Online Bookstore: Slave Labor Publications Johnny The Homicidal Maniac : Director's Cut Book

Average Rating:

JTHM 7 vols have:
Wobbly Headed Bob, and the Meanwhiles(which isn't a problem if you get Squee's Wonderful Big Giant Book of Unspeakable Horrors)
The letters in the front cover
The different front and back covers (That really isn't a problem cause you can find most if not all of them on fan sites)

JTHM Director's Cut has:
New single page JTHM comics (including the one where he cleans out his fridge, it's hilarious)
New Happy Noodle Boy
Character Bios (they include NNY, Nail Bunny, and more)
Sketches
Some of the very first Johnny comics with commentary by Jhonen
An interview that Jhonen did himself (it is absolutely hilarious)
Has pictures of many of the characters seperating each part (I actually haven't seen most of these ones on the web)
JTHM volume synopsis for the 7 single comics done by Jhonen

Well that's what I can remember not having the comics in front of me at the moment.

I'd say that Wobbly Headed Bob abd the Meanwhiles were put in the Squee book because there aren't that many Squee comics, and because it's called being smart at business. Putting them in the Squee book while not making everyone who does will make some want to buy the Squee book.

This book is compiled of the seven Johnny books minus the Meanwhiles and Wobbly Headed Bob stuff. This book is purely focused on Johnny and the demented comic he 'makes' which is none other than Happy Noodle Boy. Those not familiar with this character should know, he's loud, vulgar, annoying, and funny. He's a stick figure.

Now onto Johnny. He kills. He tortures. He tries to understand himself knowing well how messed up he is in the head. It's funny, it's sad. Johnny's the villian and the victim. You decide. At the end of each issue, we get a peek into his soul through the Die-ary entries. His little friends are quite interesting too. Pilsbury Doughboys... *shudder* And of course a burger boy and a severed rabbit's head. The other HUMAN characters are Squee, a cute little boy who is frightened of everything; Devi, a possible love interest for Johnny...? And finally Tess, a victim who is a bit different from the rest. Read and find out.

Jhonen also includes some yummy old comics from his ancient history. As much as he says he hates them, I think they're cute. Good thing they evolved into this work of pure and spiteful humor. If you like Jhonen's work, I suggest getting the Squee series, the I Feel Sick series, and the Filler Bunny series. Tread carefully when looking into the Bad Art Collection. It lives up to its name. Watch Invader Zim on Nick. It's good clean family fun. (Right...)

I know you're wondering: "You find a comic about killing and death to be funny?"

Well, yeah, I do. The writer/artist, Jhonen Vasquez, has the uncanny talent of making the most horrendous and disturbing moments in his books into the funniest ones as well. I've had the best yuks out of the sickest parts of the JTHM comics.

The artwork for JTHM: TDC is "underground" style- relatively simple, cartoonish, and abstract. Vasquez even pokes fun at his own work in sidebar commentaries throughout the book, letting you know that he doesn't care if it's not up to par with the kind of art you'd see in super-hero type comics, and if you don't like it, go somewhere else for entertainment. So there.

The dialogue between certain characters usually reflects great intelligence and even highly rational thinking. Paradoxically, the most rational being within this underground classic is Johnny, the title character. He tortures and kills people, usually as vengeance for their belittling of him and giving him a hard time. But sometimes he does it just because he feels like killing. He strives to become machine-like, to not be bound by the emotions, desires, and cravings that is human nature. Ironically, it's that same human nature gone horribly wrong within 'Nny' that drives him to commit heinous acts of rage-induced violence. It's also this nature in others that ridicule him for his differences, which drives him over the edge.

Also introduced in this book is Squee, a little boy who Nny pays occasional visits to... to 'help him out' with his problems. Squee would eventually get his own comic mini-series, one that I consider even better than the comic that it was 'spun off' from.

But the initial reason I started reading JTHM wasn't due to Johnny's disturbing forays into a world of pain and death. It was the strange and profane musings of Happy Noodle Boy, a unique individual who pops up in short one-page "adventures" every so often in the trade paperback. "Written and illustrated" by the Homicidal Maniac himself (yes, the title character is scripting and drawing his own comics within a comic book), the Happy Noodle Boy is a stick-figure living in a flat, poorly-rendered world. He spends most of his time at the city park, standing on a soap box, and loudly expounding unusual phrases and obscenity-laden utterings of apparent nonsense at shocked passers-by and crowds of the curious. I find Noodly's many obnoxious and loud verbal taunts to be some of the most entertaining groups of words to be cobbled into sentences. Here's a few of my favorite Noodle-isms (well, the cleaner ones anyway):

"Kneel before my power! Or I will unleash my army of surly crack babies!" "Look! David Hasselhoff CAN fly!" "My hands! I can't get them off my wrists! Oh, God!" "Children! Consume your siblings!"

Only the twisted genius of a gifted madman could come up with these kinds of sayings. And there are many more where those came from.

My only gripe: there is some material missing from the trade paperback that was originally in the seven comic book issues that this volume collects. The 'Meanwhile...'s, eight-page side-stories in the middle of each issue, were not included in JTHM:TDC. It's the first time I ever saw a 'Director's Cut' that took material OUT, rather than put it back in. Fortunately, it all worked out in the end- the 'Meanwhile...'s were restored in the SQUEE! trade paperback, which I highly recommend, even more than The Director's Cut...