Speaking For Zimself: A Conversation With Jhonen Vasquez
Dr. T: In one of the SQUEE! stories -- the one in which his teddy bear Shmee is explaining his purpose to Squee -- it looks like you've drawn an early prototype of Zim. Was that drawing the basis for your character design? He doesn't look like the other aliens in your stories.
JV: Zim? He's just really simple. Almost as simple as that classic idea of what an alien looks like. I don't think Zim is based on any other character. He's essentially sort of stripped down to what my other characters are but without any of the detail. He's so basic he's almost the building block for every other character in the show. There's a certain level of the sinister in his face that I like to pull off, it's kind of common in a lot of the work that I do now.
Dr. T: How about that panel where Shmee is explaining to Squee all the things there are to be afraid of, and one of them is aliens. That alien kind of looks like Zim.
JV: Probably was a Zim. At the time I was coming up with conceptual stuff for Zim, and stuff that I didn't use or just seemed a little off, I like throwing it in the back of the books. You'll see Zim prototypes in posters on Squee's wall, or here and there. People have written to me saying, "Hey, is that Zim?" in the fan mail and it's kind of cool that people pay that much attention. It's kind of weird looking at those books because I did them so long ago, and it's cool to see the early stages of what I'm working on now. Yeah, you probably are picking up on some Zim prototypes in there.
Dr. T: You've said that any person that's writing a character is either basing it on themselves or someone that they think is a completely different person from themselves. So, where does Zim stand in relation to you?
JV: I think that Zim is just the part of me that refuses to listen to anybody. It's the only reason I get anywhere! People always telling you this and that, you've got to be careful of this and that -- you know, like, "Learn a trade so that you'll have something to fall back on!" The only thing I enjoy is drawing, making up these horrible little stories. And Zim, the thing that keeps him going, that keeps him so relentless, is the fact that he's oblivious. It's his only strength. In his case, it's absurd. If he realized what an idiot he was he would break down crying. But he doesn't! Everything he does is pure genius! He's unstoppable, and that makes him terrifying really, because there is no greater enemy than an idiot who doesn't understand that he is an idiot.
Dr. T: Ignorance of what other people feel, hurting their feelings, and open contempt for those who are different, seem to be major crimes in your books. Zim really takes those concepts to the limit. I mean, he sees all humanity as worthless except for slavery.
JV: Pretty much. I thought the fun thing about doing a kids' show like that is, you've got all these people rooting for someone who is trying to destroy the audience. The only person who's trying to save the Earth (Zim's arch rival Dib) has as much contempt for his fellow human beings as the person he's trying to stop. Because of his intelligence, he's kind of looked down on by most of the other kids. He's a freak. It's fun that the "alien" is on both sides; Dib is as much an alien to his own people as Zim is. I've always loved the idea of ambiguity between good and evil. What's great is, even though I'm thinking of that stuff on my own and no one's going to pick up on it, they're going to enjoy the show. But I've actually gotten kids who have been talking about that! "Who's the bad guy here?" they say. "I don't care. They're both funny!" And that's really cool.
Dr. T: That's true. Dib is an asshole too. He's got nothing on his mind but Zim as the subject of an alien autopsy.
JV: Well, Dib has gotten to the point where he's not really a bad person, he's just frustrated. He lacks the patience to explain anything to anyone anymore. He's so used to people not believing him that he goes right into screaming at them. He immediately assumes that they're going to be morons and aren't going to believe him -- and normally they don't.
Dr. T: If Zim -- in spite of himself and GIR -- somehow managed to subjugate the entire Earth, what would he do with it?
JV: He'd like to think that he would be so appreciated by his people that he'll be put in charge, but really, the Irken Armada usually just demeans an entire planet to something stupid like a parking structure planet or maybe a giant food court planet. I don't think people think about the fact that the plan is to destroy all human beings; not enslave them so much as to just wipe them all out. Which would be a great episode, ahh! Could you see that? But, I don't think we could actually wipe out the human race on a kids' network.
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