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Jhonen Vasquez (born September 1, 1974), also known by his pseudonyms Mr. Scolex and Chancre Scolex, is a cartoonist living in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is the creator of a number of alternative comics published by Slave Labor Graphics including Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, I Feel Sick, Fillerbunny, Bad Art Collection, and Squee!, as well as the creator and writer of the short-lived cult animated television series Invader Zim. Many of his works have developed cult followings. is the 244th day of the year (245th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Alias. ... Cartoonist Jack Elrod at work. ... Los Angeles and L.A. redirect here. ... For the publisher Alternative Comics, see Alternative Comics (publisher). ... Slave Labor Graphics logo Slave Labor Graphics or commonly SLG, is an independent American comic book publisher, which is well-known for publishing darkly humorous, offbeat comics such as Jhonen Vasquezs Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Squee!, or Roman Dirges Lenore, the Cute Little Dead Girl, and The... Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. ... Main character Devi (Top), Tenna & Spooky (Bottom) 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). ... Fillerbunny is a character created by comic book artist and writer Jhonen Vasquez. ... Squee was a fictional character in Jhonen Vasquezs comic book Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, who later received his own four-issue series, both of which were published by Slave Labor Graphics. ... Cult typically refers to a cohesive social group devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding culture considers outside the mainstream, with a notably positive or negative popular perception. ... An animated series or cartoon series is a television series produced by means of animation. ... Invader Zim, trademarked as Invader ZIM, is an award-winning[1] American animated television series that aired on and was produced by Nickelodeon. ... This article does not discuss cultist groups, personality cults, or cult in its original sense of religious practice. See cult (disambiguation) for more meanings of the term cult. A cult following is a group of fans devoted to a specific area of pop culture. ...

Early life

Jhonen Vasquez was born to Mexican parents and raised in East San Jose. He attended Mount Pleasant High School, where he often spent much of his class time drawing in sketchbooks. Taking part in a contest to design a new look for his school's mascot, the Cardinal, he submitted an entry that the judges rejected. On the back of a preliminary drawing for the contest, he drew his first sketch of the character who would later become Johnny C. His high school's newspaper published a number of his strips entitled Johnny the Little Homicidal Maniac. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... </ref> |enrollment= 1,984[1] |enrollment_as_of= 2005-2006 school year }} Mount Pleasant High School is a secondary school location in San Jose, California which educates grades 9 through 12. ... Millie, once mascot of the City of Brampton, is now the Brampton Arts Councils representative. ... Genera Periporphyrus Saltator Caryothraustes Parkerthraustes Rhodothraupis Cardinalis Pheucticus Cyanocompsa Guiraca Passerina Spiza The Cardinals or Cardinalidae are a family of passerine birds found in North and South America. ... Johnny C. Johnny C., who refers to himself as Nny, is the main character of the comic book series Johnny The Homicidal Maniac. ...

Vasquez also created Happy Noodle Boy while attending Mount Pleasant. According to Vasquez, "So many years ago, [my little romantical friend in high school] was the unwitting reason Happy Noodle Boy was created. [She] 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".^[1] Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. ...

After graduating in 1992, Vasquez went on to become a film student at De Anza College in Cupertino, California. Though he had little formal artistic training, he soon dropped out of De Anza to pursue a career as a professional cartoonist. Flint Center, the main auditorium De Anza College is a 112 acre (453,000 m²) community college located in Cupertino, California. ... Location of Cupertino within Santa Clara County, California. ...

Comics

Carpe Noctem magazine published early one-page strips featuring Johnny in the early 1990s. Slave Labor Graphics began publishing a series of Johnny comics in 1995, after Vasquez submitted samples of his artwork to them. Vasquez's first comic, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, ran for seven issues and was collected as a hardcover and a trade paperback book, 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 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 (and, briefly, his own.) Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. ...

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 JTHM.

Vasquez's next project was The Bad Art Collection, a 16-page one-shot comic. Vasquez stated that he did the book's art while he was in high school to discourage classmates from asking him to draw for them. The Bad Art Collection is a one-shot comic book created by Jhonen Vasquez. ...

