Slave Labor Graphics titles Black comedy comics Comics by Jhonen Vasquez Horror comics Goth subculture Comic book limited series Gothic comics