NYCC '07: JHONEN VASQUEZ SPOTLIGHT

[MattBrady]

by Michael C Lorah

New York Comic Con took time to spotlight the work of comics creator and animator Jhonen Vasquez on Saturday afternoon. Fans of Vasquez’s bleak, ironic humor crowded in to hear him talk about past projects and what will be coming up in the future.

After a short delay due to a previous panel running long, Vasquez entered to tremendous applause. Admitting that he had nothing prepared, Vasquez said they’d get right into the question and answer, but then opted to read an email from “a very unhappy fan.” While his laptop booted, he asked fans to raise their hands if they’d heard that he hates his fans. Half the room raised their hands. Vasquez denied the legend, saying that there are some “absolutely horrible people,” but he “likes taking to people who are decent.” With the email now open, he read the entire missive, which lasted a full five minutes (including pauses for laughter). The email offered a sappy, meandering, angry complaint about the cancellation of Invader Zim, asking Vasquez why he “just stopped.” It further accused him of being lazy and stupid.

Vasquez then explained, “Zim ended for me in 2002.” He continued by saying that he gets many emails that start by assuring him that the writer is not crazy – which only worries him more. “That’s not cool, that’s mean,” he explained, by way of showing why he dislikes certain fans without disliking all fans in general. His final comment on the email issue was to say that he has learned to recognize certain flags at the beginning of emails and deletes them.

Then he moved immediately to the Q&A, suggesting that they “line people up and start shooting them.” The topics proved as unusual and interesting as Vasquez’s work itself.

The first questioner asked Vasquez how he was, which the creator treated as a legitimate question, quickly launching into a story about how he felt fine until he got trapped in a crowd while trying to enter the convention center. He compared the experience to “blood cells being forced through a fat man’s veins,” before admitting that he was otherwise fine.

Asked if he would tackle Hispanic subjects in his future projects, Vasquez responded that as a Hispanic, all of his subjects are ultimately Hispanic, “even if I’m writing about Swedes.”

He admitted to hating poodles, preferring neither orange nor purple (the questioner’s two color options), and also informed the fan that Johnny the Homicidal Maniac would react in a much worse way than Vasquez himself would to a poodle.

Vasquez wished YouTube existed when Zim was on the air, because “nobody could ever catch the show” when asked about copyright infringement. He listens to classical, soundtracks, and Mike Patton when creating, and said that now everybody is going to think that he’s a huge Mike Patton fan. “But I do like his stuff,” he told the crowd. Ultimately, he prefers background music that doesn’t overwhelm the creative process.

A young boy asked about the inspiration for Filler Bunny, and Vasquez explained that he didn’t have time to finish a book that he wanted to have for an upcoming convention. Thus, he completed the entire first Filler Bunny comic in 24 hours to have something for the con. “I was desperate for a book,” he joked.

Asked if he’d direct another music video like “Shut Me Up,” Vasquez said that he’d love to, but there is absolutely nothing in the works. He has had very loose talks with a local band, Stolen Babies, about doing a video, but there is nothing definite in the works.

A female audience member asked, “Can I have a hug?” Wasting no time, Vasquez replied, “No.” While the crowd laughed, Vasquez told them that he finds it strange that anyone who is familiar with his work would want to hug him.

“I’ve never heard of that,” was the reply to a question about factions of Invader Zim fans clashing online about aspects of the series. “I don’t look for Zim stuff online,” he offered.

Vasquez said that his work is intended for a mentality, but not necessarily an age. He admitted that he would read his own work when he was a kid. The first movie that he remembers seeing is Alien, so he doesn’t necessarily think his stuff is not fit for kids – it just depends on the child. He went on to say that he was somewhat surprised to find that he had an audience of children, but that is what happens when you do a show for children. He still thinks of a more adult audience as being his audience.

Although he once hoped to do a straight-to-DVD Squee movie, he has given up on that. The story would have revolved about Squee going to a McDonald’s Playland and falling through a chute at the bottom of the sliding board. Squee would then be trapped in “a labyrinth where kids are used as meat in the restaurant.” He concluded by joking, “But that obviously that never happened or you would’ve heard it from the Oscars or something.”

