Jhonen Vásquez's Blog, page 7

BEYOND the FRINGE #6

Looks like the second half of my two-part Beyond the Fringe story is available on Comixology for download.  Along for the ride once again are Becky Cloonan on pencils and bassoon, Andy Belanger on inks and the keytar, Randy Mayor on color and the sonic weasel, and a special appearance by Ben Templesmith on cover art and electric flute.

If you’re into pretzels and cybernetic arms, check it out, yeah?

C2E2 this Weekend.

I'll be in Chicago for  C2E2 this weekend, ya know?

I'm not entirely sure what to expect as I've never been to this convention, but they were nice enough to invite me and I was nice enough to want to revisit some of my favorite Chicago restaurants so I said yes!  I don't really seem to know anyone on their guest list, and it appears to be more mainstream sorta stuff, so I'll probably just huddle in the corner and pretend I'm texting people.

Wait…NO I WON'T because JR. Goldberg is going to be there with me, and we're gonna be the coolest people in the whole convention.  YeahhhH!

We'll be signing at the Chicago Comics booth, if you're planning to stop by, and I can't speak for JR, but I'll definitely be judging you based on your clothing.  Also, I'll be signing books, telling stories (no I won't) and selling a few prints I'll have with me.

This'll be the last appearance I'll be selling JTHM Floor Damage screen prints at before putting the rest up on $Z.99.  There are maybe 80 of the things left, so if you're in Chicago and want to save on shipping, grab one there.   Other than that I'll have more of those Johnny headshots that I had in Seattle.

The signing schedule is:

Friday: 4-5 PM
Saturday: 3-6 PM
Sunday 12-3 PM

JR and I have a panel discussion on Friday at 5:15PM in room S401abc. We'll be there talking about collaborating and being awesome.

Emerald City Comicon Approaches, AND SO DO I.

Are you going to The Emerald City Comicon this coming weekend?  Really?  SO AM I!  Wow, what are the chances, huh?  We should be best friends or at least complete strangers separated by the distance of a convention booth.

And what a fine booth it shall be:  THE TOPATOCO BOOTH.  I know, it's not my usual SLG booth, but SLG won't be there, and the Topatoco people were nice enough to let me squat with them for a bit.

I also have a discussion panel on Saturday at 5PM in room 3AB, but it's going on at the same time as George Takei's panel, so if I'm not at my own panel just go ahead and ask my empty chair questions and it'll probably be way more tolerant than I would have been!

As usual, I'll have some prints sewn into my body and it'll be up to you to use the specially supplied tongs to extract them.  I might also just be carrying them around in a little case, so if you don't see the tongs you'll have to assume they're in the case.

It'll be kind of a NNY-sack since it's just jammed full of JTHM related stuff, the Floor Damage Prints and some Johnny headshots I printed up since people seem to like having photos signed.

The Floor Damage prints'll eventually go up for sale on $Z.99 and are $60.   I'm not sure about the headshots, yet.  I'll have around 20 of those in my insides/carrying case, and those'll be 25 bucks since they're smaller than my usual mini prints.  Each one will have a hand inked cockroach on it.  Could that roach be Mr. Samsa?  I DUNNO…it kind of looks like him, but then again he looks exactly like a regular cockroach.  Pretty mysterious.  Either way, buy a print and I'll maybe give you one of those little Z? stickers I had made.  WHAT A BARGAIN?  (not really a bargain)

 

Beyond The Fringe with Becky Cloonan!

Last month I wrote a two part story for DC's Beyond The Fringe comics. I'm a big fan of the show so being asked to do this was a nice surprise, and I want to thank Asia Mechikoff from Fringe for asking me to do it and coordinating everything.  DC was pretty helpful, too, and the artists they gave me to pick from were way cooler than I was expecting, and Becky Cloonan was pretty much the top pick, so when she was able to do it I knew this thing would suddenly be way more fun to work on.

Anyhow, it's up for download right now, so check it out OR DON'T!

WHY I DO IT?! nub nub

I'm doing it again!  I'm drawing things I'm not supposed to be doing!  Very important people call me up to have me work on their very important things and they say "Jhonen, we need this thing FAST and only YOU can do it for us because you're sooOOooOoo cool!?

