Get Your Hands On Invader Zim Vol. 2 Articulated By Eric Trueheart Available Through Document

get why this one has gotten poor rating in comparison to the first, As others have voiced, this volume opens on a very "wrong" rendition of Zim,

While I didn't have as many problems with the story as others seem to, I did have a problem with the art.
So much of Zim is the way it looks, and to alter that, even a bit, makes it unsettling andagain"wrong.
" It automatically doesn't feel like Zim, So, the start had me extremely taken aback,

However, as the volume progressed, more of the stories felt more like "that ol' Zim" I remember.
Yes, there are some more "off" moments, where the authors stray a bit off of the traditional characterization, but these didn't happen often.


In the end, it comes down to a few simple questions and answers:

Is it as good as Volume One No.

Is it terrible, then No,
But will I enjoy it Mostly,

Volume One gave me, and many others, high hopes for this series, and this is definitely a sophomore slump if I've ever seen one.
But it's not bad, and I'm willing to bet that many more folks are like me and will still be giving Volume Three a shot.
I just love that I can "watch" my favorite cartoon again through these books, More fun with Zim, Dib, and of course, the best character ever, Gir, I loves Gir. Actual .stars. A solid collection, but the first volume is better, There are some great stories here, but there are some notsogreat ones as well, Most of the stories go big, showcasing other planets, aliens, and machines and while it's understandable they didn't have the budget during the show to do that stuff, I kind of wished they had done a few more smaller stories.
The episodes where Zim obsesses over a mundane facet of human life were some of the best ones.
I was also disappointed that that Jhonen Vasquez didn't have a story in this volume, Regardless, it's still Invader Zim and it's still a good time, I can't stand KC Green's art style, . .

But as always, this was brain cell killing fun, The quality of this volume went way down from the previous one in terms of writing and art.
You can definitely tell the writer changed in that this volume was largely unfunny, The Donald Sutherland homage panel was pretty great, My actual rating would be,stars.

After completely devouring the first volume I was extremely excited for the next one, Unfortunately, this addition falls a bit flat, It just lacks that that "invader zimness" that I was so happy came across in the first volume, most of the stories in this volume just didn't "feel" like the old cartoon, That being said, the last two issues in this collection did pick up a little, and I am hopeful the next volume will be better.
Artwork is great. Stories are ok, but I'm turned off because every issue is a one shot, I need a reason to keep reading, definite decrease in artistry. can tell jhonen had nothing to do with it, stories were ok, had some good moments, but it's not jhonen level, sigh. As with the first volume, these issues are good translations of the show into comic book form, The first story by KC Green was the only one I disliked, The visuals were his own particular style, and that was fine, but the writing was too different from the TV show.
Green redeems himself later with the short comic "Invader Who" later, though,

I will say, one problem but that's too strong of a word, really I have with these is that Dib is kind of pathetic in them.
Even more than in the show, where, when he needed to be, he could be a match for Zim.
I'm reminded of the Gene Deitch Tom amp Jerry shorts where Jerry has the upper hand too often.
What the fuck happened I almost gave this volume onlyout of sheer disappointment, Part of the problem is that Jhonen Vasquez is entirely absent from writing duties on this volume, and it shows.
In particular the opening chapter by KC Green is just plain fucking awful the artwork sucks, looking like a generic alternative comic from the's or's, but that would be forgivable if the story were clever, or funny, but it is not.
This particular author gets the surface of Zim, playing off the gross, crude, nonsequitur style of humor, but has none of the substance.
The jokes are simultaneously stupid and poorly executed, and neither Zim nor Gir have their proper personalities, This chapter is like anyear old's attempt to mimic an Invader Zim story, Shitty and fucking annoying.
The subsequent chapters are less bad to varying degrees, and mostly at least get the art style right.
They all suffer to some extent from the surface vs, substance problem, but not in such a glaringly obvious way, There are some moments of cleverness scattered among the fan worship, moments such as the hunting couch, and the tiny galaxy.
But then there are the parts that just revel in the grossness, such as Gir puking everywhere, without supplying the needed Vasquez style wit to balance it out.
The bonus short stories were mediocre,
Overall a letdown. Hopefully Vasquez will take the reins again for some subsequent issues,
I like this one a lot more than Vol, It just felt so much more Zimier than the first,
I need more Gir, I need more Gir or I'll explode! That happens to me sometimes,
I'm making waffles!

