Line #50 Comicbook/Squee


1	[[quoteright:230:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Johnny_The_Homicidal_Maniac_3_rc2_8013.jpg]]
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3	A SpinOff from ''ComicBook/JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac'', ''Squee'' ran four issues and followed the titular next-door-neighbor-of-aforementioned-maniac as he encounters aliens and all other manner of paranormal activity, gets abused by his silhouetted parents and demonic teacher, has adventures with the Antichrist, daydreams, and desperately clings to his sanity.
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5	Creator/{{Titmouse}} and the comics' author Creator/JhonenVasquez were at one point announced to be collaborating on [[AnimatedAdaptation a short film about Squee]], which would've seen the poor kid get sold to a fast food restaurant as meat and lead other imprisoned children on an escape mission. Despite some script pages arising on Vasquez's Twitter, the project seems to have been abandoned.
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7	''[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Definitely]]'' not to be confused with the identically titled [[{{Squee}} trope.]] There's very little to {{Squee}} about in ''Squee.''
8	----
9	!!''Squee'' provides examples of:
10	* AbusiveParents: Squee's parents are of the horribly neglectful variety. His dad openly despises him (and is not shy of telling him this) and his mom can't even remember he ''exists'' most days.
11	* AdultsAreUseless: The only adults in Squee's life are apathetic/evil/corrupt/stupid/{{Satan}}/[[ComicBook/JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac dangerously psychopathic]], etc. So you can imagine they're not much help.
12	* AnalProbing: When the wheelchair-bound aliens try to abduct Squee again, one of the two aliens goes to his parent's room and subjects Mr. Casil to this.
13	* TheAntichrist: Pepito, and not trying to hide it: he has horns, and his father is not in disguise when Squee comes to visit. And then there's "Stand back, amigo! This looks like a job for... THE ANTICHRIST!"
14	* BackForTheFinale: Two examples:
15	** The idiotic aliens that appear in the first issue visit Squee's house again in the final one, this time choosing to abduct his parents instead.
16	** [[spoiler:Johnny C., after spending the entire rest of the comic lurking around in the background, finally gets a speaking role during the last few pages of the final issue, where he sees Squee off right as he's about to begin his new life as a lab monkey.]]
17	* BathroomControl: At the beginning of the second issue, Squee is in the car for a road trip with his parents, [[AbusiveParents who apparently haven't let him use the bathroom in]] ''[[AbusiveParents two days]]''. His parents then pull over by a restaurant because they don't want him to [[JarPotty use a bag of Fritos as an emergency urinal]].
18	* BedlamHouse: ''Squee!'' has the "Defective Head Meat Institute". There's talk of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrenology a new phrenology department]], lobotomies, using patients as "lab monkeys" and [[FunnyBackgroundEvent a random nurse walking by thinking "Whoa! I'm the angel of death!"]]. The staff is so incompetent that they keep [[spoiler:Squee]] as a patient and let [[spoiler:''[[AxCrazy Johnny]]'']] go free.
19	** That last sentence crosses over into FridgeBrilliance when you keep the former things in mind: [[spoiler:an AxCrazy person doesn't make a very good lab monkey.]]
20	* BlatantLies: Squee's reaction to having his parents abducted is "I am full of guilt". While watching movies and eating snacks.
21	** The idiot aliens lying about their wheelchairs.
22	* TheCameo:
23	** Johnny can be spotted sporadically throughout the series, either as a drawing in Squee's room or causing chaos during crowd shots. [[spoiler: He ''actually'' appears, with dialogue and everything, in the final issue, where it's revealed he went to an institution (where Squee is now) and was being used for a "sleep study", which he leaves despite the doctors showing interest in his dreams.]].
24	** The man who is forced by aliens to mate with a chicken in one "Meanwhile" is Vasquez's assistant letterer (and later ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' staff writer) Rob Hummel.
25	* CharacterTitle: The main character is Squee and his name is the comic's title.
26	* TheChewToy: Squee just can't catch a break.
27	* TheCloudcuckoolanderWasRight: In the first issue of ''ComicBook/JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac'', Johnny argues with Shmee the teddy bear as if he was sentient and stabs him. As we find out, Shmee actually is sentient, and it's possible he ''was'' talking to Johnny.
28	* CrapsackWorld: The setting is shown to be a pretty terrible place to live.
29	* DealWithTheDevil: Offered, but averted. Squee politely turns down the Devil's offer to join him.
30	* {{Determinator}}: How can Squee stand to even ''get up'' most mornings?
31	* DownerEnding: The series ends with Squee's parents sending him to a mental institution.
32	* DreamSequence: Well, closer to nightmare sequence--any pleasant fantasies Squee have collapse quickly, and each issue ends with a terrifying "Dreamtime" SplashPanel akin to Nny's "dear die-ary" entries.
33	* EvilTeacher: Ms. Bitters. Yep, [[WesternAnimation/InvaderZim that one]].
34	* FantasyKitchenSink: Aliens abduct Squee and his parents on two seperate occasions, TheAntichrist is in Squee's class, his [[{{Satan}} dad]] invites him over for dinner, his teddy bear's possessed by ''something'', who ''knows'' what [[SadistTeacher Miss Bitters]] is, and Vasquez himself wants to [[OmnicidalManiac blow up the earth]] sci-fi style.
35	* FireAndBrimstoneHell: Located in Pepito's basement.
36	* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Plenty. Most notably, several panels have Johnny terrorizing various people.
