by Mike Sangregorio

Saturday at Comic Con was the Return of Invader Zim panel by Oni Press, publisher of the new comic series, the first issue of which shipped July 8 and is available now. The room was packed, with people standing towards the sides, as all in attendance eagerly awaited new information on everyone's favorite Irken.

Series creator Jhonen Vasquez was joined, among others, by writer Eric Trueheart, artist Megan Lawton, and the voice of the robot GIR himself, Rikki Simons. Also present, as part of the audience and not on the panel, was Wally Wingert who voiced Zim's boss, the Almighty Tallest Red, from the show.

James Lucas Jones, Editor-in-Chief of Oni Press, moderated the panel. Throughout he reminded the audience that Oni was incredibly excited to be working on the Zim comic and that it was one of several properties that the company was currently pushing to expand and diversify (see Rick & Morty as well as Kaijumax).

For those not familiar with the property, Invader Zim was a cartoon that ran for 27 episodes on Nickelodeon from 2001 through 2002. Despite its brief run it has a large, die-hard following and is well remembered for its original, out-there humor and design work.

The story centers around Zim, an "invader" of the Irken people who is sent to Earth because he is the shortest among his race (hence the leaders being known as "The Tallest"). Zim, accompanied by his robot GIR, does a poor job at blending in, a fact noticed only by perennial antagonist Dib.

Dib is joined by his sister Gaz and, for lack of a better description, they are the grade school Fox Mulder and Dana Scully to Zim's ridiculous planet-conquering plans. If you have never done so, feel free to watch any episode, they are all great (though I am partial to Walk of Doom myself).

Asked how the comic began, Vasquez said that he was approached by Oni and that though the property is owned by Nickelodeon he wanted to be involved because "of all the Indie comics money" to be made. The audience was informed that an informal issue #0 was released at a previous convention in the form of an in-continuity magazine that would be shown as competition to that of the character Dib.

When prompted, Vasquez offered that all involved on the corporate side have been accommodating and that the only thing even remotely resembling an issue that arose during the development of the comic is that Vasquez has decided to change the logo, describing that "old one was too noisy."

As opposed to creating and producing a cartoon, which requires many hands, the comic is "just us" according to Vasquez and that, at the end of the day, he himself "is the worst" of those that may have issue with what is and is not on the page. He reminded the audience that the style of the show, and even of the characters in it, was "late 1999 chic" and that some changes would be necessary.

Simons, who was continually asked to say things, lewd and otherwise, in his GIR voice mentioned that to warm up the voice staff used to run through versions of the scripts with filthy language added in. Vasquez, smiling, informed all in attendance that he "has the recordings."

Initially, in lieu of questions from the audience pre-received questions from Twitter were answered, though this did not seem to sit well with anyone. When asked about unused scripts from the show being turned into comics, or even flash animated motion-comics, Vasquez said no, and that he would prefer to work on new stories. Specifically, he "hopes that the audience wants what we want to make as opposed to 'here is what we think you like'."

When asked about fan-favorite character Mini Moose, Vasquez noted that "he will be there… he's always been there" which prompted Trueheart to suggest having a drawn out, seven part story that told the gruesome "Death of Mini Moose" as the character is shown slowly wasting away.

Twitter questions dispensed with, Vasquez told the audience that whoever most closely resembled Wingert would then be able to ask one. After this, Trueheart asked that everyone there just yell out what they wanted to see from the show return for the comic, all at the same time.

A fan asked what the status was of international translations. She mentioned wanted to have friends who live abroad experience the property but had been unable to do so. Vasquez said that it was out of his hands and that the only way to make it work would be if a foreign publisher contacted Nickelodeon with an opportunity.

Sadly, no one requested that Simons "sing The Doom Song now."