Jhonen Vasquez facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jhonen Vasquez
Vasquez in December 2023
Born	(1974-09-01) September 1, 1974 (age 50) San Jose, California, U.S.
Other names	Chancre Scolex Mr. Scolex
Occupation	Cartoonist animator voice actor
Years active	1992–present
Notable work	Johnny the Homicidal Maniac Invader Zim

Jhonen C. Vasquez (born September 1, 1974) is an American cartoonist, animator, and voice actor. He is famous for creating the comic book series Johnny the ... and the Nickelodeon animated TV show Invader Zim.

Early Life and Inspiration

Jhonen C. Vasquez was born in San Jose, California, on September 1, 1974. His family has roots in Mexico and Venezuela. He grew up in East San Jose and went to Mt. Pleasant High School. During class, he often spent his time drawing in notebooks.

Childhood Influences

As a kid, Vasquez loved Disney animated features. He also became very interested in different kinds of animation by filmmakers like Ralph Bakshi. He said that The Plague Dogs and Flight of Dragons were two animated movies that really influenced him. For live-action films, he was most inspired by Ridley Scott's Alien.

Vasquez also read his older brother's superhero comics. But he first got really interested in making comics after reading the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics. He felt these comics were different and exciting. He liked how they felt "dirtier" and how the characters looked like they had been in battles.

High School Creations

While in high school, Vasquez entered a contest to design a new mascot for his school. He didn't win any prizes. However, on the back of one of his drawings for the contest, he drew his first sketch of a character. This character later became the main character of Johnny the .... His school newspaper even published some of his comic strips featuring Johnny. He also created another character called Happy Noodle Boy during this time.

After finishing high school in 1992, he studied film at De Anza College in Cupertino, California. Even though he didn't have much art training, he soon left college. He wanted to become a professional cartoonist. In 1995, he met Roman Dirge and Rosearik Rikki Simons at an event called Alternative Press Expo. Dirge later became a writer for Vasquez's show Invader Zim. Simons joined the show's coloring team and voiced Zim's robot sidekick, GIR. Simons also helped Vasquez with the coloring for his two-issue comic I Feel Sick. By September 1996, Vasquez announced that his comic book was successful enough for him to quit his other job and focus on his art full-time.

Creative Works

Comic Books

Early one-page comics featuring Johnny were published in Carpe Noctem magazine in the early 1990s. In 1995, a company called Slave Labor Graphics started publishing a series of Johnny comics. This happened after Vasquez sent them samples of his artwork.

Johnny the ... and Spin-offs

Vasquez's first comic series, Johnny the ..., had seven issues. It was later collected into a book. The cover of the book has a logo "Z?", which means "question sleep". This logo appears often in Vasquez's work. It relates to his characters' and his own trouble sleeping. The series follows Johnny as he tries to find meaning in his life. This often leads to violent events around him.

In 1997, Vasquez gave Squee, a character from Johnny the ..., his own four-issue comic series. This series shows Squee's adventures with aliens and even Satan's son. The collected version of Squee! also includes other comics by Vasquez.

His next project was I Feel Sick, which was colored by Rikki Simons. I Feel Sick is about an artist named Devi. She tries to stay sane in a strange world, even though she talks to one of her own paintings. Slave Labor also published three Fillerbunny mini-comics. The third one came out in March 2005. These mini-comics started as a small comic used to fill empty advertising space in the Squee! comics.

Vasquez said that the first Fillerbunny comics were made very quickly, sometimes in just one night. However, the third issue was different. It took over nine months to finish, and he felt it was much better quality.

Later Comic Projects

At Comic-Con 2005, Vasquez mentioned that his next comic would be a love story. But later, in 2007, he said he wasn't working on his "own" comics. Instead, he was writing for two other comics. The first one, called Jellyfist, was released in October 2007.

In 2009, Vasquez worked with other artists for Marvel Comics' Strange Tales. He created a story about MODOK. This comic sold very well. He returned for Strange Tales II in 2010 with a story about Wolverine.

In 2012, DC Comics announced that Vasquez joined the writing team for their digital comic Beyond the Fringe. This comic was based on the TV show Fringe. In May 2014, Vasquez shared that he would re-release his old Fillerbunny comics. He also planned to release his first new comic book in ten years.

Television Shows

At Nickelodeon, Vasquez created the animated TV series Invader Zim in 2001. It first aired on Nickelodeon and later on Nicktoons. The show is about Zim, a naive alien from the planet Irk. He tries to conquer Earth and enslave humans. But his plans are always stopped by a young paranormal investigator named Dib. Dib knows Zim is an alien, but no one believes him.

The first episode aired on March 30, 2001. The series ran for two seasons before Nickelodeon canceled it. They said it was due to low ratings and high production costs. The last episode before cancellation aired on December 10, 2002. Vasquez provided voices for characters like Zim's computer, Old Kid, and Minimoose. Vasquez returned to Nickelodeon in 2016 to write Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus, a TV movie based on Invader Zim.

Vasquez also designed characters for the Disney XD show Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja. He also wrote an episode for the online series Bravest Warriors. In July 2014, it was announced that Disney Television Animation had picked up a pilot called Very Important House. Vasquez co-created this show with Jenny Goldberg. However, in September 2016, Vasquez announced that Very Important House was not picked up for a full series.

Other Projects

Vasquez worked with Crab Scrambly to create the storybook Everything Can Be Beaten. It was published in 2002. Vasquez wrote the story, and Crab Scrambly drew the pictures. The story is about a person who lives in a room and can only beat kittens. But an adventure outside changes his mind, and he learns that "everything can be beaten". This storybook inspired a puzzle game called Bloody Fun Day in 2008.

Vasquez also created all the artwork for the special edition of the Mindless Self Indulgence album If. He also directed music videos for Mindless Self Indulgence's "Shut Me Up" and The Left Rights' "White". Jhonen made the cover art for the album Zero Day by MC Frontalot. He has also shown his artwork in galleries sometimes. He also made an art piece for BioShock 2 called "The Sisters".

He also worked on a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles short film called Don Vs Raph. In this short, Donatello and Raphael compete to see who is better, but they always end up tying.

Art Style

Vasquez's characters often have sharp, thin shapes with thick black outlines. They sometimes look like stick figures. The main characters in his comics are usually mentally unstable. They live in strange societies, and their wild thoughts can even speak through objects. His stories often use a type of dark comedy.

His art style is very unique and edgy. You can often find smiley faces in his artwork. These are meant to create an ironic feeling of happiness in a chaotic world. Much of his writing shows themes of disliking people and being pessimistic. This is often done to make fun of things. Some of his works have featured goth characters or showed that subculture to make fun of it. In an interview in 2005, he joked that he was a "king" but not "goth."

Filmography

Awards and Recognition

• Squee! was nominated for awards in 1998 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 an award for Best Title Sequence in 2001. It also received seven other nominations.
• Vasquez and his work were honored in a 2003 exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.
• Vasquez received the Inkpot Award in 2015.

See also

In Spanish: Jhonen Vasquez para niños