Johnny the homicidal maniac, a comic made by the same person who created Invader Zim! I finally finished one of the most stylish, edgy, gothic, loved-by-niche-internet-users comics ever made. It was one of the most interesting comics I have ever read, not a high bar honestly considering I find most comic stories to be snoozefests or US propaganda, and I have a lot of different opinions about it. Wanted to give my thoughts on it. This obviously includes spoilers etc.
(also please be patient with me, English is not my first language, ALSO keep in mind that I have not read the sequels to JTHM with Squee and Devi as the protagonists and wanted to give my thoughts on this particular comic first before anything else okay well let's go)
JTHM first volume was published the year 1995, which was surprising as it seems to still be relevant with its topics (for the most part). Going into it I was expecting to read something super edgy, with violence and humor being its primary intrigue but it turns out to be more than that.
So basically, the story revolves around the protagonist being a violent maniac that devolved (or involved???) into this state because of other people's cruelty towards him, thus him being a killer, murdering those who 'deserve' it. His backstory itself is not very clear (as the author himself wrote that Johnny just won't tell him lmao) but you can guess by context.
(One of his best stand-alone panels in my humble opinion.)(open the image in a new window for a better read.)
Okay let's get started;
The Good
Well written dialogues/monologues:
By far my favorite thing in the whole comic. Hearing Johnny talk to himself, talk to Satan, or talk to that one religious guy he was about to kill etc. His monologues are weirdly well written, discussing topics such as the absurdity of human existence, mental disorders and how they impact the protagonist in an impressively clever way, a contrast to most modern horror medias' amateurish and cheap ways of 'depicting' mental disorders(mainly for shock value and fake deep messages). It is clear that the topics discussed above are the main topics of the story, with the violence and murdering sprees serving more as the narrative device to the, well, actual narrative. Simply put, the monologues carry the comic.
Great artstyle:
I don't need to say anything about this one
The satire:
Well needed. Considering the time of the comics release, jthm's attack on edginess (alt cultures like goth, metal and others of that era are being depicted with satire) while being itself media to be considered edgy is definitely needed. Edgy products like this creation have to take themselves less seriously, bringing a needed humorous lightheartedness and have its messages actually be depicted with maturity knowing the authors are not beyond self-criticism.
The bad
The humor:
In all honesty, as much as I liked the satire... I did not like the humor. Hear me out, I promise this makes sense.
This is mostly about the later chapters, small author-notes around the pages and stand-alone stories rather than the earlier ones. Humor is not the author's strong suit and it shows in comparison to the more serious long dialogues. It doesn't make the comic unreadable but it definitely feels amateurish at times. I would even say the tone of the humor fits into something more kid friendly than it does with something like JTHM, where you would expect jokes targeted at an older audience (for example more nuance, wider range of dark humor). Makes sense that the author went to become a famous cartoon creator right after.
The side-characters/victims:
Again, mostly speaking about the later chapters. Aside from Squee and Devi (who both got their own comics anyway), the side characters seemed to... lack something. For example, Johnny's victims. You would expect something clever considering the overall writing, but they all end up being uninteresting, annoying one-dimensional characters that exists for the sole purpose of having the reader to hate them, which is not necessarily something that could not work, but their execution is so out of pocket, so lackluster that it feels like the writing is downgrading. In chapter 5, when we see two of his victims trying to escape, their conversations seem to lack any substance or interesting dynamics, weird considering we are following them the entire chapter. The guy being a cartoony asshole to the point where his existence and death feel like someone's revenge fantasy, and the goth girl being the one-dimensional voice of reason that was there 'by accident' after all. Very predictable. Something similar happens with another side character, a guy who Johnny killed, literally having no other reason to exist other than to call Johnny insults to showcase to the reader just how awful he is and how much Johnny is right, but it ends up just feeling weirdly childish.
Feeling gaslighted thought we are gonna see them have interactions-we don't see him after that ever again. (also who talks like that)
Repetitiveness:
So about the panel above, there's one more thing that makes the writing there a miss. The jokes depicted there have been done before in stand-alone panels.
And once again, I'm talking about the later chapters. YEAH That's where honestly almost all the problems are. From a point on the author just seems to not wanna explore any more points than he already has, writing not just same moments but whole stand-alone stories with the exact same premise that have either just different characters or environment. I understand that similarity can just be a gag, but I just wanted to see more.
(sometimes I feel like the author doesn't fully understand people with more unique traits-who want to stand out. If u have read it u know.)