I graciously agree to do the work for them, and then I always start doing exactly what I shouldn't, like drawing that guy up there thinking of some kind of…nuclear nub thing, when really what I should be doing is saving the world or whatever it is I've been hired to do by whatever secret agency.  Ah well, it only took a few minutes and I'm sure the world is juuuuust fine.

GIR a la Rikki Simons

I've been attending conventions since the JTHM days, my very first being an Alternative Press Expo back when it was still held in San Jose, and so from the day I started going to comic conventions, Rikki Simons has been there with me.  Sure, I don't always go to these things WITH him, and sometimes we're not at the same booth, but I've sat next to the guy for years and years now, and one of the best things about it, at least since he did the voice of GIR on INVADER ZIM, is getting to watch a couple of particular things go down when fans approach him.

The first thing is they'll sometimes (very often) ask Rikki to say some favorite GIR line of theirs, whether it be "I dancin' like a monkey!" or sing The Doom Song or some such thing, and Rikki gets this look on his face, this look that I know means he's wondering whether to go through his old spiel about how we pitched his voice up to get the GIR voice and that his real voice is deeper and less robotic than their beloved green horror, or whether to just go ahead and say the line knowing most people are just too polite to point out that GIR suddenly sounds like a sleepy, convention-sick monster.

So he'll eventually let out some little bit of dialogue and the fans will smile or laugh or they'll cry in horror at what sounded more like Bloaty than little tiny GIR.

There's a select few that look like maybe they'll actually bring up the difference in vocal quality, and for those Rikki reserves a special, almost telepathic look that pretty much says "You ask me to do another line and I will punch your throat so hard you'll shit out your screams from your ass because I'm not sitting here to dance for you, you goblin."

The other thing is when people ask Rikki to draw GIR for them, and that's maybe my favorite, and you can see why by the image included up there.  Just LOOK at that GIR!  He's a deformed wonder, and yet manages to look strangely put together and way more sane than the real deal.  It's so bad it just makes me laugh and that's really what it's all about, right?  Making people happy, and making them shit their screams out their asses.

 

A Bloody Bunny Banner

Had to come up with a little booth banner image for an upcoming appearance.  Figured this was appropriate enough.

Looking at that image, even though I did it thinking Filler was rocketing off on a jet of ass-blood, it also looks like a ridiculous menstrual blast, which gets one thinking:  Exactly what IS Fillerbunny?  Is he a male or is she a female?

I'm pretty sure in the books it's referred to as a HE most times, but I actually get no real strong sense of gender in either direction.  Referring to him as "HIM" just seemed like a thing to do, but I can honestly say I've no real idea what Fillerbunny is.  It's one of those things that will just have to remain a mystery, much like the technology that was used to create the poor bastard in the first place.

I hope you all die clutching at your heads in confusion.

 

$Z.99, JTHM Prints and Upcoming Convention Appearances.

It's been awhile since I've written up an update about pretty much anything, so there's maybe too much to talk about, but this particular one will focus on just what the hell is up with the $Z.99 store, those JTHM screen prints that've been sitting around since December, and some upcoming appearances like Wondercon and Emerald City Comicon.

$Z.99

$Z.99?  Well, it's CURSED.  CURSED I say.  My webstore has been in various states of functionality for maybe two years now, but it's never been exactly what it was supposed to be, a place to sell my prints as well as a hub that links to all the other products of mine that are being sold on various other sites on the internet, like the SLG store and the Gallery Nucleus stuff, not to mention the TopatoCo store.

$Z.99 was working alright as the former, just a place to sell some prints , but the site seems to eat up designers and swallow them whole when they attempt to make the site do that other thing.  Basically, I want one relatively seamless experience for visitors, a site where they can buy the things hosted by $Z.99 itself, as well as browse all those other things they'd be able to purchase from other web stores.  Thus far the site has killed maybe 4 designers and driven two others stark raving mad.

Does anyone know any clever, capable designers who want to work for peanuts?  Seriously…these peanuts are fucking incredible.

In the meantime I'm going to be opening up a sort of temporary $Z.99 on Big Cartel or something, a place where people can, until a more polished site can go up, once again just get access to the limited edition prints.

