Johnny The Homicidal Maniac Review

Alright... so I went into this book planning on not liking it, and even trying at times. And despite those intentions, it still managed to win me over. Good job Mister Vasquez. Wouldn't it be funny if I just ended there?

I think not. So, basically the book is about a guy named Johnny, or "Nny" for short, and he kills people. A whole lot of people, and the book is basically just about his adventures in homicide. The whole thing is done throughout a series of short stories that range from one page, to a couple of pages. If this sounds like a cool concept, then brace yourself, because there are parts in this that are damn near pointless other than to satisfy that basic plot. While there is story development here, most of it is nonexistent except in issues 4, 5, and 6. Other than that it's just self referential jokes that take place also during the later half of the book. I don't have a problem with that, other than the fact that there is almost two full issues where he does nothing but kills people over and over again, and then a final issue that's almost nothing but epilogue. It just seems like a bit of a disjointed way to tell a story to me. Early on there were a couple of jokes I actually liked a lot that really surprised me, and I remember thinking to myself, alright maybe I will like this a bit. See, there is a few things that plagued me throughout this book that I noticed almost from the get go. Almost every single panel of this book has these thick black zig-zag lines. There are a few that don't do it, particularly the Happy Noodle Boy sections, and on occasion there will be a super thick black border to the whole page that he puts little notes in, and that didn't bug me, but the edges to every other panel I found to be a little bit over kill. That and the font. I know that seems like a small complaint, but sometimes it's just so goddamned hard to read. It looks as though he penned in all of the dialogue himself, which I understand having to do in a pinch, but his words are crammed together a lot of times, and there were a couple of times I'd have to read a box a couple of times just to figure out what a couple of words were. If you have read a few comics, you'll know what I'm talking about, if not then you will probably think this is a small gripe, but it can make a difference if it's overdone, and here it is. But like I said i was willing to let this go when the few jokes in the beginning actually made me laugh, and then the pages turn sideways... so when reading the book I had to rotate it 90°. I was really aggravated about it at first, but it doesn't happen often, maybe just another time or two in the whole book. So while at first it really bugged me, I don't really mind it now. Then there were a couple of jokes that fell flat for around the next issue and a half for me personally. Now all of that being said, I did really like this, but I didn't notice it until around two thirds of the way into the book. There was a point all of a sudden that I realized that I cared about what happened to this character and that I really related to him despite my ability to not massacre gallons of people. There are a lot of funny jokes here, you just have to wade through a few that aren't in order to get to them. The man's got a great sense of humor, especially about himself and all of the people who might read this. And I feel like i might be doing an injustice if i didn't mention the art. Because while at first I wasn't a fan of it, by the end of the book it had grown on be a whole lot.  I get why it's done that way, and it totally fits for this story, and in fact works it quite well. If it were my book, i would have ordered some of the short stories a bit differently. Getting rid of some of the earlier jokes that fell flat, and replacing them with the ones that didn't really fit into the story in the second half. Then shortening the epilogue to a few pages in the sixth issue. But it's not my book and maybe Vasquez feels the same way...

My total opinion of this book is that it is a fantastic comic for people who don't read them. If you've never read a comic before, and you really want to see how far away from capes and powers a story can get, totally pick this up because it is as far away from it as I think a story can get. On the other hand, if you're a comic buff, don't expect much out of this book other than some funny jokes here and there, some torture porn, and a not too bad story that at times can be a little bit of a pain to read. Because if you actually give the damn thing a chance, or maybe if you plan on not giving it one, like I did, it will probably win you over by the end of it. If you know someone who is a scene kid, or is/was a goth kid, or even if you know someone who was an outcast of hung out with a clique of outcasts in highschool, this book is probably perfect for them. (Not meant to be an insult to the book or its readers!) I personally plan on buying this book because it won me over so much more than I expected it to, and mostly I'm excited to read his later works, because I've seen a few episodes of Zim, and I've flipped through some of the later books, and I like the look and feel of them. This is a great job for his first work, and I'm crossing my fingers to see what he does after this and in the future to come. If you want to check out this book for yourself you can Search Amazon.com for JTHM there or you can click on the box below. 

Thanks again guys and dolls!

James the Hypothetical Maniac