If there's ANYTHING I learned from meeting the Zim crew, it's that we (and especially me) have a bad habit of overthinking things like "Man I love this depiction of ancient Irkens but oooh what if Jhonen has a different idea of ancient Irkens??"
It doesn't matter. Because, I'm going to be real, Jhonen himself doesn't have every corner of the lore figured out. He does have some hidden ideas, like whether Tallest Red and Purple are authentic or not (he purposefully keeps that a secret), but in reality, he doesn't even have an answer to most of our oddly specific Irken headcanons
At the Q&A and the booth
Someone asked if he intentionally directed Richard Hortvitz to give a hint of adolescence to Zim's voice in Parent-Teacher Night. His answer was that nothing was intended and we're just hearing things
Someone asked what a squeedlyspooch is. His answer was that he just likes putting funny words in the script and doesn't have any super sciency ideas for what it is or how it works.
I asked him about the Abducted aliens names, he said that they simply don't have any
So there you have it. While, again, there's stuff he CAN answer (like "Where tf is Skoodge?" or "Do Irkens have nips?"), a lot of the SUPER DEEP LORE questions like "How exactly do the smeeteries work?" "How did Irkens reproduce before the smeeteries?" "Did Irkens evolve from insects or lizards?" tend to go beyond the scope of what he has imagined.
Also just in general, you don't need any of the crew's approval to headcanon something! If you imagine Zim as this deeper character with very complex emotions, GO FOR IT!! What are you gonna do, not write Zim's Evangelion because "Well Mr Vee said no :(" Just go for it, your writing can be fabulous even if he said no!
Guess what, you're not a writer on a canon Zim series, you're a FAN CONTENT creator! Jhonen, Eric Trueheart, and Rob Hummel aren't gonna read your fanfiction and grade it on a rubric, so don't feel pressured to write what they would like! That means you have the freedom to put the series under any lense you want! Personally, I like queer headcanons and romanticizing the hell out of the characters and their emotions (bi Dib and pan/ace Zim my beloveds ♡).
Half the god damn Zim canon is just stupid jokes that Jhonen and the writing staff throw in. So go on, make it as deep as you want ;>
The design is still subject to changes. Zim actually hates it with a passion--he just has no idea why Dib is so taken aback when he saw it first the first time.
Zim was young and dumb once. He was also dedicated AF to the empire way back when.
Dib without his glasses is some kind of weird ick to me/j. He just doesn't feel like Dib 😭😭. I imagine he'd squint like Gaz, but for the sake of the comic, his eyes are open.
Welcome to the (currently untitled) ZADR Zine! We are a free, digital fanzine focused on the shipping of characters Zim and Dib from the Nickelodeon TV show Invader Zim. After some general murmurs of interest we're excited to launch an official interest check to see what people would like to see from the zine in the future! If you're interested, please fill out the interest check form here!
Signal boosts are also appreciated! Please make sure to spread the word by reblogging! ⭐️
This form will be available to fill out until November 30th, 2023