, . . also Minimoose, much more Minimoose, Nyah! Wasn't impressed with the guest artists for the first two comics in this volume, I felt the stories were a little bland compared to the previous volume, Hoping the next volume will be back to Vasquez's artistry and storytelling, The continuing invasion attempts of Zim as he tries new ways to conqueror the world, Dib is back to foil him most of the time, but as usual the universe and himself are Zim's worst enemies.
Yes, Zim is back, as is the gross humor and crazy plots, but what almost pushed this to a two star rating was the abysmal lack of Gaz she's in maybe three frames in the whole volume!, there never being a time when I was dying laughing there were a couple chuckles here and there, but I expect more from Zim, and gross won't get me laughing and Gir's insanity being just brief moments here and there Though the second story almost had enough Gir crazy.
. Recap kid does his best, but I miss waffles! Content notes: No language issues, though they like to throw around "dookey" and "puke".
No sensuality issues. Zim style violence over the top, insane weapons/fights but usually everyone/thing is okay in the end even if they die, they're back in the next issue.
Since this is a collection of various Zim misadventures, I'll rate/review each separately,

Recap Kid pages

Recap Kid is back before each chapter! He's awesome, . . and seriously in need of some ADHD meds,

Chapter: "Zim's Bad Day"

Zim tries to apply for a bank loan, Gir gets bored and tears their costume in half, which looks like a man was torn in half.
Zim then chases Gir to a restaurant and tries to save him from the Ribyich sandwich while evading earthen EMTs who think he desperately needs medical attention.
Eventually they make it back to base without entirely blowing their cover,
This one had it's good moments, and it's gross moments the Ribyich is rather deadly, Thought the gore could be interpreted as deadly BBQ sauce too was a bit much, Not my favorite, though it closes with a hilarious Gir moment,

Chapter

Zim and Gir crash land on a planet undergoing super accelerated evolution to the point Zim's spit becomes sentient creatures that worship him, and the space slug Gir stowed away may either be their saving grace or horrible end, and eventually Zim gets all his wishes to come true.
Well, almost.
Again, some moments of hilarity but overall not Zim or Gir's best or worst,

Chapter

Sentient pants land on Earth and try to take over the world, Zim can't stand the thought of anyone else conquering Earth, so he agrees to help Dib get rid of the pants.

Where do these people get these ideas! This one gets points for creativity and some word play.
The pants are a little gross, so, . . ewww, gross membrane pants. And no Gir. Sadness.

Chapter

Tired of being mocked, Dib sets out to make a video with irrefutable evidence of aliens aka he must disguise himself, make himself Zim's intern, and infiltrate Zim's lab to shoot a video.

Now this one, this one was full of the Invader Zim moments I love, Gir was being Gir. Zim realizes that intern is another word for slave, and takes full advantage of having Dib as his "intern" mostly having him clean up after Gir.
And being in the base so long, the robot parents, minimoose, and other favorites get to make cameo appearances.


Chapter

When a kid with a snake wins the school talent show and gains admirers, Zim gets the idea that he who has the largest beast will rule the world.
He sets off into space to get fearsome beast, . . and inadvertently succeeds.
This was another more classicfeeling one, I loved the beast they found, And there's plenty of Gir being Gir,

Bonus Short: "Invader Who"

Illustrated by a guest artist, this one sees Zim inventing a memory wiping ray he uses on Dib.
Of course, if you know Zim, this horribly backfires,
Didn't care for the guest illustration style, but the story was funny, Leave it to Zim to wipe both his memory and Dibs in one go,

Notes on content: No language issues, No sexual content. Lots of deaths from the Ribyich in the first episode that appear gory, Other space violence, including an entire planet blowing up, But being a cartoon, in the next episode pretty much everyone is back to being ok, Space horror for kids!



Even though none of the stories in this volume are actually written by Jhonen Vasquez, creator of Invader Zim, they're still pretty in touch with the despicable essence of the original cartoon Vasquez is credited as Control Brain after all.
The stories in this collection are independent and are penned by different writers with varied but above average results.
The pacing is excellent, dynamic panels and dramatic word balloons transmitting the over the top and dramatic feel of the show.
J. R. Goldman does an excellent job with the colors, the pages are colorful and full of life while maintaining the distinctive dark atmosphere of Vasquez works.
By these elements of production you can tell a lot of care was put into this book, As for the

stories in it, . . the concepts are gross, the humor nonsensical and the plot developments are mostly absurd, . . I had a lot of fun reading it, Obviously recommended for fans of the TV show and kids with a twisted sense of humor, The Invader Zim story continues, still a fun read, Zim is drinking a "poop" juice box on the Hot Topic edition cover of this comic and that's about all you need to know.


