#nnyposting

[wastelocking]

JOHNNY C'S CLOTHING [A FEW THOUGHTS AND MORE...]

I've seen reference compilations of all the outfits that Johnny's seen wearing throughout JTHM. However, I haven't seen anybody talking about how his presentation changes from the beggining of the comics to the end, and the implications that could have on the passage of time, or his deteriorating self-perception. It's a subtle shift, but one that I started to notice as I was grouping his outfits by appearence, and trying to figure out the material and structure of his clothing. If you're interested in that for the purposes of art or cosplaying, then I'll be getting into that at the end of this post, but first I'll get into the reoccuring motifs of his oufits, and articles of clothing, before going issue-by-issue.

PATTERNS IN PATTERNS, AND CLOTHING MOTIFS!

There's a few repeating patterns across all of Johnny's outfits which makes his design so recognizable. I'll start with those and how I believe his outfits to have been constructed. He'll typically layer his outfits with a loose-fitting shortsleeved graphic shirt over a longsleeved, tightfitting shirt that's either striped or solid black. Johnny is partial to stripes, but particular in how they're arranged. He'll put together horizantal and vertical stripes spread between different parts of his outfit, such as his sleeves, pants, and socks. I've noticed though that he won't put together two identical types of stripes of the same thickness and spacing. So, if he's wearing a thick, horizantal stripes across his abdomen then the horizantal striped socks with that will be thin in comparison. I know for a fact that Johnny has modified a lot of his clothing, as someone who gets a lot of things secondhand and has been alternative starting from a young age. You can't find clothing that fits like this at a department store. If he'd bought those graphic shirts then the sleeves would be significantly shorter, and taper outwards like a lot of shortsleeved items found at your average retailer. It's also difficult to find a lot of shirts which have mismatched sleeves. I'm assuming that he's cut off the sleeves of a series of oversized, longsleeved shirts for the top layer of a lot of his outfits. He's probably also taken the remaining sleeves and swapped them between shirts to his liking. He's an artist, sculptor, and is presumably responsible for repairing the torture contraptions in his basement, so a bit of needlework isn't too much to assume for him. I've also noticed that he'll keep the edges of his pants and shirts ripped, which I'll return to once I get into theories regarding the material of his clothing. I think the most recognizable part of Johnny's design is the cuts he's made into his shirts. I've attatched a series of examples, but he'll both put symmetrical thigh-slits into the sides until it looks like a loincloth, and then cut them in the back until he's got these two tapering trails going behind him. It's the most compelling evidence for the notion that he's modified a lot of his clothing, which is something I'll get into the psychological implications of as I go through all of JTHM's issues, as it's another unique attribute that's not found in clothing. There's a few other reoccuring items, like a jacket with torn sleeves, or his gloves, but I'm going to skip straight to his contentious boots. I've seen them compared to Demonias and New Rocks, but the shape of a lot of those doesn't match with how they're usually drawn on him, which ends up being the most consistent of all of Johnny's items of clothing. I would describe them as being form-fitting, but tapering out towards the top in a shape resembling an upside-down triangle. I think what's setting them apart from the aforementioned brands is their featurelessness, with the fact that on the surface there's only the large metal buckles, which are big enough to eclipse the corresponding straps so that you can only see in the cover of Issue #2 if you're really looking for them. I've been searching far and wide for boots resembling Johnny's so that I may include them in this post, and those featured in this compilation were the closest equivalents that I could manage to find.

JTHM #1: A GENERAL SENSE OF CONTEMPT

He's very consistent throughout the first issue regarding his appearence and the motifs in his outfits. I get the impression that JV was still figuring out his wardrobe, but I'm preferential towards Watsonian interpretations, so I'm going to conclude that Johnny had a particularly defined sense of self before his mental consumption. He's settled into a rigid style of dress, and has probably been alternative-adjacent for years considering how much of his wardrobe is customized and competently DIY'd. I would guess that his clothing is a preserved remnant of his bygone artistic inclinations. He's often shown to be insecure and testy throughout the comics, but to wear your own art on a regular basis requires confidence. It's a trait of his that's probably waning with his deterioration alongside his independence. Johnny is dressed here in a way that's simple, utilitarian, but also repetitive. I see that as being an extension of his control issues. He hates change and seeks to preserve all positive sensations. If he's slighted or made uncomfortable then that's something he'll make "right" with a blade, or another sharp contraption, as a method of self-regulation. He's at his least defiant in this issue, regarding his subordination to the wall, but at his most paranoid, and so it'd make sense for him to indulge those parts of himself which crave regularity in his environment. He's also got the loudest wardrobe here compared to his other appearences. It's full of nothing but thick stripes either on his sleeves, arms, and back. Mr. Fuck hasn't splintered off from him at this point, and considering the strong presence of those stripes in his design, and the fragment of Johnny's mind that he encapsulates, I'd attribute that to this. Do you notice anything missing in this compilation? Johnny doesn't wear his longsleeve undershirts here even once despite it becoming such a staple part of his design. I interpret this as reflecting the fact that Johnny is significantly more comfortable with his body at this point in the story, especially with his gloves being absent as well. He can't stand touching anyone, or even leaving his house, throughout certain later parts of the comics. However, I'm left with impression that he's in a different place here. I would look at his clothing here and say that in the first issue Johnny's at his most self-indulgent, angry, and satisfied [for as paradoxical as that seems]. It's a headspace that's comparable to the one he's reached in the third issue, but we'll get there. I'm starting to think Mr. Eff splintering might be related to his complicated relationship with touch, people, and his own humanity worsening. It's a part of his mind the Wall Thing was capitalizing upon, but also one that he was struggling to integrate into his self-perception, like how Sickness' appearence lined up with Devi's traumatic experience with Johnny, and this self-rejection probably hastened the splintering process along. I'll have to elaborate upon that in another post relating to the splinters though. I'll pivot to the second issue.

