Jhonen Vasquez is known for his darkly absurd sense of humor. As the creator of the seven-issue comic Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and the short-lived (but hugely popular) Nickelodeon cartoon series Invader Zim, his humorous misanthropy and stylishly creepy character designs have won fans the world over.

Unfortunately, these same qualities, combined with his cult-popularity, have also earned him unfair derision from readers and critics all-too-eager to write his work off as mall-goth tripe. But with his 2007 book Jellyfist, Vasquez’s talent and creativity as a storyteller is on prominent display, thanks largely to the fact that the illustrations were handled by artist J. Goldberg.

Like a Saturday Morning Cartoon in Hell

Vasquez explains the book’s concept and execution in the introduction; quite simply, he wrote a series of absurd short stories and gave the scripts to Goldberg to illustrate as she pleased. This isn’t Vasquez’s first collaboration with another artist; he previously worked with illustrator Crab Scrambly on the violent picture book Everything Can Be Beaten. But Jellyfist is a collection of stories, so the results here are all over the place; some are darkly funny (“Little Thing Lost”), some are sad and disturbing (“The Grocery Parking”), and many others are confusingly surreal (“Das Bleemp”). A significant number aren’t stories so much as odd exchanges between equally-strange creatures.

Goldberg’s drawing style is what drastically sets this book’s tone apart from other Vasquez works. There’s still an undercurrent of darkness running through the whole thing, but her settings and characters are cartoonish to the point of being grotesque, adding an element of creepiness that would be right at home on an early episode of The Ren & Stimpy Show. There’s a slight retro vibe to it; even the muted color scheme is reminiscent of a faded newspaper comic.

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