Jhonen Vásquez's Blog, page 6

Juxtapoz Halloween issue!

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I’m in this latest issue of Juxtapoz curated by Alex Pardee! The issue has what may be the best interview I’ve ever done and also a picture of me revealing my true fly form. Check it out if you like any of those things.  The issue’s full of a ton of awesome artists so pick it up even if you can’t stand me but are reading my website for some reason!

 

My god… what have we created?

Here’s a sneak preview of something terrible. Forget you even saw this.

Randy Cunningham’s Title Sequence

Part of my year was spent doing character designs for a show for Disney XD.  Every time I tell people that they freak out about the Disney part of that story, but there’s some pretty great design design stuff happening on that channel, and a lot of it is thanks to the guys at Titmouse Animation.  Titmouse was who I dealt with, actually, and I never really had any direct involvement with anyone from Disney so my hands are clean of any mouse droppings.

Anyhow, my involvement was in designing the main cast and then I followed up with a ton of creature designs that I’m guessing would show up in a second season.  Mostly I did conceptual work that looked somewhat less like the stuff of mine people are used to from ZIM, but the end result ended up being pushed more towards that familiar look. At some point I should post some of what I drew so you could see the differences.

My favorite thing about the finished product, however, is the fantastic title sequence directed by Kevin Dart and produced by Passion pictures.  It’s way more it’s own thing, more of a hybrid of things that are clearly mine but in the hands of someone that’s just working their highly distinctive magic with it.  When working with animators, there are times when I’m happiest seeing someone not just aping what they THINK is my style, when something unique and interesting results from them taking it a direction it’s not been seen in.

I had never met Kevin before, but I was a fan of his artwork, and the first thing I did after watching the show was email him to say thanks for his part in it.  It’s still one of the best feelings designing some elements that then get handled by people who make it do shit you never imagined.

 

Les Miserables Invaders.

So I had a day one at Invadercon, but this post won’t be my usual detailing of the events (I’ll save that for a future post, maybe).  This post is more about how my signings have worked out.

The way a lot of these conventions work out is that people charge for autographs and such, softens the blow of sitting and risking all manner of anal deformities resulting from being on one’s ass all day.  It’s a dangerous life, sitting for a living!  It’s just the way it goes and that’s cool.

I’ve never charged for autographs, though, so we had to figure something out for this particular convention since the standard practice their was artists being compensated in some way!  What I ended up doing was a pretty nice screen print for a select number of fans who shelled out a little more than the price of a standard ticket in return for some extra goodies.  That way the convention guys pay me for doing the print but I’m still not charging everyone to get an autograph!

So yesterday – and I don’t know why I didn’t really realize this was how it would work come signing time – I found myself signing ONLY for the people that bought those magic tickets!  My Jewish guilt kicked in immediately (I’m not Jewish but I have a lot of Jewish friends and they breath on me a lot) and I felt like a bunch of people showed up at the convention and weren’t able to access my laughably terrible scrawl all over their belongings.

Basically, I’m hoping to be able to sign as much stuff as I can for everyone today, the last day of this convention.  People traveled from crazy places of the world to be here and it seems wrong to deny them the joy I just can’t help but spread.  With great power comes great something something.  If you’re attending the convention and don’t have a pass, cross your sweaty fingers and please don’t touch me with them.

 

NOODLECON Shirts for Everyone!

 

Holy shit!  They said the day would never come but I didn’t believe them?  Remember how I kept telling you I didn’t believe them and you thought I was crazy to have hope in my heart when everyone was giving up and laughing at me?  Well who’s laughing now, buddy?

Noodlecon shirts are available for everyone now, and not just the people who bought them at the San Diego Comicon!  I know!  It’s impossible, right?  WRONG!  I can prove it to you!  Just throw some money at Slave Labor Graphics and they’ll fire one at you, straight through your wall and into your face.

No, this is not a dream.  This is really happening.

Oh my god, I can’t even keep talking about this.  I’m going to go eat a bowl of these delicious shirts because wearing them isn’t enough.  This shirt has to travel THROUGH me.

Every dollar you spend on these shirts goes straight to my pants.  Okay, it goes to buying pants because I’m not wearing any pants and it’s not pretty.

Please help.

 

INVADERCON Screen Prints

These INVADERCON screen prints showed up earlier, delivered to me by a shadowy figure around midnight, the way most of my stuff shows up.