JTHM #2: HUMAN RELATIONS

It's said in the Director's Cut that Mr. Fuck splintered two years after Psychodoughboy, and he's absent in the previous issue. I can therefore conclude that there's a significant time jump that happens here, whether you think it's a full two years or less is up for debate though. Regardless, it is safe to conclude that he's in a different headspace compared to the first issue. He's now wearing his longsleeve undershirts, but he'll occasionally go without them. It's also worth analyzing that his shirts are more subdued compared to before. He's wearing his stripes, but they're thinner, and usually a secondary accent to his outfit [in his sleeves, socks, etc.] compared to being the eye-catching focus like before. He's less confident in himself and doesn't seem to understand why Devi would've considered going out with him. I think an interesting detail is the fact that the outfit he wears on his date with her is significantly nicer compared to his usual. It's a newer shirt and he's extended the effort of styling his hair to the side. I find it interesting that Mr. Fuck is the one who encourages Johnny to try killing Devi. It's nothing definitive, but there's an implication that perhaps hacking up dates wasn't apart of Johnny's original MO, and has instead been provoked by a change in psyche [alongside supernatural interference]. He's become distended from a vital part of himself, one that's concerned with his wants, joys, and pleasures, and that's influencing the ways his control issues are manifesting. He's caught between the urge to seek out indulgence, company, bloodshed, and the discomfort he feels with those parts of himself. It's perhaps for that reason that his wardrobe sits in this transitional phase, with Devi's escape being the thing to send him hurtling over the edge, or rather to both extremes at once.

JTHM #3: A TRANSIENT SMILE

There's not a lot of time that elapses between the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh issues of JTHM based on Devi's hair growth throughout her appearences. Johnny has responded to his situation, and the grief of sabatodging his relationship with Devi, by absorbing himself in mania and the delusions of grandeur accompanying it. He had paranoid delusions before, fragmented in nature, but now they've accumulated into a solid belief that he's incapable of dying, and is the central focal point of the universe. I said Issue #1 might be when he's the most self-indulgent, but I think it's one-for-one here. I did notice that he's not as consumed by rage here though. He does get murderously enraged, but there's more of a playfulness about it. Johnny's more concerned with riding the transient highs of murdering in a universe that he's hardly even registering as real. He's solidified into something different, and that reflects in his wardrobe. He's now wearing gloves a lot of the time, which can be partially explained by his worsening touch repulsion. Johnny isn't seen without one of his undershirts, and his shirts are now more consistently darker and understated compared to the beggining, with a lot of black and thin, clustered stripes dominating his oufits. There are little quirks here and there, like a necklace which doesn't make a second appearence, his fingerless gloves, his crop-top, and what's reading to my eyes as a dress. I have a diagnosed mood disorder and can tell you that mania is capable of influencing how you dress, and things like style exploration, but the overall downward shift is indicative of the fact that Johnny's newfound manic happiness is just a fragile veil covering his deteriorating sense of self.

JTHM #4: ANOTHER TIRESOME DESCENT

There isn't a major divergence from the trends of the previous issue regarding Johnny's outfits aside from a few noteworthy details. He's still wearing clothing that's consistently darker, but now he's always wearing his gloves, and there's been a shortsleeved jacked tossed into the rotation of his outfits. I also caught that in the prolonged periods where he's unable to leave his house that he'll grow his hair out somewhat, probably out of negligence more than intention. He's disillusoned with himself, and his situation, with his appearence becoming a reflection of that. However, in his final outfit there's a return to form, with an outfit that's almost identical to one he was wearing at the ending of the first issue. It's more understated, has an undershirt, and is lacking the thick stripes, but has a graphic print [which has been becoming increasingly rare in his outfits, as is observed], and is featuring stripes more prominently. He's also not wearing his gloves with which he'd previously been inseperable. I don't know how intentional this was on the part of JV, but it's an apt way of visually demonstrating the resistance he's now putting up against the Wall Thing, and his quest to reacquire his independence even if it's through death.

JTHM #6: A BRIEF FAILURE AT LIVING

He's wearing the outfit that he died in for a lot of this issue, and with the second one in this compilation I'll have to make a seperate post attempting to date that vignette based on his outfit and sorroundings due to some complications there. Nevertheless, I think the outfit that Johnny steals from the department store in Hell is worth examining. It's a combination of the motifs that defined his earliest appearences, such as the thick centerfacing stripes, and those of his later appearences like the jackets. It's showing how he's reconnecting with himself, and what's important to him, while coming to terms with being permeneantly changed by his experiences throughout the comic. He's not going to be able to return to that state of being, but he's still that person. I think this could also reflect how despite his growth throughout the story he's still carrying many of his deepest flaws, such as his self-punishing and shortsighted nature. It can be a glass half empty or a glass half full thing depending on your perspective, but this newfound compromise between the old and new is elaborated upon in the following issue.