JTHM PRINTS

Speaking of prints, this NNY print has been sitting around in my place since December (the original planned month of  re-opening for $Z.99 ), and at first it was pretty cool having them  here because their amazingness was seeping out into their surroundings, making everything more amazing.

Now, however, I'm actually getting a little sick of things being so amazing.  I want a break from how goddamned amazing everything feels.  The trouble is, there's 200 of these things in a box on s shelf, and though that maybe doesn't sound like so many when you think of how many fans are out there, having 200 of them all at once is almost sickening.  When they do go up for sale they'll be $60, signed, and covered in a thick, gelatinous coating of amazing.

The temporary store should be up soon enough and I can start moving them, hopefully, but until then, I'll be taking a few with me to some upcoming conventions.

CONVENTIONS

Wondercon!  If you're around Anaheim on the 16 and 17th of this month, come visit the SLG booth at Wondercon, and maybe I'll be there instead of hiding in the restroom, and if I'm not hiding in the restroom you can pick up one of those JTHM prints.  I'll probably be there for both days of the con, though I might spend a great deal of it hiding.  In the bathroom.

Emerald City Comicon!  Two conventions in one month.  I swear I didn't mean for that to happen, but sometimes I just say yes to stuff or plan on going to a convention without really being terribly aware of the dates, so just when I'll be slowing down with the furious bathing and hand-washing after my two days of going to Wondercon I'll be in Seattle, signing books and eating food and possibly selling more of the JTHM prints.  I doubt they'll sell out at Wondercon so there'll likely be some left for you Seattle types.

SLG won't be at ECCC, so I'll be sitting with the far less surly gang of goblins from TopatoCo, who've been nice enough to let me hang with them for my stay.

 

The healing power of art.

One thing I'm constantly fighting, or some might say feeding, is the preconceived notion some people have that I'm just a horrible human being with absolutely no respect for my fans and , in some cases, for human life in general.

I've never been the sort to defend myself in the form of arguments that try to turn a person's opinion of me to something more in line with how I view myself because it's, in the grand scheme of things, an act of futility, like trying to dust in a sandstorm.  Still, it makes me wonder what these critics of mine would say if they were to actually KNOW me instead of constructing their demented alternate realities with the bits and pieces I reveal of my life on my Twitter stream.

I'm not saying that everything on my Twitter isn't a hundred percent true, because it is, but it's also not the best way to get a sense of how wonderful I am.



Thing is, I don't feel it's particularly dignified to constantly boast publicly about any of the charitable works I partake in, about the kind of things that would definitely shine a bit of light on my humanitarian side as that sort of showiness always comes off as desperate and forced to me.  It's a gaudy approach towards life and I avoid it when possible.

Still, here I am, telling you about one of the more recent experiences I had, this time with a children's hospital full of some of the sickest, most disgusting kids you could ever cover your mouth around.  I don't do this to gain any friends or advocates, but to possibly buffer the ones I do have against some of the terrible slander that gets thrown around about me.

So yeah, children's hospital, maybe a month back as Christmas was still looming, and I'm running around like a madman because the holidays make every pain in the ass even more of a pain in the ass.  Despite the hectic schedule at the time, I still made room to respond to a request from the kid's parents.  Memory fails me here and I honestly couldn't tell you what was wrong with the little guy, around nine years old, name of Brandon or Bartlett or some variant of a 'B' name.  Maybe his last name had a B in it.  Either way, the kid was sick and he was a fan and apparently wanted a visit from "ZIM" to cheer him up.  His parents told him ZIM couldn't appear but the person who made him up maybe could, and so there I was.

One thing that kept running through my mind before actually seeing Barlow or Beuford was that I hoped the kid would be one of those super cute sick kids like you see in the commercials because then I would take a few pictures with him to post online so people could see how much fun the kid was having with me.  Well, the moment I walked into that room I knew that just wasn't gonna happen as the kid was seriously one of the most repellent looking kids I had ever seen.  This was a kid that, even outside of a hospital setting, was just begging for a bag over his head, or I guess in a more civilized age one of those voice changing Optimus Prime masks.  Throw devastating illness on top of that and you've got something unspeakable.

Still, I had set aside my other errands until late so I had time to kill and it's so easy for me to spread a bit of warmth so I took my hand from my mouth, stopped coughing from the sick, sour smell of the place and pretended I hadn't acted like I was holding back a vomit upon walking into the room.