I designed these for the INVADERCON hootenanny happening this weekend, and after I sign them they’ll end up in the probably sticky hands of the 200 people whose hands were SO sticky that only these industrial strength, screen-printed hand-wipes could cut through the grime.

I’m pretty happy with how the things turned out, and the thick chipboard paper stock gives them some serious heft.  Mama’s Sauce printing did a damn fine job on these.

Like I said, these aren’t so much for sale as already sold, but the owners are only flesh and blood, right?  You get what I’m saying!

SD Comicon 2012 Signing schedule.

New Headshot Miniprint for SDComicon!

Kind of a late addition, but this one kind of surprised me as well.  Just started drawing it yesterday and it just kept going, so it looks like I’ll have a few of these on hand at Comicon this weekend along with the previous Johnny headshot.

Actually had a lot of fun doing this, this being the first time I sincerely had a go at most of these guys in many years, figuring out how I’d draw them in modern times.  The doughboy’s hats are probably the most noticeable, along with Psychodoughboy’s blue eyes.  The doughboys were always drawn as pretty much the same person only with different skins, and that bothered me in retrospect since one is supposed to be more manic and the other depressive.  Here, Psycho’s a bit more glum and Eff’s looking appropriately chipper.  As for Eff, his mouth’s way more fun to draw now.

Look for it in your grocer’s freezer…or at the SLG Booth this weekend.

 

 

Feel the Power of the Noodlecon Shirt!

Still on the fence as to whether or not you should get the new Noodlecon 2012 shirt for you and your loved ones?  That makes us here at Question Sleep incredibly angry, but we’re also very understanding and want to know you’re a hundred percent confident in your money-wasting decisions…

SO LET US HELP YOU!

What better way to see just how much you need this shirt than to show you how much people who already own the shirt are enjoying that very shirt and having their lives changed in ways they could only dream of before joining this exclusive club comprised of everyone else on the planet except for your indecisive self!

Shirt subjects #001 and #002 responding properly to new Noodle shirts.

Those look like happy customers to us!  It was important that they pay because, even though they were helping us in our research, how can we study the effects on customers if our test subjects weren’t doing everything customers do?  They were great sports about it and any guilt we might’ve had just vanished at the sight of the wonderful looks on their faces at being some of the very first people to wear the shirt.

Looking good, guys!

Day 2 and subject #001 isn’t feeling well, spends a great deal of this day sitting in the park trying to work out just what is happening to her.  Subject #002 exhibits a less physical response but is clearly impaired psychologically.  When we caught up with him he was furiously berating beans in a grocery store.

JEALOUS??

Day 3.  SUCCESS!  We think the case for why these shirts are so amazing is made clear, and if you’re not running for your credit cards then we don’t think the proof exists that’d top what we’ve already laid out for you!

Now we don’t want to go too in depth about the science behind how this modern marvel works, but here’s a quick computer simulation to help demonstrate the basic operation.  It should be obvious that the more people who wear the shirt, the more power is drained out of their bodies and channeled towards a more deserving parasite/beneficiary.  WHAT’RE YOU WAITING FOR?!

The shirts will be available this month from Slave Labor Graphics!

 

NOODLECON 2012 SHIRT FOR HUMANS

That special noodle time is upon us again when Happy Noodle Boy fans across the world, from land, air or sea, gather under a urine-soaked freeway overpass and celebrate Noodle Boy in the only way they know how – URINATING!

This time we’ve learned our lesson, thanks to your complaints in previous years, and we’ve made the commemorative shirts wearable by human beings instead of just snakes and pigeons!  That’s right, if you’re a person now you can get in on the shirt-wearing action.

This shirt has four holes for your body to stick out from!

The fine folks at Slave Labor Graphics have generously volunteered their fruit rollup machine to print up these excellent, slightly sticky t-shirts for all you NoodleCon attendees to purchase and wear while fighting off ants and fruit-snack loving children.

Can’t attend NoodleCon 2012?  You’re a goddamned asshole!  Whatever your reasons, there’s always the San Diego Comicon where the shirts will also be available at the Slave Labor Graphics booth  #1815.  I’ll even be there to sign the shirts so long as you stand at least ten feet away from me while I’m doing so.  Can’t make it to even that?  No worries, you’ll be able to find the shirts available on SLG’s online store shortly after comicon has come and gone.  We’ll let you know when!

That’s right! We got THAT guy, and that other mushy one!