JTHM #7: IN CONTROL OF A BROKEN MACHINE

I find it interesting that the outfit he's wearing in the cover is near-identical to the one he's wearing in the cover of the third installment. It seems to be contrasting his state of mind there [which was the result of misguided indulgence, escapism, and external influence] with his reclaimed independence. He's still got the pink-red eyes from that previous cover with the only difference being that they're from his goggles now. It's showing how he's created another prison to struggle inside through his asceticism and self-restriction, and thus enslaving himself despite earnest attempts at becoming free. It's also difficult to ignore the Hellraiser-type leather bondage-stuff going on there, and how that's in all likelihood related to his difficulties and shame sorrounding arousal. There's a more optimistic takeaway to be had from the rest of the outfits appearing in this last issue though. You can see a balance between all of the different articles that've defined all of Johnny's earlier appearences. There's outfits where he isn't wearing a longsleeve undershirt [which hasn't occured since the beggining of the comic], and where he is, or outfits where he's going with-without his gloves, jacket, or anything else he's been featured in. I find the one-time inclusion of a shirt with veritcal stripes to be intriguing. It's meant to be in contrast with Jimmy's attempts at emulating his Issue #1-styled outfits, and thus demonstrating the ways he's learned to grow past the self-absorption and misguided philosophies of that period of his life. I wouldn't call him anything close to happy by the end of the comics, but his outfits reflect that he's coming to terms with himself, and the changes and emotional fluctuations by which he's been defined. I don't know what to make of the fact that the dress-like slits that he's cut into most of his shirts is less common here, although not absent. I hope this has been insightful regarding how Johnny C's changing designs can often be reflective of his psychological state. It's something that's been jumping out to me upon re-reading the comic, but it's not something I see tapped into a lot in fanfiction or fanart.

TEXTURES, TOUCH-REPULSION, AND A THIRD T!

I've explained the reasons I think a lot of Johnny's clothing has to be DIY'd or otherwise customized, but I didn't get to touch upon a few theories I have about what's motivated him to go above and beyond in that department. I do believe a lot of that is the result of his artistic streak, but I've always suspected other reasons alongside that. I think Johnny in all likelihood has a lot of sensory issues. I could speculate about the origins of those, whether that's a processing disorder, trauma, his canonical touch repulsion, or something else in another post. However, it's relevant here due to how this could be influencing his wardrobe. I think he might cut his shirts into those loincloth or cape-like patterns due to him being underweight. He's dressed in a modest fashion a lot of the time, and that seems to be motivated by his hatred of anything touching him, or him touching anything else. I also get the impression that he doesn't like showing off his body due to self-conciousness. He isn't opposed to tight-fitting clothing based on the undershirts he's always wearing, but he'll always slip on a shortsleeved short above it that hangs off of him. Johnny is evidently one of those people who goes a size up when looking for shirts, but because he's unable to fill them out this presents a challenge. I've made a helpful diagram for showcasing this phenomenon, but without cutting his shirts it'll fold and pool awkwardly as he's moving around or sitting down. If he's not bothered by the look of it, then it'll most likely present issues considering he's always running, jumping, or lunging at someone with a knife in his hand [or multiple knives]. I wouldn't be surprised if him doing that was part-utilitarian, part self-expression, and him just being particular about how things fit him. I've also noticed that Johnny has a tendency to wear comforting fabrics when he's upset. I've included examples from his depressive episode in the fourth installment, his suicide attempts, and his conversation with Reverend Meat. There's this sweater-like shirt that keeps reappearing, and then there's that comfortable looking hoodie of a similar texture. I just found that interesting when thinking about what could be influencing his fashion decisions. I wouldn't be surprised if he liked the compression of his tightfitting, longsleeved shirts and gravitated to them for that.

CLOTHING MATERIAL: PROPOSITIONS AND CONFUSIONS

I heard JV saying a while ago that he's never seen a cosplayer that's looked like how he imagines Johnny, even though he's endeared that people are dressing up as his creations. I found that intriguing, and this entire post spawned from me looking through the comics to figure out how you'd adapt his outfits while keeping everything as canon-compliant as possible. I've already explained how I believe Johnny would've had to go about constructing these outfits, but here I'll just focus on the materials I suspect his clothing to be. I'm convinced that his shirts are cotton based on how responsive to movement and gravity they are, while always bunching and folding at his midsection in a way that's reminiscient of the material. It's not just any cotton, but probably thin cotton that's been overwashed. I had a more difficult time with his pants as there's more than one material to be identified. There's a lot of panels where his pants will be falling straight, not creasing or responding to any movement. I'm guessing those to be jeans that he's cut to accomodate his boots, but sometimes the lightning will hit those almost as if they're leather despite their fraying implying something else. It could be regular denim or wax-coated denim depending on the outfit. I don't think he's wearing cargo shorts because a lot of those are a lot baggier, and taper outward significantly more, than what you'll see in his appearences. I'm stumped regarding the other type of pants he'll wear that are full-length, but pushed up over his boots, like in the panel where he's laying deceased on the ground. I've attatched different techwear pants that could be a fit, and they're either nylon or blends of cotton and polyester. I don't know. If anybody's got input on these propositions I'd like to hear alternative propositions, but these are the conclusions I've reached.

TO BE CONTINUED; AN ADMISSION OF DEFEAT

I've been chipping away at this post for a couple of days now, and while satisfied I am at the point of begging for mercy and respite. I originally wanted to get into all the different changing designs on his shirt, and provide a list of repeating articles of clothing, but I'm fighting against the ten image maximum on Tumblr, so I'll put that in the tag and this blog's masterpost when I feel equipped for that undertaking. I hope this has given someone a newfound appreciation for the detail and thought that went into JTHM, or perhaps a soulcrushing horror at the sight of someone consumed by a borderline obsessive-compulsion to look at everything in these comics underneath a microscope.

[wastelocking]

JOHNNY C'S MODUS OPERANDI [AN EXTREMELY LONG POST] [WEAPONS, RESTRAINTS, METHODS, VICTIMS, STATISTICS!]

