Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, created by the mind behind Invader Zim, is a strange, oftentimes revolting series of comics that simultaneously achieve a certain wacky charm. As far as the content goes, Jhonen Vasquez seems to be content with pulling any sort of a semblance of plot out of thin air and throwing in gore. This accounts for the very random, spontaneous feeling that pervades the work, but Vasquez still retains the ability to transform these odd plots into solid storylines with arcs and even a bit of character development. Aesthetically, the art reflects the content better than any comic book artist could hope for, with that sharp, messy, grungy line work flowing from panel to speech bubble and back to panel without interruption. If there is a negative aspect of the art, it is the busy nature of the artist’s pen: there is very little negative space in which to rest the eye. Vasqez surely did this purposefully, as a visual representation of the state Nny’s mind is in (further proof of that lies in his comic about “Happy Noodle Boy”). While the reason behind this stylistic choice is a more than sound one, Vasquez needed to take into consideration just how hard it would be on the readers’ eyes. The font in which all of the text is written is, again, just how one would expect characters in this story to “sound;” but the jagged marks and blocky serifs, all surrounded by an equally busy, scratchy squiggle of a border, sometimes result in a level of illegibility that does not lend itself to long periods of comfortable reading. Despite these setbacks, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac is a perfect example of a contemporary niche comic.
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