Vasquez met Roman Dirge, Rikki Simons, and Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons at Alternative Press Expo in 1995. Dirge later became a writer on Vasquez's Invader Zim, while Rikki Simons became the voice of the show's crazed robot GIR, as well as a member of the show's coloring team. Roman Dirge (born on April 29, 1972) is an artist and magician, and the creator of the Lenore comic-book series. ... Invader Zim, trademarked as Invader ZIM, is an award-winning[1] American animated television series that aired on and was produced by Nickelodeon. ... GIR is one of the main characters from the animated television series Invader ZIM. He is Zims robotic slave, constructed from scrap parts and given to Zim by the Almighty Tallest instead of a regular SIR (Standard-issue Information Retrieval) unit. ...

In 1997, Vasquez gave Squee, a supporting character from JTHM, 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 JTHM, as well as humorous comics of Jhonen's "real life" and Wobbly Headed Bob. This article is about the fictional character in Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. ... This article is about the concept of Satan. ...

Vasquez's next project was I Feel Sick, colored by Simons. I Feel Sick follows a tortured artist named Devi (another character introduced in JTHM) as she tries to maintain her sanity in an insane vision of society, despite conversing with Sickness, one of her own paintings. Main character Devi (Top), Tenna & Spooky (Bottom) 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). ...

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^{[citation needed]} 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 the writer of the introduction feels it is of much higher quality than the first two. Fillerbunny is a character created by comic book artist and writer Jhonen Vasquez. ...

Vasquez collaborated with Crab Scrambly (alias of artist Brad Canby) 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." Everything Can Be Beaten is a short illustrated story written by Jhonen Vasquez, Illustrated by Bracan Under the aliases of Mr. ...

At Comic-Con 2005, Jhonen 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, where he acts as author and there is another artist. The first, titled Jellyfist was intended for released on July 25, 2007. However, the initial print run of Jellyfist was incredibly poor, and so it was re-released in October 2007. It is unknown what has happened with the love story comic since 2005.

Television

After the success of Squee!, the children's cable network Nickelodeon approached Vasquez about producing an animated television series. The series, Invader Zim, was canceled after little more than a year; only 27 half-hour episodes were made, most split into two 11-minute episodes but several full half-hours, and many episodes unfinished. Episodes in the second season aired first internationally and later aired on Nicktoons Network in 2006. The show was cancelled due to its ratings, its dark tone, and the violence in the show. AnimeWorks, a branch of Media Blasters, released the DVD collection Invader Zim Vol. 1 on May 11, 2004. It contains the first nine episodes plus audio commentary by Vasquez and various cast- and crew-members, including Richard Steven Horvitz, Rikki Simons, Melissa Fahn, Wally Wingert, Andy Berman, and Kevin Manthei. The company released Vol. 2 on Aug. 31, 2004, Vol. 3 on Oct. 12, 2004, and a boxed set was released on April 12, 2005. The boxed set contained a "Special Features" DVD with audio-only episodes never aired on Nickelodeon, as well as the original uncut version of the Christmas special. This article is about the TV channel. ... Invader Zim, trademarked as Invader ZIM, is an award-winning[1] American animated television series that aired on and was produced by Nickelodeon. ... AnimeWorks Titles A Kite - edited version Berserk Cleopatra D.C. Earthian Eiken Elf Princess Rayne eX-Driver Fake Genshiken Giant Robo Gundress Gunparade March Iczer-One Iria: Zeiram the Animation Iron Virgin Jun Jungle De Ikou Knight Hunters Kurogane Communication Magic Knight Rayearth Master of Mosquiton Metal Fighter Miku Mezzo... Media Blasters is a corporation in New York City that translates, packages, and dubs anime and live action films for home video release. ... DVD (also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) is a popular optical disc storage media format. ... Richard Steven Horvitz, sometimes credited as Richard S. Horvitz, Richard Horvitz or Richard Wood (born on July 29, 1966 in Los Angeles, California) is an American actor and voice actor. ... Rosearik Rikki Simons AKA Rikki Simons (born September 8, 1970 in Fontana, California), is an American, voice actor, writer, graphic novelist, and artist. ... Melissa Fahn (born April 28, 1973) is an American voice and stage actress known for her work in anime dubs and other mainstream animated television series, as well as her work in Broadway and Los Angeles Theatre. ... Wallace E. Wingert (born May 6, 1961 in Des Moines, Iowa) is an American actor and voice actor. ... Andy Berman is an American actor most famous for playing Chuck Coleman on The Wonder Years. ... Kevin Manthei has been working in the film, television and game arena for over 12 years. ... A Christmas television special is typically a one_time, 30 minute animated program aired during the Christmas season. ...