I don't know where to begin with this because there's so much to be evaluated and explained. It felt a bit like counting all the grains of sand on a beach while making this post, but it was a labor of love as always. I've attempted to write down all of Johnny's crimes throughout the comic for the purpose of putting them into tables and calculcating percentages for me to analyze in this gigantic fucking post. I'll be getting into everything from his usage of restraints, the demographic of his victims, his multitude of motivations, his weapons of choice, and anything and everything which has defined the violence of JTHM, and Johnny's character by extension. I'll be focusing on everything we see in the original comics exclusively to keep the scope of this post within reason so that I don't go even more insane, but I'll be making another post in future which gets into the Johnny C Twitter, Carpe Noctem, and additional panels in the Director's Cut in addition to all this.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RESTRAINTS [AND TORTURE!]

I'm going to start this off with some statistics. I'll be honest and disclose that they're not perfect, and due to the ambiguities of panelling it's impossible to get a perfect metric on a lot of this. Johnny is known for his impulsive killing sprees, but that accounts for about half of his crimes throughout the comics. He's just as fond of kidnapping and prolonged torture, both of which involve the use of restraints.

31.03% INVOLVE THE USAGE OF NAILS [He's often seen lugging around a large box of them for use and sitting.] 21.14% INVOLVE THE USE OF LEATHER STRAPS 21.14% INVOLVE THE USE OF METAL SHACKLES 17.24% INVOLVE THE USE OF METAL HOOKS 5.88% INVOLVE THE USE OF A STRAITJACKET AN UNKNOWN, BUT VERY, VERY, VERY LARGE PERCENTAGE OF THEM INVOLVE THE USE OF SUSPENSION OR STRESS POSITIONS [You'll see people hung upside down, like in the fifth issue, or with ropes putting pressure on their joints, like with Edgar and Tess]

I've noticed that a lot of his restraints are both low-tech but intentional. He wants physical discomfort to be constant and often plays into things like blood circulation, as seen with him hanging people upside down, tethering straps to their forehead to cut it off, suspending people from the ceiling, or tying them in a way that puts weight upon the top-half of their abdomens. Johnny uses a lot of materials that he'd be able to get in bulk from a hardware store, although due to the nature of the leather straps I suspect he's getting those from a BDSM shop for as hilarious as that it to imagine. I get the impression that his method of torturing isn't premeditated a lot of the time, however as I'll be mentioning in another section it can be influenced by the behavior of his victims. He plays a lot of his torturing by ear, acting off of impulsive or absurd ideas that he has, and carrying around boxes of his favorite supplies to keep things flexible, but he's also been demonstrated to sometimes start with an idea for torture [ex. "...find a cheerleader and saw her legs off"] for which he'll go seeking the perfect victim for. It seems that at the beggining of the comics he's more motivated by that spur-of-the-moment righteous anger he's known for, but as things progress he's increasingly driven more by curiosity, or a desire to push his limitations regarding what the human body can withstand, and what he can manage to execute. I also found it interesting how impersonal his methods of restraining get as the comic progresses. You'll go from these elaborate, or bordering on artistic, forms of torment to rooms of hostages all bound with near-indentical straps and positions in the fifth issue. He's still doing weird shit like ripping chunks out of people's brains, which demonstrates a level of anatomical competence, or putting rat's in people's asses, but there's a definite shift in his headspace as more of the torture rooms get filled up, requiring elevators and what looks to be industrial disposal and collection equipment at the start of the fourth issue.

10% OF HIS VICTIMS ARE DISMEMBERED 10% OF HIS VICTIMS HAVE THEIR GENITALS MUTILATED 6% OF HIS VICTIMS UNDERGO ELECTRICAL TORTURE

I'll be elaborating upon this in a section dedicated to weapons, but he's got a fondness for anything with a blade, and that's the most common way he'll hurt his victims. He'll stab them, slit their throat, or cut off their limbs, but he doesn't make cuts into his victims unless he's straight up disemboweling them. If he's interested in prolonging their suffering then he'll manipulate or stretch their bodies or drive things like nails, metal, and wood into them instead. I find that to be very psychologically revealing. Johnny has a profound hatred for anything revolving around the human body be that sex, its general functions, and especially its fluids. I find his emphasis upon these things when describing his victims ["...sweating, crying, screaming..."] to be connected to this. It makes sense that when attempting to inflict as much pain as possible upon people he'd think to subject them to all the facets of the body he personally finds the most horrifying and uncomfortable, but I'll get into that further in the dedicated section where I'll be talking about his psychological motivations. He'll go out of his way to extend the torture of his victims, but when he's actually determined to go in for the kill it's quick, often coming in a swift blade to the correct spot, or a succession of quick blades to the correct spot.

I also noticed that when killing sexual predators he'll go out of his way to expose their innards somehow, as demonstrated with him pulling the brain out of the man who attempted to prey upon Squee, and him opening the abdominal cavity of Jimmy upon learning he's a rapist. He also likes playing brain surgery sometimes with his victims.

CONTRAPTIONS AND MACHINES [FOUND AND BUILT!]

31.37% OF HIS VICTIMS ARE KILLED WITH MAKESHIFT TORTURE DEVICES [UTILIZING NAILS, WIRE, HOOKS, HIS STRAPS, ETC.] 10% OF HIS VICTIMS ARE KILLED WITH COMPLEX CONTRAPTIONS

It's established that Johnny ended up finding a lot of the more complicated torture contraptions upon coming to his current residence, such as the one that Edgar Vargas was put in, or the one that Dillon and Tess get strapped into. I do think he's probably built a lot of the more dingy ones though, such as the one involving a motor and leather straps. He's capable of making bombs so I'm sure that isn't impossible for him, and even with the contraptions he hasn't built he's still responsible for their maintinence and repair. I would guess that the more complicated machines aren't in the majority of the house's lower levels, or he just doesn't use them as often because it has to be tedious getting coagulated blood out of those metal crevices, and he's one for cleanliness despite his murderous preoccupations.