This collection was kinda hit or miss for me, A few of the issues felt like they were trying to do Zim stuff but mostly just did gross and absurd without really being particularly funny, and some gags/situations were just too long to retain their hilarity.
But I have to say there were also a couple issues that were laughoutloud funny and didn't miss a beat.
This is subjective, obviously. The weird cartoon gore and impossible vicious aliens were never really my thing, but the stories that didn't depend too much on grossness and toony violence did pretty well with the monsters and silliness.
I had a good time reading through it and watching Zim and Dib fail at their lives, The latter issues in this trade collection were better than the first couple, I think,

The first story involves Zim deciding to impersonate a human so he can get a loan, because when one wants to buy destructive chemicals, one always makes a mech suit and jams one's robot helper disguised as a dog down in its butt to work the legs.
GIR of course is not up for being responsible, and instead of playing the bottom half of Zim's human disguise, he runs off to gorge himself on a sandwich from hell.
After a literal explosion of meat which Zim covers up by pretending to have given birth, Zim goes back to the drawing board as GIR recovers from eating the devil food, after which Zim finds he has lost his boot in GIR's mouth.
Mmkay.

In chapter two, Zim and GIR have gotten some awesome weapons so they can destroy Earth, but they end up marooned on a barren planet.
Which doesn't stay barren for long because everything evolves really quickly there, Soon Zim has weird amoeba creatures worshiping him, but giant bugs are a threat, so Zim has to pit these creatures against each other, only to find that his allies want nothing more than to be destroyed by him.
It's pretty weird.

Chapter three has Zim calling alien pants creatures to Earth so they can hijack the bodies of humans.
Which is certainly reasonable considering humans' legs look stupid, Dib returns from a family vacation to find the town taken over by the space pants, and he ends up falling in with a brave antipants warrior named Groyna who fights the pants creatures with him and helps him find their leader.
He earns the ubertrouser's respect because his head is really big, and when the pants turn on Zim, he's forced to fight Dib in his own mechanical trousers and consequently save humanity.
The pants are pretty disgusting with their squishy organic pants bodies,

Chapter four aka the best one is the tale of Dib using his father's fleshprinting technology to make an alien disguise for himself so he can pass as an alien to become.
. . Zim's intern. In a plot to both take down Zim and earn the respect and attention of the conspiracy freaks on the Truthshrieker forums, Dib allows himself to be essentially enslaved, doing menial labor and utterly disgusting jobs for Zim mostly involving GIR's puke, with some light data entry.
But Dib is patient, and manages to gain Zim's trust over time which even leads to an opportunity to kidnap and imprison the guy who makes bad comments about Dib's videos online!, and he gets some insight into Zim's life of wanton destruction including a trip to a very tiny galaxy where he kills planets for fun.
But once Dib's managed to get a good video of inside Zim's base, all bets are off, The world may or may not be safe from Zim's plots, but what's really important are the comments on his video.
I gotta say I love the commentary on interns, This one felt like it could be an episode of the cartoon,

Chapter five is good too, featuring Zim being drawn into a talent show, Observing that the kid who won did so with a pet snake that eats mice, Zim decides he's got to get an even more impressive creature to win humans over with so he can dominate them.
He accidentally brings Dib with him to another planet, where he hunts an especially ferocious creature and captures it to bring back to Earth despite GIR occasionally interfering with sandwiches and unpleasant thoughts about an unsettling commercial.
When Zim attempts to unleash the snarling beast, his containment device opens to reveal Dib with a surprisingly docile space cat.
The other children are obviously horrified by a specimen like Dib, But that space cat isn't as cute as it looks,

The first bonus short has some weird art of Zim and Dib dealing with a memory erasure device that causes a bunch of absurdities.
And the second bonus short is sort of a bizarre parody of kids' activities, with disturbing instructions and even more disturbing images.


A few favorite lines and bits:

A restaurant called "Sammy's Ribs N' Diapers, "

"SILENCE, MEAT MAN!" "Okay, "

"Thirdly, your head is enormous, Stop lying to yourself. "

"Is it to do something stupid like sneak into Zim's base" "Yes, only not stupid, "

"What does 'intern' mean" "INTERN: a trainee who works under a master without pay in order to gain work experience.
" "Oh, a SLAVE!"

"GIR tried hiding a bunch of dogbabies from me in his head, He thought pouring honey on them would make them invisible, Your first task, Slave Derb: Clean all the honeydrenched dogbabies out of GIR's head!"

Dib's slave duties include dusting the ooze, walking the minimoose, eating burnt peanuts because it shuts GIR up, data entry, roboparents maintenance, and yard work.


"On my planet, we think it's real cool to not abduct helpless people!" "Your world sounds disgusting.
"

"GIR throws up all over the place, " GIR vomits "No I don't!"

GIR is said to have eaten a playground child, In the previous volume, he mentions having eaten a baby, This seems to be a theme, .