Invader Zim has also run on the cable channels Nicktoons Network, YTV (a Canadian youth network) and MTV2 (in the "'Sic'Emation" block of the latter) and is available on iTunes. Nicktoons Network, once known as Nicktoons TV and simply Nicktoons, is a digital cable and satellite television network. ... This article is about the Canadian television network. ... MTV2 is a cable network that is widely available in the United States on digital cable and satellite television, and is progressively being added to basic cable lineups across the nation. ... This article is about the iTunes application. ...

Vasquez also directed the music video for "Shut Me Up" by the band Mindless Self Indulgence^[2] A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music, most commonly a song. ... Shut Me Up: The Remixes +3 is the title of a Mindless Self Indulgence remix CD, released on 12 September 2006 Shut Me Up (Ulrich Wild Groandome Metal Remix) – 2:56 Shut Me Up (VNV Nation 1200XL Remix) – 5:40 Shut Me Up (Tommie Sunshine TSMV Still Filthy Remix) – 5... This article is about the New York rock band. ...

Vasquez has also been confirmed as the artist for the new MSI single entitled Mastermind a digital-only single set for release February 12th, 2008. In addition he has put forth artwork for the delux edition of the band's album If.

Film

Vasquez has stated at the New York Comic Con and more recently on his LiveJournal that he is currently working on a movie [1]. It is still in the early scripting stages at the moment but if it moves past that he has stated that he will be directing it. The floor of the 2007 Convention. ... LiveJournal (often abbreviated LJ) is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal, or diary. ... Director Herbert Brenon with actress Alla Nazimova on the set of War Brides, 1916 A director is a person who directs the making of a film. ...

Style

Many of the characters in Vasquez's cartoons are highly geometric and thin to the point of almost being stick figures. Vasquez's writing often conveys misanthropic and pessimistic themes, though these darker elements are often used for the purposes of parody, satire, and scenes meant to shock the viewer. Similar styles and mannerisms can be found in many of his characters as well as running gags and common themes, including repeated references to moose, meat, chihuahuas, monkeys, tacos, "piggies", cheese, morbid obesity, and "dookie". Vasquez also frequently sneaks cameo appearances of characters such as Happy Noodle Boy and Johnny The Homicidal Maniac into unrelated works. The protagonists in his comics are typically insane characters with insanity that talks through other objects (Nny: Nailbunny, The Doughboys and Reverend Meat; Squee: Shmee; Devi: Sickness) and try to survive a possibly crazier world in a search for sanity. His storylines tend to follow the basic black comedy formula. David Cronenberg and Kurt Vonnegut have influenced his work. [2] Franz Kafka, H. R. Giger, and H. P. Lovecraft are other influences. When asked what his influences are during the New York Comic Con, he responded by saying that he is a fan of David Lynch. Geometry (from the Greek words Ge = earth and metro = measure) is the branch of mathematics first introduced by Theaetetus dealing with spatial relationships. ... A stick figure. ... Misanthrope redirects here. ... Half empty or half full? Pessimists to respond with half empty Pessimism, from the Latin pessimus (worst), is the decision to evaluate something as a negative when it is uncommon to do so. ... In contemporary usage, a parody (or lampoon) is a work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself, the subject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject. ... 1867 edition of Punch, a ground-breaking British magazine of popular humour, including a good deal of satire of the contemporary social and political scene. ... The running gag is a popular hallmark of comic and serious forms of entertainment. ... For other uses, see Moose (disambiguation). ... This article is about the food. ... This article is about the breed of dog. ... Approximate worldwide distribution of monkeys. ... For other uses, see Taco (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Pig (disambiguation). ... Cheese is a solid food made from the milk of cows, goats, sheep, and other mammals. ... Horse feces Feces, faeces, or fæces (see spelling differences) is a waste product from an animals digestive tract expelled through the anus (or cloaca) during defecation. ... This article is about a tone of comedy. ... David Paul Cronenberg OC, FRSC (born March 15, 1943[2]) is a Canadian film director and occasional actor. ... Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. ... Kafka redirects here. ... Birth machine Hans Ruedi Giger (IPA: ) (born at Chur, Grisons canton, February 5, 1940) is an Academy Award-winning Swiss painter, sculptor, and set designer best known for his design work on the film Alien. ... This article is about the author. ... For other persons named David Lynch, see David Lynch (disambiguation). ...

