Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
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Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (sometimes abbreviated as JTHM) is a black-and-white comic book series written and drawn by Jhonen Vasquez. It began as a series of short strips in the goth magazine Carpe Noctem, and was later published in seven issues by Slave Labor Graphics between August 1995 and January 1997. The series later had two spin-offs, called Squee! and I Feel Sick.
The comic is a black comedy laced with irony and social criticism. It is in part a satire of society’s fascination with violence. Despite this, the comic itself has been criticized for glorifying ultra-violence, and has sparked some controversy.
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[edit] Johnny C.
The series focuses on anti-hero Johnny C, also known as Nny (not spelt with a 'K' as in 'knee', but pronounced the same). He is a deranged serial killer, mass murderer, and spree killer who interacts with various other characters, generally by torturing and murdering them. He is widely known to be highly misanthropic, openly telling several of the characters he interacts with that humanity which is cruel, ignorant, and focuses only on the mundane everyday tasks of pleasing themselves by kicking others down. He elaborately and sadistically kills anyone who even slightly irritates him, then drains their blood and paints one of the walls in his house with it ('to keep the Thing [from behind the wall] from getting out'). If the situation dictates, Johnny is also willing to murder "innocent" people who, in his twisted mind, deserve their fate for some reason or another. The number of Johnny’s victims is in the dozens, if not hundreds — or perhaps even thousands. Authorities are unable to capture Johnny and seem unaware of his existence, even though his crimes are often witnessed in public and reported by the few who manage to survive.
[edit] Secondary Characters
[edit] Devi
Nicknamed "The Girl That Got Away", Devi was the 2nd victim of Nny's who actually escaped. She's also the only woman Nny has ever truly felt any real feelings for. He met her in the bookstore she once worked in before she became a professional artist, and went on a date with her that ended in almost being able to kiss her, but instead he felt so happy that he wanted to 'immortalize the moment' and attacked her. Instead, she beat him up and fled. Ever since, he has been occasionally trying to contact her to apologize and try and explain his odd reasons for trying to kill her, in which she responds to by locking herself in her house and screaming at him over the phone. Later, I Feel Sick was released to show Devi's side of the story, who changed a great deal psychologically, and was taking on the personality of Jhonen Vasquez's feelings towards Nickelodeon.
[edit] Squee
A sad and lonely little boy, Todd Casil (or Squee, his nickname taken from the sound he makes when he is frightened) lives in the house next to Johnny's. About 7 or 8 years old, Squee is frightened by almost everything, and is terrified of his evidently disturbed neighbor. Nny takes a shine to Squee, seeing him as something of a little brother from the family he can't remember/never had. On several occasions Nny talks to Squee about his opinions on humanity and the various tribulations of life, usually ending in Squee being horrified by the 'examples' Johnny uses in order to get his point across, an example of which being Nny's interruption of a child molestor's attempted abduction and molestation of Squee. Squee's parents despise him and wish that he was never born. Their detachment from their son also prevents them from noticing the numerous occasions in which Johnny breaks into the house. Squee's only true friend is a teddy bear named Shmee. Squee also got his own spinoff series, called Squee!
[edit] Setting
The series is set in the mid-1990s in an unspecified city. Decaying suburban streets, shadowed back alleys and filthy convenience stores serve as the series’ backdrop. Crumbling and covered with litter and graffiti, everything is in a state of bleak decay, overlit by the neon signs of trashy consumer capitalism.
Johnny lives amid the urban sprawl in a decrepit, single-story house that has an extensive labyrinth of basements and tunnels. Johnny uses the subterranean rooms of the house as dungeons and torture chambers. The tunnels also provide him with a network to various locations, such as his neighbor’s residence. Johnny found the house and moved in some time before the beginning of the series, and uses it as a base of operations for his murderous rampages.
A later part of the story takes place in the afterlife. After accidentally shooting himself, Johnny journeys to Heaven and Hell, and both turn out to have more in common with the city than Johnny expected. In short, he is kicked out of both places and returns to life (minus most of his hair). Johnny wonders if he really died at all, or if he experienced some sort of dream or delusion. Johnny's wounds are miraculously healed and his neighbor Squee meets the same Satan Johnny did in JTHM's followup.
The series contains many strips that, for the most part, have nothing to do with the main storyline. Most of these strips are what Vasquez calls “meanwhiles,” the titles of which begin with "Meanwhile…" Some of the other strips follow a public service announcement motif, while others share the title "True Tales of Human Drama". There is also a comic-within-a-comic in the form of "Happy Noodle Boy.", written by Nny himself.
[edit] Anne Gwish
Anne Gwish is a goth woman that has her own strip in the later part of the series. Her name is a pun on the word "anguish." Her storyline is completely unrelated to Johnny’s, though she lives in the same fictional universe.
[edit] Happy Noodle Boy
Johnny is also the creator of a comic strip called Happy Noodle Boy.
Happy Noodle Boy is a stick figure appearing in a comic drawn by Johnny and read mainly by "the homeless insane". Every issue has (at least) one single-page insert of the Happy Noodle Boy comic itself, detailing the often completely nonsensical adventures (mostly cursing, screaming, and being shot, or in the instance of the first issue ranting while upside down while making hypocritical decisions for other people at a funeral). Happy Noodle Boy spends much of his time standing on a wooden box and yelling nonsense at hapless pedestrians, often provoking his own death.