"Hey, kid!  Your parents tell me you're a big ZIM fan, huh?"

The kid brightened up and explained that he knows the show is probably older than he is, but that his parents were big fans and practically forced him to watch it and he fell in love with it.  All this he said through his breathing mask.

I broke away from the subject to ask about any masks I might be able to use, my thinking being that if the kid was  gonna wear a mask I at least wanted a mask to keep out whatever his mask is keeping in.

Apparently what the kid had wasn't communicable, but I still wrapped my scarf around my face so that only my eyes showed through a slit.

What usually happens in these situations is that the kid ends up wanting me to draw something for them.  They never just seem happy enough with me being there, it's always draw this draw that, I'm dying soon boohoohoo.  You learn to mask your anger with insults, sure, but that doesn't mean I'm not still affected by the sheer ballsiness of it all.

This kid…get this.  So I tell this kid, Buster or Belljar or whatever, I tell him that I get uncomfortable doing sketches for people, that I don't really enjoy feeling like I'm performing for anyone.  That's true enough too, but in this case I wasn't big on the idea of taking my gloves off for fear of touching something, like maybe the kid would flip out and just lock onto my hand with one of his own, grotesque, bony, diminished ones, the burning sickness eating him up from inside jumping across into my own body like a diseased spark.

Just the thought of it sent me spitting and rubbing at my hands.

"Why are you spitting on me?" the kid croaked at me, the sound weak and broken, the feeble air of him pushing up and out of his dried, cracked lips, forcing the smell of impending death out into the room.

I tightened my scarf around my mouth and hoped that ignoring the question will be a good enough answer.

The kid starts guilting me about how he really hoped I would draw something for him, says his favorite character is ZIM.

That last bit wins him a few points, not that liking any other character over another is bad or anything, just that it's always nice when someone doesn't go for the obvious pick, Bloaty the Pizza Hog.  I look at my watch and figure what the hell, I can do a doodle or two.

His eyes light up, as much as eyes can when they're clouded with sick and crusty with secretions, and I think to myself "My god that kid's eyes are disgusting."  I crack open my sketchbook and hold the pen to paper and then I close the book, keeping the page with the pen inside.  "I should explain a little something before I get started, Bernice."

"That's not my name"

"Huh?"

"My name's not Bernice.  It's-"

"I'm sorry you're sick, little guy, but that's no excuse for interrupting a person when they're trying to tell you something."

"I didn't mean…I'm sorry I-"

"OH MY GOD SHUT UP!"

What the kid had to know was that art develops, it finds a track and moves along that track but the track itself goes places you don't always expect, so what used to be this ends up becoming that simply for the fact that the journey itself changes the passenger.  What kid doesn't know that?

"What?" was all the kid could say.

"What I'm saying is that you think of ZIM as one particular thing, like a soldier in some bygone war staring intently at a photo of his sweetheart back home.  You form connections with that thing and that thing is painted by your emotions of what you remember about that thing, but the reality is that, back home, that thing is changing, wearing different clothes than she is in the photo, changing her hair, gaining weight, losing weight, sleeping with your neighbor."

"I don't know what you're talking about"  The kid again.  Not just sick, but dense as all hell.

"I'm saying that things evolve, even the way I think of or even portray my own characters.  It's why when people talk about drawing in a "Jhonen Vasquez style", the resulting artwork is usually something I have no real connection with in terms of it being ME at all.  It's someone else's idea of what it is I do, and it's usually frozen in time going back maybe a decade, ya see?"

The kid didn't say anything at all after that, and I opened up the sketchbook again, noting how that's all it took for the kid to start smiling again.  My compromise for drawing in front of someone was that I'd hold the sketchbook facing me , knees up to block him from being able to watch me do the thing.  I hummed the entire time because if I didn't the only sound in the room was the kid's disturbing, wet, muffled breathing.

"Alright, lil' guy, here ya go."  I said, tearing the page out of my book and dropping it on his bed.

"W…what is this?  This is ZIM?" the kid asked.

 "That's him, yeah!" I said, maybe a little too cheerily.  What's the harm in playing along, I figured,  so I do what I can to act as excited as I knew the kid must be.