Vasquez's works often feature an outside narrative in the form of notes and comments left in the corners of his strips. This can be found in the vast majority of Vasquez's comics, such as in issue #5 of JTHM: A large monster is shown bursting through a wall, arms and heads flailing, tentacles sweeping through the air. A scene that surely conveys a sense of violence and danger, yet in the corner of the panel, a small box contains the text "Kids - Don't be scared! He don't bite!" These small touches help with emotional connection to Vasquez's work, and are likely one of the factors in his cult following.

Several of Vasquez's works have featured gothic characters or depictions of the goth subculture for the purpose of satire. In an interview on the show The Screen Savers, Vasquez responded to host Kevin Pereira's comment that fans considered him "a goth king," saying disdainfully: "King, yeah, but not goth. I mean, that's arrogant." This article is about the subculture. ... 1867 edition of Punch, a ground-breaking British magazine of popular humour, including a good deal of satire of the contemporary social and political scene. ... The Screen Savers (broadcast May 11, 1998 - March 18, 2005) was a live American TV show on TechTV. The show launched concurrently with the channel ZDTV (later known as TechTV) on May 11, 1998. ... Kevin Pereira (born December 28, 1982[1]) is co-host of G4s Attack of the Show! (formerly The Screen Savers) with Olivia Munn. ...

Awards and nominations

• Squee! was nominated for 1998 Eisner Awards for Best New Series and Best Humor Publication.^[3]
• 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.^[4]
• 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

The Eisner Awards are given for achievement in comic books. ...

Selected bibliography

• Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
• Squee!
• The Bad Art Collection
• Fillerbunny
• Everything Can Be Beaten
• I Feel Sick
• Jellyfist

Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. ... Squee was a fictional character in Jhonen Vasquezs comic book Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, who later received his own four-issue series, both of which were published by Slave Labor Graphics. ... The Bad Art Collection is a one-shot comic book created by Jhonen Vasquez. ... Fillerbunny is a character created by comic book artist and writer Jhonen Vasquez. ... Everything Can Be Beaten is a short illustrated story written by Jhonen Vasquez, Illustrated by Bracan Under the aliases of Mr. ... Main character Devi (Top), Tenna & Spooky (Bottom) 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). ...

Filmography

Invader Zim, trademarked as Invader ZIM, is an award-winning[1] American animated television series that aired on and was produced by Nickelodeon. ... is the 89th day of the year (90th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ... is the 344th day of the year (345th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... is the 161st day of the year (162nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 231st day of the year (232nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the New York rock band. ...

Footnotes

References

• Jhonen Vasquez at the Internet Movie Database
• Official Vasquez website
• Jhonen's LiveJournal
• An Interview on SuicideGirls.com
• The Order of the Tapeworm (Jhonen's guild site for World of Warcraft on the Dunemaul server)

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about movies, actors, television shows, production crew personnel, and video games. ...

External links

• Revolution Science Fiction (Oct. 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 (Aug. 22, 2007)