Vasquez said that he has never worked with other people’s characters and has never been approached to work on Batman, because “they know better.”

Asked about being typecast as part of the goth comics scene, Vasquez said that he went into Golden Apple in LA recently and they’d gotten rid of the goth section. “I shook their hands and said, ‘That’s awesome,’” he said, to great laughter. He then admitted that it was cool to be part of the goth comics scene when he first started out, but later, he found that all of his work was placed on the “spooky ghetto rack” whether the series belonged there or not. He doesn’t necessarily see himself as part of the goth scene, but he appreciates the fans. He hopes current fans will follow his new projects, which “will be going off in their own direction.”

A questioner finally broached the subject of upcoming projects, and Vasquez said that he would be writing stuff for other artists. He expects one of the projects to be out by Comicon this July. He was hoping to work with several other artists and establish a more regular presence for his work, but the demands on his time have prevented that from happening. The current project is called JellyFist, and he is writing one-page surreal scripts and allowing the artist to illustrate them however she chooses. Then he gets pages that look nothing like he wanted, and the sides of the page will feature a running dialogue between the artist and he about the creative process.

He added that he is working on something else, a little longer, but it will probably not be out this year.

He has ideas for his own projects, but nothing is definitely happening right now. He feels that fans think he is lazy because they don’t see any work, but he is writing a screenplay currently. He smiled, saying that it is nice having fans with money. He play-acted the conversation this way: “Do you want money to make a movie?” “Okay.” He then described the film as “super low-budget” and he will write and direct it. “Hopefully you can one day rent it in the bargain bin,” he joked after saying that he should know if the project is going to happen by the end of the year.

He said that he loves waffles “like Hellboy loves pancakes.”

When asked what is up with the bunnies in his comics, Vasquez said, “The cuter it is, the funnier it is when you see something awful happen to it.”

He’s enjoying his time in New York, which is very different from his home in Los Angeles, but admitted that he doesn’t attend conventions for his own sake. He does enjoy walking through artist alley and finding interesting new comics, but he doesn’t go to cons to meet creators or get books signed.

Nickelodeon contacted Dan Vado, the publisher of Vasquez’s comics work, trying to reach Vasquez about creating an animated series. The network were fans of Squee, he said, in explanation of how he wound up creating a children’s animated series. He jumped at the chance because he regarded Nick as the network of Ren and Stimpy, but found that the network changed by the time his stuff came out, so “it wasn’t as cool [with the network] to be freaky.”

Scolex is the head of a tapeworm, he explained when asked about the character. “I loves parasites,” he admitted.

A fan asked if episodes of Zim aired only in the UK. Vasquez believes everything aired in the US.

Asked how he created Zim, Vasquez deadpanned, “Kids love genocide.” He then explained that he just finds outsider characters more compelling, and he is “more interested in people who went down a less pleasant path.” To allay concerns, he added “not because that’s who I am, but because it interests me.”

“Irritating, but it happens. What are you gonna go?” he responded when asked about the mispronunciation of his name.

He said that he loves Zim, but also hates it because he only sees the things that could’ve been better. He described it as “Overall it was a great experience” that allowed him to work with lots of great people and “a couple hacks.” Don’t believe the bad stories, he told the audience. “Get off the internet. Plant a tree.”

He gets to work on stuff that he dreamed up when he was a little kid. He “was deathly afraid of being abducted by aliens” and grew up on Leonard Nimoy’s In Search Of. He just came up with something that he thought would have entertained him when he was a kid, he said of Zim’s creation.

I Feel Sick had a much larger story that never fully developed due to getting involved in Zim. The electro-shock in the beginning was because he built up large static shock charges and frequently shocked himself on doorknobs and other objects, creating huge blue sparks.

He has never been approached about creating a children’s book.

“A lot of people when they’re working are just writing themselves if they’d gone done another path,” he said of relating to his characters. He loses “respect for people who don’t know it’s not that serious” when things go wrong, so his comics are a nice release, but not as much as people assume.