WEAPONS, WEAPONS, LOTS OF WEAPONS!

31.37% OF HIS VICTIMS ARE KILLED WITH BLADED WEAPONS [This is including knives, hatchets, axes, machetes, etc.] 15.68% OF HIS VICTIMS ARE KILLED WITH KNIVES 7.84% OF HIS VICTIMS ARE KILLED WITH HAMMERS 4% OF HIS VICTIMS ARE KILLED WITH BOMBS 4% OF HIS VICTIMS ARE KILLED WITH SCYTHES 4% OF HIS VICTIMS ARE KILLED WITH HIS HANDS [I'm including him stomping someone to death, or ripping someone's entrails out with gloves on, underneath this umbrella.] It's almost fifty-fifty regarding whether he'll kill at the first location or a second location, but there's a nearly one percent edge given to the first location which is probably just the result of convienience.

He'll kill someone with whatever he's got in his hand if provoked, but he'll generally carry a variety of weapons in a bag or backpack if he's going out with the intention of doing something violent. He's got a strong preference for bladed weapons, but that's not the only type of weapon that he'll use. I noticed that while it's rare that he'll use himself as a weapon the occasions where he does will usually involve a victim who's got traits which have caused him to be a target of ridicule in the past. He'll rip out someone's entrails for "reacting to verbal abuse by degenerating into a submissive dork" despite having been bullied in his childhood. He'll stomp someone to death for a lazy eye despite having a gangly and sickly appearence himself. It might be just a coincidence, and I'll be making a sequel to this post eventually incorporating the Johnny C Twitter into the equation for comparisons, but it's something to analyze nevertheless. He's not above disfiguring his victims, but doesn't leave a lot of them, if any, downright unrecognizable with the exception of the ones he's blowing up. I think the fact that he regularly makes bombs is one of my favorite, lesser-explored things about his killings. I'd guess the numbers here are being influenced by what Johnny can realistically carry, with knives, hammers, etc. ending up as more convienience compared to something like a scythe or powersaw.

I've heard a bit of back-and-forth on this, but I believe that Johnny generally takes very good care of his weapons or at least his favorites. He's seen cleaning them, and in JTHM's first cover they're gleaming in the low lighting of the basement. He's got a varied collecting with blades of different shapes, handles, and specialties. It's clear that he's very intentional in picking them based on what he's going for with a victim. He is sharpening them on a regular basis with the way he's able to make such clean cuts and decapitations throughout the comics, although with different weapons being strung around on the floor post-ressurection I'm guessing he can get sloppy with maintinence if he's mentally deteriorating, or just isn't that attatched to a common blade. He's got short blades, but a clear preference for longer blades!

JOHNNY C'S MANY, MANY, MANY...MANY VICTIMS!

72.55% OF JOHNNY'S VICTIMS ARE MEN. 27.45% OF JOHNNY'S VICTIMS ARE WOMEN.

I wish I could get you more percentages here, even if rough percentages, but calculating such a thing would both be impossible and a logistical nightmare. There isn't a reason, profile, or occupation provided for a lot of his victims so tallying them up by attribute and comparing them against an incalculable whole just wouldn't be possible. I can only tell you the most common reasons that people end up getting killed by Johnny as per my own, not-so-empirical observations upon re-reading.

Johnny overwhemingly kills men, and his complicated relationship with men and masculinity is something that others have elaborated upon, and is something I plan on dedicating a future post to whenever I get around to doing that. He targets in particular a lot of hypermasculine, overcompensating, or basically Testicles: High God of Testoserone types who go down screaming, cursing, and insulting him regardless of the tortures that he ends up subjecting them to. However, it's not like Johnny is particularly sympathetic to the meek such as himself based on the aforementioned "submissive dork" who he ends up killing. I've noticed that he is particularly brutal with groups of men who target him for beatings and group bullying, with the beatings seemingly being a semi-common occurence despite all of his knife-wielding. It's that which'll earn someone a trip to a second location and prolonged torture.

I think there's an argument to be made that Johnny is less brutal towards women, for whatever that's worth. They're less likely to be taken to a second location and tortured, although he is shown to subject women to his most extreme prolonged torture methods. However, I would argue there's a lot of complications and nuances to that assessment, such as the fact that a lot of the women he ends up targeting fits a hyperfeminine, vapid, appearence-obsessed stereotype. You could also argue that his hatred of cheerleaders is somewhat misogynistic even if in a subconcious sense of the word. I couldn't write this section without addressing the elephant in the room that is him killing his dates, or basically developing an unspecified relationship with women where he builds their trust only to corner them, and end their lives, as a way of preserving the positive feelings they give him. I don't think I have to explain how that's dehumanizing, or how him focusing on how "beautiful" Devi is while she's terrified of a knife-wielding maniac about to gut her like a fish might reflect poorly on him and his treatment of his lady victims. If he's less brutal to them then it's only on the condition that they meet a series of superficial criteria that might cause him to respect a woman more, or put her on a self-indulgent pedestal in the case of Devi. It's probably more accurate to say that he's a different type of insane to women. I'd keep in mind that despite everything he did torture Tess even though she didn't participate in Dillon's bothering of him, and he understood that she was probably being disrespected in her relationship. It was less severe, but she was still hooked up to electrodes and tied into a stress position.

