Jhonen Vaquez was born on September 1. 1974 and was raised in East San Jose. He spent most of his time drawing and the school paper published some of his comics titled Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. He also created Happy Noodle Boy while in school. He had a friend that demanded comics from him and he tried to create the worst comic he could so she would stop asking. That was how Happy Noodle Boy came into existence.
Happy Noodle Boy
He graduated in 1992 and attended De Anza College in Cupertino, but dropped out to be a professional cartoonist. In 1995 he met his wife, Tavisha Simons at the Alternative Press Expo. He often incorporates narratives in the borders of his comics.
Words surround this comic strip from JTHM: "Worship me, stop head, etc"
Johnny the Homicidal Maniac was Vaquez's first comic and ran for eight issues. The logo "Z?" refers to Johnny's insomnia and to Vazquez's hypnophobia; the fear of sleep. It is also the name of his website. The comic follows Johnny's search for the meaning of life, but often ends in horrible deaths, including his own. Johnny is also a schizophrenic whom has two cardboard cut-outs, called The Doughboys. Another is Nail-Bunny; a dead rabbit nailed to the wall, which later becomes a floating head.
Nail-Bunny
Doughboys and Johnny
In 1997, Squee, a supporting character from Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, was given a four-issue series. It follows Squee's encounters with aliens, Johnny, and Satan's son. Squee! was nominated for several Eisner Awards. Another full comic by Vaquez is I Feel Sick, which follows Devi, another character from JTHM. The story is about the tortured artist trying to maintian her sanity living in an odd reality. She also converses with one of her paintings, named Sickness.
Squee
Devi; I Feel Sick
Another character that has gained fame from the mind of Vaquez is Filler-Bunny. He was created to fill up space in the Squee! comics. His antics gained enough popularity to earn him a three issue series of his own. Filler-Bunny is an experimental animal and longs for the sweet arms of death as he is tortured by unseen forces. He often fantasized about death or creatures that are nice to each other, or even a world that doesn't allow monkeys up his butt-hole. All in all, he is a spunky fella that just wants the pain to end.
Filler-Bunny
I have saved the best for last. The most well-known Vasquez art is his series that premiered on Nickelodeon in 2001 and ran until 2003. The show follows Zim, a small alien invader from planet Irk. He and his robot sidekick, GIR, try to take over the world. GIR is a malfunctioning SIR (Standard Information Retrieval) Unit with an eccentric and hyperactive personality. He was sent to Earth by the Almighty Tallest by accident; they didn't know Earth existed. Zim is an incompetent invader, but believes himself to be the best. His arch-enemy, Dib, is a paranormal investigator that is never taken seriously by anyone. His younger sister, Gaz, is a video game addict, and their father is Professor Membrane.
Zim and Gir without and with their earthly disguises
The show's rating began to decline at the end of the season, so only 46 episodes aired on TV and were released to DVD. Since then, Invader Zim and GIR have gained a cult following consisting of punk, emo, and goth stereotypes. The most popular of them all being GIR. He is the loveable, crazy, adorable character.
Gaz with her Game-Slave 2
The show has also won several awards and inspired Invader-Con, 2011, and Invader-Con 2: Doom-Con in 2012. There is also a lot of controversy over the appropriateness of the show for young viewers. Vasquez's style didn't change for the show, except for the language and a few of the gory scenes.
Dib...being Dib
Jhonen Vasquez focuses from a very dark and often morbid sense of humor and vision of reality. He has also become a cult icon since his premier. His style is very geometric and often thin. His main characters often live in a maniac world and talk to (what would normally be) inanimate objects. He plants smiley faces throughout his artwork that follows a very black-comedy formula.
“Nothing quite brings out the zest for life in a person like the thought of their impending death”
― Jhonen Vasquez, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: Director's Cut
Have you ever seen the Pop-Tart commercials on television about people tricking those delicious pop-tarts into toasters? I have and it was NOT Don Hertzfeldt. Kellogg's used a very similar style and humor, but Hertzfeldt has stated that he would never do commercial work. I did not know this until I began writing this blog, so I felt I had to inform you of this. Several other companies have also borrowed his style for their products. He has stated that he will not be involved in the commercial world. He makes his films because that is what he enjoys doing, not because he can make money from it.
Born on August 1st in 1976, in California, he taught himself animation when he was only 15. All he used was a small video camera and his pen and paper. Before then, he spent his time attending animation festivals and drawing comic books. While he attended film school at the University of California in Santa Barbara, he found he was drawn to animation rather than low budget live action films.
Hertzfeldt has never held a job other than his animation, even when he was in school. His 16mm student films found festival exposure from the beginning. These included Lily and Jim and Billy's Balloon. His short films include an array of slapstick humor, trajicomedy and black humor. His videos feature hand drawn stick figures with tradition media for the effects. He uses very little technological aid. He uses 16mm or 35mm film cameras and techniques such as multiple exposures, in camera mattes, and experimental photography.
Intro & Billy's Balloon
Hertzfeldt often single-handedly creates his entire films. This means he alone he writes, directs, produces, animates, edits, voices, and makes the sound for the entire film. At times, this process takes years. I single film may require tens of thousands of drawings. He will often include classical music in his movies. Music of Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, and Strauss have appeared in films. He has also composed some of his own music.
His film, Everything Will be OK, has been acclaimed as his greatest feature to date. It has gotten the best critical reviews and the Boston Globe called it a "masterpiece." The film is based off of one of his early characters, Bill, and follows his mundane life until it begins to grow dark as we learn Bill may be suffering from a deadly disease. This is the first film in a trilogy telling Bill's story. The other two are I Am So Proud of You and It's Such a Beautiful Day. The trilogy is a moving event, something very cardiac; in your chest. It may be odd that a stick figure can cause these emotions, but when a man really knows how to tell a story, it doesn't matter what the figures look like.
Everything Will be OK
Hertzfeldt has won many, many awards for his animations, even being the youngest to win them in the history of the award. He resides in Santa Barbara and has produces all his videos from there. Although many bootleg versions of his films have been put on the internet, he is not going to hassle his fans. He feels that a true film should be seen in a dark room with the viewers undivided attention.
"I like paper and pens and paint...I need to angle real lights on my artwork and work with my hands and build props. Computers just take all that fun out of it."
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