The ugly
The politics:
Considering the nature of most things alt, you know this is gonna be weird. On the one hand, from the very beginning the comic reveals head on some of Johnny's opinions which can be interpreted as materialist, for example the implication that some of the victims own selves when searching into their lives can be the cause of their own deaths, as it's explicitly said, "the so called "victim" at an earlier time, played some part on the creation of their "killer" gave the story it's interesting context, a sophistication, hinting the protags backstory etc etc. Then, on the other hand, Johnny says he believes humans are inherently violent as species, calling it a tendency, a mechanism that existed when humans ages ago would survive with violence which is obviously not true and DEFINITELY not materialist. In the beginning one could say that's just us taking a glimpse inside the mind of a serial killer but the truth is, with how character interactions and personalities continue later on, it seems that the author kinda agrees with said politics? Not explicitly but it definitely shows many times to not disagree with it, marking in the end that any sign of materialism was just shown for extra edginess and cynicism than anything else of a more mature political viewpoint.
But wait, it gets worse than that...
The misogyny:
Time to get to the spice.
Again, this mostly shows in the later chapters.
Women in jthm seem to be either the voice-of-reason people who could do no wrong like the men do, or some of the 'bad people' that Johnny wanted to kill for being 'too invested in how they look' and being 'superficial and materialistic', which apparently gets them the same treatment and the same label of evil as men who call Johnny slurs and beat him up for some reason. Very weird for the author to write women characters mostly the 'reasonable non-violent gender' yet have them deserving of torture and murder like the violent male characters for way less than. Superficiality is a trait that gets explored in the comic a lot, introducing even a concept of hell where people get tortured by having to look good for an unknown viewer, an eternal audience. This superficiality is put as a trait a lot on the female characters Johnny goes against. It gives the idea that a lot of these women are being basically caricatures and seem to be punished for the sin of 'being women and women are superficial' more than being cruel people. The author's horrible politics held towards women are being shown explicitly in the end of chapter 6, where Satan is standing in silence around sinners on their everyday life in hell.
The author explicitly depicts the idea that 'boths sides are bad', completely disregarding systems of oppression, treating men and women not as different classes on a system but as some binary that can "ontologically" mirror each other with no difference. This alone is proof enough of the author's liberal anti-materialistic and even reactionary politics, showing that under the fancy words and philosophies he's really an edgy liberal who hates any sort of dialectical materialism.
Happy Noodle Boy:
What. All I had to say when I was reading those stand-alone panels was What. Genuinely felt like I was reading some Diary of a Wimpy Kid comic strip made by Greg and Rowley but instead of being weird because it is too simple, it's weird because it's too complicated. As many times as I try to analyze those comics I seem to never understand their core.
The author definitely wanted the reader to have a break from the main story while giving a sample of the protagonist's mind and artistic works, but I believe it wouldn't harm if the execution was bit more clear. (I mean, the guy's not even happy lmao).
Overall uhhh
Johnny the homicidal maniac was an interesting read both in good and bad ways. I definitely see why so many like it although it's not that genius, especially the later chapters. Disappointing considering the comic's run wasn't that long (the author wanted it to be only 7 chapters long, with the last three being its weakest in my opinion and chapter 5 being the worst one.) Although it still has its moments. When it ACTUALLY wants to shine, it shines. When it doesn't want to, it is a 'nothing particularly special' kind of bad. So yeah, just bad. But it is a good read for the first 4 chapters. Write ur opinion down the comments if u want to. Okay, that's it. Byeee
The author kind of making fun of his fans lol
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Yaoi Jesus
my ex liked jthm in middle school and judging by ur review im glad i didnt read it when i was a 12 y/o edgelord bcuz it probably wouldve made me 10x worse lolol
Contrary to popular belief, the best time to read JTHM is in your twenties ͡⎚ - ͡⎚ /j
by thendisnear; ; Report
I definitely would have hated Zim if I was younger xD I was too immature not plant myself in every main character I saw
by Clementine; ; Report
Humanhunter777
I still find it so funny to imagine a edgy teen Jhonen sitting in his room CLUTCHING his pen while doodling comics at school like “yesssss yeeeesssssa KILL THEM ALLLL”
oh my god I completely forgot Jhonen was like 18 something when he first published it
by thendisnear; ; Report
I'm glad they didn't have Twitter. At least they developed some talent
by Clementine; ; Report