I think the most common greivances that land his victims on the receiving end of a killing blow, regardless of gender, are making fun of his appearence, making fun of or drawing conclusions about his personality based on appearence, making fun of his assumed sexuality [or calling him a faggot if we're going to be direct], or just all forms of physical and verbal harassment. I've mentioned before that physical intimidation or group intimidation ends up earning people a spot in his basement. It's definitely worth pointing out that Johnny will knowingly kill innocent people if he's just jonesing to murder in general, or is desperate to collect blood, but the majority of his victims are probably assholes as demonstrated in the fifth installment. If he's killing for another reason then it's probably something abstract and petty like perceived arrogance, their appearence, or finding them mildly annoying. I'd put a lot of his victims in the 20-40 range just by eyeballing it, but he's willing to go higher than that. I think young adults make up the largest portion of his victims though. He doesn't kill children in the comics, but ends up doing so on the Johnny C Twitter, and has a preserved fetus, so interpret that as you will.

ECCENTRICITIES, CURIOSITIES, AND OBSERVATIONS!

I don't have a single thing that'll be defining this section, and I'll instead just be listing off observations that I made while analyzing all of the murdering that Johnny does throughout JTHM. He is clean about his killing despite often making it as grotesque and absurd as possible, or perhaps mindful is a better word. It's rare that he actually gets blood on himself while perpetrating horrible acts of violence; I believe the only time he becomes drenched in it is when he ends up shooting the convenience clerk in the head, and that's explained by the fact that he doesn't like touching guns and is thus inexperienced with them. He is knowledgable enough about anatomy to always be standing opposite to the direction of oncoming blood spatter, and when killing-torturing people in his basement he'll either keep his space clean [with few exceptions explained in-context by obvious mental deterioration], or even place newspaper down when painting the wall. Johnny isn't squeamish about blood because he's regularly handling it, and meticulously collecting it, but he's said to hate blood nonetheless!

...It's for that reason which I suspect that electrocution might be one of his favorite methods of torture. I know that sounds farfetched as it's a rarer method of torment, relatively speaking, but I think it's what he resorts to when striving to milk someone's suffering the most. It's bloodless, painful, prone to causing physical-mental deterioration, and isn't going to kill someone unless you're overdoing it. He reserves it for people who do particularly egregious offenses, such as interrupting a movie that he loves, and when he is resorting to it then it'll become something he does hourly, as seen with Dillon and the guy who's hooked up to all of his electrical appliances. I'll be getting into this in the next section, but I think Johnny gets a lot of satisfaction out of dehumanizing, humiliating, and debasing his victims. He'll do mercy killings when he feels it'd be "mean" to let someone live in a damaged state, so him leaving Dillon incoherent, scared, and lobotomized feels like a step above everything else he's done. If you actually read testimonies on electrical torture then you'll be able to appreciate how much he fucking hated him, or the others he's used that torture on.

I'm obligated to bring something else up, on the subject of hatred, and that's the genital mutilation that's present in his killings at about 10%. It doesn't sound like a whopping metric unless considering how much killing that Johnny does on a regular basis. It's something that is seemingly linked to his victims making derogatory comments or jokes about his sexuality, based on given information and the narration of the comics. I just find it interesting how much that seems to get to him compared to all else, but there can be multiple interpretations of that. It's something that happens only to his male victims, but is worth examining with how far he can go with it. He'll put hooks into crotches, or get snakes to start biting at people's junk, but he's also shoved things up the asses of victims, which is rape even if not done for the purpose of sexual gratification. It's more about emasculating for him, in my eyes, especially with how dudebro-machismo a lot of his victims are.

I also find it intriguing that he keeps and preserves parts of his victims, be it organs or entire faces. I don't think it's something deep for him. He probably just thinks they look cool, but I wanted to point it out anyways. If it is deep for him then I think it goes back to the dehumanization that lies at the heart of his motivations. He's able to minimize the personhood of his victims, and the emotional impact that their words have on him, through imagining them as nothing but meat.

SADISM AND PSYCHOLOGICAL MOTIVATIONS!

I think there's a lot of room for interpretation here, but for the purposes of this post I'm going to attempt to stick as close to the textual content of the comics as possible. Johnny is a fascinating criminal to examine psychologically because his motivations are a lot more complicated than a lot of other serial killers like him. I'll go one-by-one and try connecting the dots between all of these different internal drivers, and how they're feeding into one another throughout JTHM. He's killing people to feed his wall, but that's not his primary motivation for murdering people considering that he was doing "ghoulish things" before it started feeding upon his mind. In his own eloquent words, he seeks to cause "obscene agony" when inflicting harm upon his victims, but he's disgusted with blood and sex, so his sadism is a lot more pathological than sexual. I believe that he's control-motivated in a broad, general sense. It's this motivation that acts like a hydra head that splits off into various other sub-motivators. It's this borderline compulsive need for control that has caused him to resort to violence as a form of self-regulation.

