Vasquez

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Vasquez's early career began with one-page Johnny strips in Carpe Noctem magazine in the early 1990s. In 1995, Slave Labor Graphics began publishing Johnny the Homicidal Maniac after Vasquez submitted samples. The series ran for seven issues and was collected as Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: Director's Cut. The cover features the logo 'Z?', meaning 'question sleep', which appears frequently throughout his work and relates to his characters' insomnia and his own hypnophobia. The series follows Johnny as he searches for meaning in life, a quest that frequently leads to violent deaths. A photograph of Vasquez's friend Leah England serves as the middle of a portrait collection on the cover of the second issue; England also inspired a filler strip about a child afraid of losing sight of his mother and the notorious 'Meanwhile' filler piece in the second issue. Vasquez's next project was The Bad Art Collection, a 16-page one-shot comic whose art he did while in high school to discourage classmates from asking him to draw. In 1997, he gave Squee, a supporting character from Johnny, his own four-issue series chronicling Squee's encounters with aliens, Satan's son, and Satan himself. The trade version includes Meanwhiles left out of the Director's Cut, as well as comics of Vasquez's 'real life' and Wobbly-Headed Bob. His next project was I Feel Sick, colored by Rikki Simons, following a tortured artist named Devi as she tries to maintain her sanity while conversing with Sickness, one of her own paintings. Slave Labor has published three Fillerbunny mini-comics, the third 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 that the original Fillerbunny comics were done in a single night, but the third issue took over nine months to complete and he feels it is of much higher quality. At Comic-Con 2005, Vasquez mentioned his next comic was a love story, but in early 2007 he 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, Jellyfist, was intended for release on July 25, 2007, but the initial print run was incredibly poor, so it was re-released in October 2007. In 2009, Vasquez collaborated with other alternative artists in Marvel Comics' Strange Tales, issue 2 of 3, with a story about MODOK. It sold extremely well and all three issues were 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. In 2012, DC Comics announced Vasquez joined the writing team for their digital comic Beyond the Fringe, based on the Fox TV series Fringe. In May 2014, Vasquez announced on his Tumblr 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.

In Their Own Story

In September 1996, Vasquez announced in his introductory text to the sixth issue of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac that the comic book had become successful enough for him to quit his day job. This moment marked a turning point: what had started as doodles in a high school notebook—including his first sketch of Johnny on the back of a preliminary drawing for a school mascot contest—had become a career. The student newspaper at Mt. Pleasant High School had published a number of his comic strips featuring Johnny, and he also created Happy Noodle Boy while attending the school. After graduating in 1992, he became a film student at De Anza College in Cupertino, California, but soon dropped out to pursue professional cartooning. He met Roman Dirge and Rosearik Rikki Simons at Alternative Press Expo in 1995; Dirge later became a writer on Invader Zim, while Simons voiced the protagonist's robot sidekick GIR and joined the show's coloring team. Simons also worked with Vasquez on the coloring seen in his two-issue comic I Feel Sick.

Reader's Guide

Vasquez created the Nickelodeon animated series Invader Zim in 2001, which aired on the network and later on Nicktoons. The series focuses on the daily life of Zim, a naïve alien from the planet Irk who tries to conquer Earth and enslave humanity, though his attempts are constantly thwarted by paranormal investigator Dib, who knows that Zim is an alien despite nobody believing him. The first episode aired on March 30, 2001. The series lasted for two seasons before it was cancelled by Nickelodeon, who blamed low ratings, going over budget, and a lack of interest. The last episode before cancellation, a Christmas special called 'The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever', aired on December 10, 2002. Episodes of the third season and a finale then remained unfinished. Vasquez provided the voices for various minor characters such as Zim's computer, Minimoose, and himself as a background character (being credited as 'Mr. Scolex'). He later returned to Nickelodeon in 2016 for the Invader Zim television film Enter the Florpus. 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. In July 2014, it was revealed that Disney Television Animation had picked up the pilot Very Important House, co-created by Vasquez and Rick and Morty production designer Jenny Goldberg, who previously collaborated with Vasquez on Jellyfist. However, in September 2016, Vasquez announced on his blog that the show was ultimately not picked up for a full series. In 2019, he revealed that it was not picked up due to executive leadership changes at Disney. Beyond television, 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. The storybook inspired Urban Squall in 2008 to create the puzzle browser game 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' and The Left Rights' 'White'. Vasquez made the cover art for the album Zero Day by MC Frontalot and indicated that he shows his artwork in galleries from time to time. He also did an art rendition of BioShock 2 called 'The Sisters', for which he used his nieces as reference in a photo session in freezing winds.

Did You Know?

• Vasquez drew his first sketch of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac on the back of a preliminary drawing for a contest to design his high school's mascot; he earned no prizes in that contest.
• The cover of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac features the logo 'Z?', meaning 'question sleep', which relates to Vasquez's own hypnophobia.
• Vasquez met Roman Dirge and Rosearik Rikki Simons at Alternative Press Expo in 1995; Dirge later wrote for Invader Zim, and Simons voiced GIR and joined the show's coloring team.
• The third Fillerbunny mini-comic took over nine months to complete, unlike the first two which were each done in a single night.
• Vasquez's storybook Everything Can Be Beaten inspired the 2008 puzzle browser game Bloody Fun Day.