37	* GruesomeGrandparent: Squee already has horribly abusive parents to contend with, but his grandfather comes over in one issue with the sole purpose of eating him for his youth.
38	* HappilyMarried: Pepito's parents seem to be this...despite the fact that his father is ''Satan.'' Subverted with Squee's parents, who are still together but with obvious instability between them.
39	* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: Pretty much Squee's life story, though it's not always hilarious.
40	* IHaveManyNames: How Pepito begins his introduction.
41	--> '''Pepito:''' Son of the dark prince, child of darkness. Some call me the altar boy of doom. Others will know me as the second coming of damnation. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking My mom calls me Pepito.]]
42	* ImprobableWeaponUser: At the "Defective Head Meat Institute", [[spoiler:Johnny]] says to a dream-studying scientist that he dreamed about killing her with a bag of ramen noodles.
43	* InterspeciesRomance: Señor Diablo and his wife (Pepito's mother) could count as this. Also, one of the Meanwhile comics features a guy forced to mate with a chicken so that his aliens captors can research human sexual encounters. To make matters worse, it's revealed that the man eventually marries the chicken and has [[HalfHumanHybrid kids]] with her.
44	* KidsAreCruel: Squee tends to be bullied mercilessly by every kid he ever meets for no apparent reason. The only exception is Pepito, who's fairly nice to Squee. Too bad he has a nasty habit of melting his other classmates faces' off, but at least he's nice to Squee.
45	* LighterAndSofter: Less paranoia and debilitating mental disorders and serial killings than in ''JTHM''. Ok, I tell a lie, but here it's all PlayedForLaughs. It's worth noting that this series is what convinced Nickelodeon exec Mary Harrington that Creator/JhonenVasquez [[WesternAnimation/InvaderZim should be put in charge of a children's program]].
46	* MadEye: As per a Creator/JhonenVasquez production, Squee is depicted with one after Pepito blows up the school to save Squee from zombies.
47	* MistakenForInsane: In the fourth issue, [[AbusiveParents Squee's parents]] come home after [[AlienAbduction they've been captured by aliens]]. Squee asks if the aliens have hurt them, and since they don't remember being abducted, they [[CassandraTruth don't believe him]] and think he's gone insane. They then send him to the [[BedlamHouse Defective Head Meat Institute]] because [[SkewedPriorities they're more concerned about the fact that his "insanity" is supposedly spreading to them]].
48	* MyLittlePanzer: The first issue has an ad for a Tickle-Me Hellmo, which does nothing but torment, kill, or seriously injure the children that play with it.
49	* NightmareSequence: [[OnceAnEpisode Once every issue]], there's a page devoted to "Dreamtime", which is basically a page of Squee's horrific nightmares.
50	* NoNameGiven: The character that would later be transplanted as Ms. Bitters on ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' appears here, but is never given a name.
51	* OneManArmy: Pepito, who takes down an entire school of evil zombie children by himself.
52	* OnlySaneMan: Squee himself.
53	* PayEvilUntoEvil: Squee arranging for his abusive parents to get kidnapped by aliens.
54	** Although before that he seemed quite convinced that hurting them would be wrong.
55	** But yet...[[BlatantLies "I am full of guilt."]]
56	* PingPongNaivete: Closer to ping-pong innocence. How aware Squee is of how screwed up his world is and how much he's willing to do something about it tends to vary from storyline to storyline.
57	* ProductionForeshadowing: Posters of [[WesternAnimation/InvaderZim Zim]] can be seen around Squee's room.
58	* ResentfulGuardian: Squee's dad, to the point where[[note]]if Jhonen's snarky caption boxes are to be believed[[/note]] in his spare time he ''watches Squee's birth video in reverse.''
59	* ShoutOut: On Squee's room is a poster of ''Film/{{Se7en}} TheAnimatedSeries''.
60	* TakeThat:
61	** One of the Meanwhiles (in issue two) is a clear jab at Creator/RobLiefeld. The story depicts a man and woman who are scantily clad and have grotesquely detailed body structures with ludicrous proportions. They try to stop a bank robbery and instead end up killed and mocked by the robbers.
62	** In the first issue, one of the kids in Squee's class wears a T-shirt reading "''Series/PowerRangersZeo'' sucks".
63	* TakeThatAudience: Creator/JhonenVasquez takes a jab at fans of ''ComicBook/JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac'' who adore Nny through the rantings of Squee's teddy Shmee.
64	--> '''Shmee:''' Why, if sickness were a socially acceptable thing, those degenerative loons would be writing your neighbor fan-mail, telling him how [[EvilisCool "cool"]] he is! [[MisaimedFandom They would admire his illness and aspire to it!]]
65	* ToiletHumor: Tons of it. Special mention goes to the unseen man in the restaurant bathroom stall in Issue Two. ''[[ScreamDiscretionShot Holy shit.]]''
66	* {{Transplant}}: The stupid, wheelchair-bound aliens show up to abduct [[WesternAnimation/InvaderZim Zim]], whose teacher (Ms. Bitters) is also Squee's teacher. The horned, purple aliens are established in ''Invader Zim'' to be residents of the planet Vort, which is conquered by the Irkens. The big one, however, is Zim himself, who shows up on various posters in Squee's room.
67	* UnnamedParent: Both of Squee's.
68	** Pepito's mother.
69	* WeCanRuleTogether: [[{{Satan}} Señor Diablo]] offers Squee a position in {{Hell}}. He politely declines.
70	* WeirdnessMagnet: Squee.

Context Comicbook / Squee