CRIMES OF PASSION & EDUCATION

Johnny is a cup that's always filled to the top because, as JV has said in the interview accompanying this section, things have been ghastly in his past to the point of leaving him unable to function in everyday life, and always prone to emotional dysregulation. He's motivated by rage in a lot of his murders which is either caused by specific social infractions or just a baseline, implacable upset that he'll offload by going to crowded places such as clubs, malls, and cafes for spreekilling. In the cases where he's killing someone who's wronged him, I believe that he's doing so to "correct" a moment in time where he was made to feel humiliated or otherwise underminded. He's a sensitive guy, and so by turning a painful moment into screaming and blood he's able to quite literally paint over the negative feelings they inspire in him. It's interesting to look at Johnny's crimes of passion as essentially a substitute for his normal painting, and therefore motivated by the same creative instinct that a lot of artists have to process through manual creation and restructuring. He's got an distaste for people who respond to abuse with submission, and I'm assuming he's applying those standards to himself, so in his mind he'd be letting himself down by not retaliating to harassment in one form or another. If he's perpetuating violence instead of receiving it then he doesn't have to feel uncomfortable with his own victimization or feel defined by that. I think the "education" part of these crimes introduced in the fourth issue is an interesting component to all of this. He's not planning on letting his victims out alive, unless in rare circumstances, so he's not like John Kramer where he straightforwardly wants to teach his victims a lesson that they'll then absorb, and implement into their worldview so that they might become better individuals. They'll be far too dead to get started on that. He's instead seeking to undo those moments where he's underminded by forcing his victims to listen to him, forcing them to be subjected to his perspectives, and forcing them to confront either the falseness or meaninglessness of their perceived superiority above them. You could argue that he fails to educate most of his victims who often end up insulting him more, or failing to show remorse, regardless of his methods. However, I don't think that's something he cares about. If they don't repent then that'll just make them easier to kill. He wants to feel like their opinions doesn't matter, and he wants to make them feel like their opinions don't matter, because he might be a lanky faggot-looking gothdude, but he's still going to be the one that's burying them by the end of the night. He's educating them less on how wrong it was to be mean to him and more on their own worthlessness, and to this purpose he enjoys breaking down the resolve of his victims. I'll get into that in another upcoming section, but I'll pivot elsewhere in the meanwhile.

CRIMES OF PRESERVATION & AVOIDANCE

I've mentioned that Johnny is control-motivated and is killing as a method of self-regulation, and I wouldn't consider him trying to "preserve the moment" as a seperate motive from that at all. He's not just killing to preserve the happiness that he gets from women like Devi, but also to avoid being abandoned by them, or brushing up against situations that make him uncomfortable or inadequate. It seems like he intended to go on a normal date with Devi, but when things took an intimate turn he panicked, both because he's sex-repulsed and because it was something he wanted in that moment. If he wants something then he can be deprived, rejected, or otherwise made to be ashamed. He couldn't bear to love and lose and so rather than continuing to get to know Devi as a person he decided to turn her into an inhuman idol, a series of memories and remembered fuzzy feelings, because that was more managable, and that would give him more control over the situation, his feelings, and his environment. You can't be hurt by an archetype, or an idea, but I'll be making another post about his relationship with Devi so I'll cap this thought here.

DEHUMANIZATION, HUMILIATION

I'm being intentional with the order in which I'm elaborating upon these submotives. He sought to preserve Devi but Johnny also sought to dehumanize her into something which could be easier to process for him, and that's something he does across a lot of his victims. I think this is elaborated upon best when he's killing that pedophile in front of Squee in an attempt to prove that he's not worth devoting nightmares, which all but spells out that through killing people he's trying to convince himself that the pain they're inspiring is nothing but smushed brain matter and hacked up limbs. He knows this is unproductive, and really ineffective considering how enraged he is anyways, but he feels like he's beyond redemption or help, and so he continues onward. I also find that vignette where he's talking about that women who was trying not to give him the satisfaction of crying out extremely telling. He's talking about breaking her down with such delight, probably more than we get to see in any of his other appearences. Nailbunny is right to call him out on prefering his lifestyle to the companionship of good people because while that might be good for him it can't provide the narrative reconstruction he's looking for when killing people. I think he knows the fact that he chose to go down this path, even if he doesn't remember his past anymore, probably implies that even when he was capable of rehabilitation or intervention that a normal life wasn't able to fill that gaping hole inside of him. Johnny finds a lot of satisfaction in dehumanizing his victims by turning them into "effegies" or thinking of them in terms of bodily functions, perspirating pores and bleeding flesh, but he's also revelling in their mental degradation, whether that's manifesting as idiotic cursing, screaming, or remorseless pleading. I think there's a part of him that loves watching his victims makes asses out of themselves. He also enjoys humiliating them by subjecting them to all of the things about the human body which makes him the most disgusted and uncomfortable, as I've previously mentioned. JTHM is an absurdist comedy, but like I've said before, I like my interpretations Watsonian, and so I'll examine even that part of his killings from a character standpoint. There's often a playfulness about it. He's doing shit like forcing his victims to play Twister, or cracking one-liners before slamming a hammer into their faces. I think this a method of seperating himself from what he's doing aside from that just being him dicking around and having a little fun. He gets uncomfortable when he starts recognizing his victims as innocent people, and turning everything into a game puts this bubblewrap around his actions that just barely keeps him from ending it all.

OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE THEORIES

I've established that Johnny's mind is filled with an endless onslaught of homicidal fantasies regardless of whether there's anything aggravating in his environment or not. It's so constant that combined with the nature of his insistence upon keeping his wall painted, even to the point of hoarding victims by the hundreds, that I feel the possibility of him having obsessive-compulsive tendencies should be considered. It's something that's also supported by the weird, incomprehensible shit that he'll do at times with no discernable motive. Johnny is big into cleanliness, or at least enough so to avoid getting blood on himself, and keep his torture rooms cleaned up when not decomposing from depression, so why's he filling dolls with blended rat guts and throwing them at his walls? I feel the answer to that's probably a mix of delusions, obsessive-compulsions, and already poor impulse control that's only getting worse.

"KNIFE IN THE FLESH" CONUNDRUM

Do you see this interview excerpt? I've seen this used as fuel for a lot of different headcanons about Johnny, and if you're trying to form a solidified interpretation of him then it's a bit of a large wrench to consider as it's being tossed at you sideways. I've heard people arguing for both hypersexual, asexual, etc. headcanons using this because it is so ambigious that it can support anything depending on how you look at it. If his libido is finding an outlet through some of his murders then does that imply that he's getting off on them, even if that's only an occasional and involuntary thing? Is he actually just using the disgust, distraction, and self-disgust he feels upon killing people as a way of driving away sexual desires that were already presenting themselves, like the saying about taking a cold shower? I have no fucking idea. I'm of the opinion that it might be a combination of both, but it'd be interesting to hear other people's thoughts because I change my stance upon this depending on the day. I put this at the tailend of the post because it's probably best considered as a piece in a larger puzzle, and body of stated information about Johnny, rather than in isolation.

