Very Late Presentation

(MEGA POST ::: WARNING::: EXTREME TEXT-BASED CONTENT. DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE EASILY BORED BY WORDS.)… Only kidding, you should read it. It’s interesting.

Jhonen Vasquez

This seems to be a current theme of mine. Posting a feature first, then talking about it.

…

Hmmm, what to say.

We were asked to do a presentation on an animator that inspires us. One that, in my case, made me want to animate. I chose Jhonen because of his style, his dark humour, his creativity in animation but the most important reason of all… Because of GIR.

I’m not sure if its normal for someone to want to animate because of one character… it probably wasn’t just that but I like to think it is.

Anyway, enough of me, lets talk Jhonen. Oh, one last point, if you look at the presentation be prepared for little information. My style of presentation involves a lot of talking so i put very little information into the slides of the presentation, it’s mainly for images and cool little animations.

 Jhonen began his animating  journey doodling in class at Mount Pleasant High School, East San Jose, America. He first managed to get some appreciation for his work when his school newspaper submitted his ‘Jonny the Homicidal Maniac’ comic strips.

Jhonen’s main interests for comic books came from the original ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ comics by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman.

After attending and then dropping out of De Anza College, Cupertino, as a film student, he pursued a career in becoming a professional cartoonist (and clearly managed this… GIR is so awesome).

between 1990 and 1995, Jhonen had one page strips of his comic ‘Jonny the homicidal Maniac‘ published by Corpe Noctem. By 1996, Jhonen announced in his sixth issue of JtHM that had reached a point of success with his artistic career that he could quite his day job and continue full-time with his comics.

Most of jhonen’s work was on his numerous comics JtHM, Squee and I Feel Sick. It was in 2001 that Jhonen was approached by Nickelodeon to start work on the cartoon ‘Invader Zim‘ (one of the best cartoons in the world).

Invader Zim is a cartoon about a failing invader, Zim, who is sent to Earth by the Irken leaders, The Almighty Tallest, to get rid of him after destroying their own planet in’ Operation impending Doom 1′. Each episode depicts various crazy fifteen minute escapades that Zim has on earth against his rival Dib, a paranormal investigator who is earth’s only hero and who everyone thinks is crazy and has a giant head.

It’s sometimes questioned why Dib bothers to try to stop Zim as he is very bad at being an invader, most of the time failing because of his own stupid ideas.

The series was cancelled in 2002, due to speculations that it was too mature for Nickelodeon, low-ratings and over-budgeted production. It lasted a serious and a half, with a third serious half written, voiced and then left unfinished.

Some of the people who influenced Jhonen’s style and chose of profession where  His influences include David Cronenberg, Chester Brown, Kurt Vonnegut, Franz Kafka, H. R. Giger, Terry Gilliam and David Lynch.

References & Interests

ComicBookResource

Who Inspires Me

Without a doubt, the number one animator that gets my drawing hand jiggling and the ideas flowing for some serious cartoon action is Jhonen Vasquez.

Now this is where its a little unusual as, in some cases, an artist that is inspired by another artist tends to incorporate that style into their own work. Unfortunately I have never been one to be able to do another’s style so my artistic style differs from Jhonen’s. The only real thing that our style’s have in common is the grim, gothic nature of the characters and narratives.

another reason is because he is the creator of my number one favourite cartoon character in the whole world (and any other character would be hard pressed to beat it). Gir, from the cartoon series Invader Zim (for people who don’t know who Gir is: Gir Moments).

Jhonen attended Mount Pleasant High School, San Jose, California, where he created Jonny the little homicidal maniac after his entrance into the school contest for a new mascot was rejected.

Jhonen graduated, went to  De Anza College in Cupertino, California as a film student, then dropped out to become a cartoonist.

in 1995 Jhonen went to the Alternative Press-Expo (APE for short), were he met Roman Dirge (future writer of Invader Zim), Rosearik Rikki Simons (Future voice for Gir and background artist for Invader Zim) and Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons.

During his time after dropping out of college and before he went to APE, he had turned Jonny the homicidal Maniac into a successful printed issues and by 1996, he officially announced his sixth issue and the point in which he was making enough money from his art to not do anything else… so he quit his day job.

Invader Zim was very short-lived. Aired in 2001 (Up every morning in anticipation for Invader Zim on a saturday… was the best time ever) and cancelled in the same year, he carried an unfortunate one and a half series. Aired on Nickelodeon and was cancelled due to its crude and what was quickly becoming twisted humour. Here is a link to the first episode, hopefully you will get hooked as much as I did:

The Nightmare Begins

Jhonen got a lot of his inspiration from the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Comics by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastmen, but also from various other artists such as:

David Cronenberg, Chester Brown, Kurt Vonnegut, Franz Kafka, H. R. Giger, Terry Gilliam, and David Lynch.

There you go… a little bit about a particular artist that inspires me to go do stuff with my drawings, odd stuff. No go gorge your head with knowledge of things and stuff that I may not of put in this post about the man, or anything that interests you about him such as the people he gets inspiration from.