He was “not a comics person as a kid, at all,” although his older brother read Marvel and DC stuff. Vasquez admitted that he enjoyed some of it, but could never get into as seriously as many others do. He did enjoy the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, explaining that he loved “the black and white, the drawing, the sketchiness of them – they were always bloody and scarred up.” He laughed when saying that in the early issues, they didn’t just kill Shredder, “They murder the hell out of him.” He couldn’t believe what happened to the tone of the series when it became a cartoon. He didn’t become “regular with buying and collecting comics until I started doing them.” Vasquez still doesn’t read superhero stuff, but does like the movies.

He named Dave Cooper when asked about a favorite comics creator. “Bizarre stuff. Get away from the spooky rack,” he said.

A reader asked how Vasquez supported himself when he first started creating his comics. He began, “There was a corner,” before pausing in thought, which got a big laugh from the audience. “And if you wear short enough pants, and people like skinny dudes…” he said finally.

The final question dealt with his inspirations, with the questioner asking particularly if Vasquez enjoyed William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch. Vasquez admitted that he hasn’t had much exposure to Burroughs work, “outside of the Cronenberg movie.” He said that he is a huge film buff, who enjoys Cronenberg and David Lynch. Not much for science fiction, he said, except for Orwell, as he is a “huge on anti-utopian literature stuff.”

New York Comic Con 2007 coverage brought to you by Comicraft's ELEPHANTMEN #7, on sale right now from Image Comics!

[ROBRAM89]

Wasn't expecting something like this, but it's nice to hear he's working on something.

[Nobody]

Y'know, I don't think I've ever read an interview with or article about Vasquez before this... odd, since I've always enjoyed his work.

[astronato]

I miss Invader Zim.

[RedRonin]

That was a nice suprise.

[panicbxmb]

glad to hear he's doing stuff Filler-Bunny 3 was his only comic in the last few years....and that was like 2 years ago!!

woo-hoo!

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by RedRonin

That was a nice suprise.

Ditto.

[Kolimar]

Comic book creators and their work in other fields. What do you think?

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

A female audience member asked, “Can I have a hug?” Wasting no time, Vasquez replied, “No.” While the crowd laughed, Vasquez told them that he finds it strange that anyone who is familiar with his work would want to hug him.

Heheheh

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

Vasquez said that his work is intended for a mentality, but not necessarily an age. He admitted that he would read his own work when he was a kid. The first movie that he remembers seeing is Alien, so he doesn’t necessarily think his stuff is not fit for kids – it just depends on the child.

That explains a lot.

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

When asked what is up with the bunnies in his comics, Vasquez said, “The cuter it is, the funnier it is when you see something awful happen to it.”

I wholeheartedly agree.

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

The email offered a sappy, meandering, angry complaint about the cancellation of Invader Zim, asking Vasquez why he “just stopped.” It further accused him of being lazy and stupid.

Sigh...

[DynamiteKid]

An interesting and entertaining interview. I've caught snippets of his past interviews. Invader Zim is a great show. It's a shame it didn't turn out differently on the producer side of things.

[Strangefate]

So, is it pronounced Joe-Nin, or Yo-Nin?

I've heard both.

But yeah, its great to hear he's working on more stuff... but that sucks that we won't be seeing the Squee animated movie.

[johnnygo]

And this is the reason why, if I ever become a famous writer and get my own panel at a convention, I will never have an open Q & A. Or, at the very least, I'll have the bloody questions screened beforehand. Man, these things are as entertaining and informative as they are painful.

[panicbxmb]

im pretty sure it's Joe-nin Vas-kez.

at least that's what i've been saying since i was a morbid little 11 year old reading Johnny. (im 19 now.... wow, its been THAT long?!?)

[aafuss]

Very interesting look at his panel. I didn't know he had a older brother.

[EvilErnie13]

Jhonen puts out great stuff. He is in my Top 5 creators of all time. Can't wait for his next project. I hate to be that kind of fan, but it would be nice to see more Nny, Squee, and more things dying by hammer!

[DynamiteKid]

It's "Jo-nin Vazkez". He was on Screensavers a couple of years ago where his name was mispronounced and he had to clarify the proper way to say his name.

[Michael C Lorah]

Originally Posted by DynamiteKid

It's "Jo-nin Vazkez".

Correct. I probably should've put that in the article.