He appears in the backgrounds of many of the strips of the main storyline (the mall, the movie theatre, etc.), usually in crowd scenes, and pictures of him appear frequently in Squee's room. He also appeared in 'I Feel Sick' (comic series, JtHM spin off) issue 1 in a crowded dance floor. Johnny seems to be in the habit of leaving his drawings lying around.
It is believed that Happy Noodle Boy's name is a reference to Johnny's extraordinarily thin figure. In one particular comic, Johnny says that when he was young, other kids taunted him for this, calling him "Noodle Boy."
According to Jhonen Vasquez, Happy Noodle Boy was something he invented when he was at school so that people would stop asking him to draw things for them, apparently drawing something so simple and horrible looking in hopes that people would stop asking him to draw things for them.
[edit] Public Service Announcement
In a few issues there is a "Public Service Announcement," often with exaggerated messages involving events such as a 15-year-old girl taking a bite out of her baby (a la A Modest Proposal) and a drug addict's horrendous puking which results in his right eyeball exploding (The moral at the end of this particular "Public Service Announcement" is "Kids, drugs won't help things. They'll only turn you into a hideous little freak troll-baby with exploding eyeballs.").
[edit] Cut from The Director's Cut
[edit] Wobbly-Headed Bob
Receiving his own one page comic in each book of the series, Wobbly-Headed Bob is a sort of conceited person, but believes himself to be the 'Ultimate Being' as he is so 'smart'. He is tortured by his own intelligence, and tries to commit suicide. It is impossible for him to commit suicide, even if he jumps off a cliff. Although he cannot die, his words can make people commit suicide. In one comic, he makes everyone he sees either kill themselves or another; a happy couple, two friends (one who is trying to keep his friend from committing suicide, one who is trying to commit suicide), a man who got a perfect score on his SATs, and two happy parents and their newborn. A girl professes her love for him, but ages 33 years in two minutes, and runs off, leaving Bob 'SO alone'. He finds a dog and a cat, the dog falling off a cliff, but the cat sitting next to him on a grassy hill. At one point, he is actually happy and feels good about himself, but one of his 'friends' says, "...Undying friendship, hope for world peace, the potential of children, and yes!! TRUE LOVE!!" which turns off Bob's happy light, and causes him to be his normal crabby self.
[edit] Meanwhiles
The Meanwhiles are strips unrelated to—but in the same fictional universe as—the main storyline. They are usually only a few pages long. They begin with the title, "Meanwhile..." Jhonen Vasquez himself makes an appearance in several of the Meanwhiles.
While absent in the JTHM: Director's Cut trade paperback (which collected issues one through seven), the Meanwhile strips were later compiled in Squee's Wonderful Big Giant Book of Unspeakable Horrors.
Several of these meanwhiles include ads, Wobbly Headed Bob, and Nny's own comic Happy Noodle Boy.
[edit] True Tales of Human Drama
Most often in these stories things happen that make little or no sense, such as a baby exploding or a man expelling something out of his nose so evil that a priest commands him to jump off a building.
[edit] List of strips by issue
- 1st issue
- "Traumatize Thy Neighbor"
- "A Survey in Hell"
- Untitled
- Johnny The Suicidal Maniac - "Another 2 a.m."
- 2nd issue
- "Goblins"
- "Things That Make Noise"
- Untitled
- Untitled
- Johnny The Suicidal Maniac - "2:15 a.m."
- 3rd issue
- "Cafe le prick"
- "A Bad Person"
- Untitled
- "Johnny the You-Know-What"
- "Johnny the Suicidal Maniac"
- Untitled
- 4th issue
- "Descent"
- Untitled
- "A * Call"
- "A Call?"
- 5th issue
- "An Eventful Day"
- Untitled
- "Talking To Styrofoam"
- "Anne Gwish"
- "The Most Beloved Massive Headwound Recipient in Existence"
- 6th issue
- "This Is Heaven"
- Untitled
- Untitled
- "JTRM (The "R" is for Resurrected!!)"
- Untitled
- 7th issue
- "An Admirer of Sorts"
- Untitled
- Untitled
- Untitled
- "Good Luck, Squee!"
- Untitled
[edit] Trivia
- The film Bite Me, Fanboy features an entire scene dedicated to JTHM and Jhonen's fans.
- Invader Zim, a Nickelodeon cartoon created by Vasquez, often features subtle references to JTHM. The biggest reference is in the episode Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom Johnny is a silhouette with purple eyes that is with the Nightmare Creatures in the Nightmare Skool. He is visible in the top right of the screen at roughly 18:25 into the episode, after Dib asked if he had a say in their plan This extra spooky version of Johnny has been fan-dubbed 'Nightmare Nny'.
- The Simpsons television series made a reference to JTHM in "Thank God It's Doomsday" where Homer Simpson was told that, while in heaven, all of his needs or wants would be fulfilled with simply a thought. He followed this by wishing for his tour guide's head to explode. It is widely believed that this wasn't actually a homage, but a ripoff of a similar scene in JTHM.
- Northern Virginia punk rock band Booboise referenced JTHM in a song of the same name.
- JTHM is briefly mentioned in the song "Preacher" by the band My Ruin.
- JTHM is mentioned in the song "Goth Girls" by MC Frontalot, a Nerdcore artist.
- In the webcomic "Sam and Fuzzy the character of Rick Esteban is believed to be an homage to Jhonen.
- In every panel, Johnny's shirt changes.
- In one shot of Nny's Wall, "Feed Me, Seymor" can be seen written at the bottom, a reference to Audrey 2 from Little Shop of Horrors
- In another shot of Nny's Wall, a poster reading "Edward Scissorhands" can be seen.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