"What's wrong with him?  Why is he like that?" the kid mewled, sounding as though he was on the verge of tears.  It's nice, in a way, but I've always hated when people get so happy they cry.

"Nothing's wrong with him!  Lookit him there, yelling and ready to dominate the humans!  Hah!  Oh, that ZIM."

The next sound the kid makes isn't even words.  He just sorta lets it out like a weak fart, this sad, sputtery sound that grows in intensity slightly like he's maybe losing his mind a bit.  It hits me right away what's happening, the kid knows my visit's coming to an end and he's wondering how he can deal with not having me around anymore.  I understand.

"Hey, tell you what.  I know you're a big ZIM fan, but I think I might have a GIR in me.  How's that sound to you? "

"Nnnnnno…no.  I don't feel good." he mewls, reaching for the button that calls the nurse.

I push the button farther away so he can't reach it and say "Hah!  It's no big deal.  You relax, and I'll draw you something else to put up on your wall to keep ya company!  For my number one fan, right?!  I always finish my visits with that number one fan thing.  It always does the trick, and even though I know that makes me a big liar, it's the thought that counts.

The kid's just silent as I draw, and I hum again because it's always better, as I've learned, than telling the kids to just stop breathing.

"Aaaannnd…there ya go!" I tear another page from my sketchbook and I toss it his way.

It's almost like he doesn't want to look for a moment, averting his eyes, suddenly finding maybe the ceiling interesting or something out the window.  He looks down, finally, not actually picking the drawing up off the bed or even touching it.

"NOOOOOOO!!  NOOOOOOOOOO!!!  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAGHHHHHH!!"  That's what he says before he starts coughing violently, before he drags his terrible, wasted body from the blankets trying to reach the nurse call button.

I left around that point and I there's not a whole lot else of note to tell about the encounter other than I remember getting a very satisfying bag of chips from a vending machine down the hall.

So there you have it.  I think maybe by doing this, by letting you in just a litter more intimately to the life I lead behind the curtain a bit, I maybe veered dangerously close to doing exactly what I find so distasteful about people who cherry pick only the cool sounding things about their lives to share with strangers.  If I did, I apologize, but there it is.

 

 

 

 

I'm going to Sacramento.

That's right, I'm attending something called 'Sac-Con' in our fine state capital this very Sunday, and I can't wait.  Okay, I can wait, but I'll definitely be there at this convention of sacs.

This is one of those things that, when I tell people I'm attending, I'm met with a bunch of "why are you going to that?" kind of responses.  Sure, it's a teensy little con out in a place not exactly famed for comics, but the Deftones came from there, so it can't be all that bad.

It's actually the second of my "why are you going there?" conventions, the first having been the Comikaze Expo that I did earlier this month.  That one I did because a friend of mine was involved with putting on that particular show, and it was the first big convention that I could actually just walk to, so I figured why not.  It was a little too celebrity/pop culture focused for my tastes, with comics taking a sorta slummy second to everything, but it was fun and big and I met someone from 'All That'.  I never watched more than a few minutes of All That, but I guess someone will think I'm cool for having sat in a green room with the redhead from that show.

This Sac-Con thing, aside from having a hilariously vulgar sounding name, I agreed to go to for similar reasons.  I was in Sacramento, hangin' with fellow SLG comics goblin Chris Wisnia, talking to him about a comic idea I wanted his help on, and he asked if I knew so and so and I said yeah so and so, he's a nice guy!  Turns out so and so puts on a lil comic convention in Sacramento and was wondering if I'd consider showing up.

I generally don't do too many appearances a year, just Comicon in San Diego usually, but I figured I'd get to hang with some friends in Sacramento and see some people like Rikki Simons (who actually lives in L.A, but only leaves his house for conventions).  Also, the convention will be so small that I'll strut around like I'm a fucking KING, you hear me?  I'll point at some kid at his table and his table will burst into flames because I can do that kinda thing, okay?  Maybe I'll just sit and sign things instead of do that fire thing because you never know what I'm gonna do next even though what I'm gonna do is probably NOT make things burst into flames supernaturally but not because I can't.

I'll probably have the remaining mini prints that I took with me to Comikaze Expo, so if you're into mini prints with robots on them, lemme know and I might fold one up into an airplane and throw it directly into your face in exchange for whatever I want.  Sweet deal, I know.