The short-lived but much-loved cartoon Invader Zim is getting a second life in comic books, according to Kotaku. It’s a return to form for the show’s creator, comic book writer and cartoonist Jhonen Vasquez, who’s also known for Johnny The Homicidal Maniac and Squee! The Nickelodeon show was canceled during its second season; Vasquez told The New York Times that working at Nickelodeon was “an absolute misery” because he had to work with other people. “There’s something beautifully intimate about working on your own,” he said. Apparently he’s been working on his own on Invader Zim ever since it was canceled in 2002, according to publisher Oni Press:
“I’m always confused when people say how much they miss Invader Zim because the show never stopped running in my head, and then I remember everyone else isn’t in my head. I try to imagine the world for all those people who don’t know what Zim’s been up to since the show went off the air and it makes me shudder. How can people live that way? Hopefully this comic helps make the world a better place.”
Zim’s screaming voice work by Richard Steven Horvitz (who also voiced Daggett Doofus Beaver on The Angry Beavers) will be missed, but other than that this will be a great way to see more of the creepy, weird adventures of invading alien Zim and his defunct robot assistant Gir, along with humans Dib and Gaz, the paranormal-obsessed boy and his sister who couldn’t care less. The first issue of Invader Zim is due on July 1st.