Category Archives: fine things

INVADER ZIM Fact #26

You might think, based on a lot of what I’ve detailed here in these posts over the past ten years, that working on my INVADER ZIM show was pretty fraught with peril and sinister dealings.  I can see how you could come to that conclusion after reading about the fury of Frank Conniff, disintegrating cheese-babies, and rapacious ghosts.  I can’t stress enough that these things were just a matter-of-fact way of life while working on the production and were, good or bad, what colored our lives and times back then.

When I strap myself into my writing engine each night, naked and greased up, preparing these posts for uploading the following morning, I don’t go into it thinking this one will be a happy one, this one will be a sad one, this one will be an angry one.  The process is nothing of the sort.  It’s just a matter of what comes to mind at that moment, spurred on by the current surging through me from the bolts pressed against my temples, held tight by the helmet and strap.

Whether the fact I’m sharing during that session has positive or negative connotations is the furthest thing from my mind when the neighbors are pounding on the door telling me to stop screaming and to stop it with the crackling and thundering.
Continue reading →

INVADER ZIM Fact #25

Fun for ALL, not just people with bad dye-jobs and terrible skin.

I know I destroyed The Ring in the last post, but I maybe should’ve held off on that because it’s not like there aren’t still several more days of the month left.  Now we just have to awkwardly sit around and pass the time until we can resume our regular operations, free from this hellish burden.

Remember a few days ago when I mentioned trying to track down something special for the final installment of these posts, a rarely seen interview with voice actor Rikki Simons?  Well, I’m still waiting to hear from the guy that said he saw bits of it to let me know if he can send me any information on it.  I’ve not seen the thing myself, but I guess it was to be included in a documentary about people’s favorite old cartoons and the personalities behind them.  I’d be all about showing more than just Rikki, not that that isn’t enough, but the thing never got completed from what I hear, and all that’s left is bits and pieces of footage, unedited and mostly unwatchable.

Not holding my breath on that, though, as even Rikki himself doesn’t remember doing the interview and it doesn’t sound like what’s there is all that interesting in anything other than for the curiosity factor.

So these last couple of days are going to be like finishing a race when the top slots have already been won and the people still hanging around near the finish line are the ones cleaning up the cups and detritus left behind by the people who are now already home or sitting in their nicely heated cars.
Continue reading →

INVADER ZIM Fact #24

Thanks. My dogs were really barking, maaaan.

This is the point in our journey where I collapse, the weight of this burden I have taken upon myself getting the best of me and bringing me down.  From where I lie, the jagged rocks of this cruelly formed mountain cutting into my back, I look up and see only poisonous darkness, black clouds belched up from the final point of my destination, the place that I meant to finish off in.

But I cannot go on.  My legs won’t take me, my will won’t rouse me.

This is where you, chubby and always filled with hope take me up in your fat, fat arms and carry me the rest of the way because you know, you know that this journey was for a good reason, and the only reason that matters.

The music swells here, and though people may giggle at the overwrought vibe of it all, you could not care less what they think, because without you, without us doing what we’re doing, their smarmy-ass faces would be toast in short enough time.
Continue reading →

INVADER ZIM Fact #21

These ZIM facts are old enough to drink now, eh?  Pretty crazy to think that just a few weeks ago they were still chubby and new and crawling around on the carpet, shitting everywhere and almost suffocating to death when we left it in the parking lot while getting pizza.  Soon they’ll be shitting themselves again, I guess, only not nearly as cute, and smelling of death.

But let’s focus on the positive, please.  Let’s not get bogged down in gloomy thoughts.  ZIM Facts is still vital enough, still able to throw the ol’ ball around without needing to take so many “breathers”, and pretending it’s just a cramp and not really a ruptured lung or something.

So today’s falls on a Sunday, and we all have better things to do, right?  I know I do.  I’ve got a friend coming over and we’re gonna try to make new flavors of tea with things that aren’t actually tea, like pencil shavings and cereal flakes.  I watched Ratatouille again recently and I got to thinking that maybe I have that ability to pair flavors and sensations in such a way as to create some pretty great stuff.  So far everything I’ve made has made me throw up to where it really hurts, but I’m not giving up.  Never give up, that’s what I always say.  Shut the hell up and taste it.  That’s another thing I say.
Continue reading →

INVADER ZIM Fact #19

I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU, TAPE.

It’s just you and me now, man.  Everyone else has pretty much given up hope that there’ll be anything worth learning from these entries and they’ve gone back to their 40 character snippets of info fired from the Twitter cannons into their brains.  Not you, though.  You love the torture of reading beyond a single paragraph.  You’re special.  You’re also so terribly brain damaged that you think you’re a roll of duct tape.  You’re my only friend now.

I’ll be honest with you, Sticky, taking on this ZIM FACT a day thing was a bit of a major undertaking for someone with as many video games and bars of fine candy to eat as I have.  Right now I should be playing God of War 3, trying not to cringe at the horrible dialogue and voice acting while stabbing monsters and nearly choking on the pool of chocolate attracting bugs in my open mouth.
Continue reading →