[wastelocking]

MY THOUGHTS ON DEVI & JOHNNY [DEVNNY]

I've been thinking a lot about these two because they're making my stomach hurt with how doomed from the start things were between them. I also find them interesting regarding the opposite ways that they've responded to trauma and have developed their self-perception around it. It's the key to their mutual unhappiness! I'll be putting my thoughts underneath the cut.

DEVI D; THE D STANDS FOR DATES!

Devi is interesting in that she's very well-adjusted but not without her flaws at the start. She's a good conversationalist and is capable of a lot of warmth towards others, preferring to laugh through life, and sometimes getting this kicked-puppy look in her eyes when she's worried that she's hurt someone. It's this attitude which has gotten her through a lot of bad situations, but has made her avoidant of emotional reflection. She doesn't like dwelling on things, and might swerve past attempts at prying something deeper out of her, which puts her at odds with Johnny. He's adapted to life in the complete opposite way, as he's always ruminating on his turmoil to the point of drowning in it. Devi has something of a complicated past herself between car wrecks and an absent, potentially drug-addicted mother. Nevertheless, she's had enough support in her life between her father, Tenna, and other friends to overcome her circumstances. She just can't relate to that endless fountain of rage and despair always threatening to spill over in him, much less recognize and unconditionally accept it in the ways that he's so desperate for. I think that's what really gets me about them. I could sing odes to their would-be points of compatability, such as their shared passion for art, books, and movies. I could even say that perhaps it would've been good for Johnny to have someone who was capable of grounding him, and teaching him how to laugh at things instead of defining himself in hatred of them. However, I think something unavoidable is the fact that Devi and Johnny weren't ever going to go anywhere. She would've been freaked out by his delusional fits, homicidal tendencies, and mood swings had she ever been exposed to them for prolonged periods. I wouldn't be surprised if she would've found Johnny's endless status of being "wronged" as pathetic and self-indulgent if ever subjected to his bouts of melodramatic prose considering her own habits of letting things roll off her shoulders. ...I can't even fault her for coming to those conclusions, but it's just so tragic because no amount of prolonged closeness between these two can result in anything but dissapointment. They're so compatible, but they're so incompatible. They're everything that makes them feel isolated and miserable wrapped in a layer of what they want so bad.

JOHNNY C; THE C STANDS FOR CELIBACY!

Devi isn't asking for much. She just wants a nice, meaningful connection with a guy who can appreciate her for her intelligence instead of her looks. I think to say that she barked up the wrong chain-length electrical fence with Johnny is the understatement of the century though. He's got the whole "not looking at her like that"-thing down, and he can appreciate her mind, but can't reciprocate her emotional maturity and stability without keeping her at an enourmous distance. She wants him but only because she doesn't know that he's everything that she doesn't want. I think Johnny knows this and it can be seen in their interactions. He likes interacting with Devi but seems to be filled with so much discomfort and shame while doing so because he just can't be himself around her, or at least not his complete self. He's always curling in on himself, and he talks a little differently, and whenever more earnest parts of himself begin to creep out and are unrecognized, or get shut down, there's this look of frustration that he gets. I think it's directed at himself more than Devi for being unable to be what she's looking for even when trying his hardest. He feels for her but those feelings just make him hate himself more than inspire him towards anything productive. I think that panel where he's looking at himself in the mirror, all dressed up in one of his nicer shirts, while his face is unseen in the broken mirror gets the point across with how absent he is in their interactions. I look at his appearence in IFS, and the most depressing thing about them to me is the fact that they never knew one another, not really.

I LIED; THE D WAS FOR DETERMINISM!

Johnny says "he had something" when describing her. She's something to him, a feeling to be preserved and perhaps an idea, the idea of a world where he can be happy, or the idea of a person who could make him feel normal and acceptable. It's what she has to be because recognizing her as a person, and getting acquainted to her on that basis, opens him up to a level of rejection and exposure that's intolerable to him. It's a dehumanizing sentiment to hold while stalking a romantic interest that he attempted to kill, and traumatized in the process, but I can't even call it an inaccurate one. He had something, nothing in particular as it didn't get the chance to blossom, that hinged upon someone being unaware that he's half in La-La-Land most of the time. He talks about Devi once away from her in that same detatched, archetypal way he talks about everything else, like it's a figment which is hardly there, although I guess that is accurate in her case. He knows he's transgressed against her, severely and unforgivably so, but can't face the depth of it either because of insanity or the sheer painfulness of it, and his inability to ever make it right, depending on the moment. He had something, but the something in question left him convinced that happiness and connections is impossible for him, that he's too broken for that, which is Devi's takeaway from what happened between them as well. It's fascinating how they've managed to shatter one another's hopes so completely, and in Devi's case without even doing anything. It's really depressing on her end of things because by IFS she's still compassionate, intelligent, and quick-witted, but she's completely settled into her self-avoidance and self-described "compulsive life"...

FINAL THOUGHTS, TRAGIC IN NATURE

I really like the panel because in my eyes the point of it isn't that he didn't wait long enough to go to that happier world. It was his hand that prevented him from reaching it because he's the obstacle between him, and the connections that he's wanting. I think it's easy to say that he could've done better with Devi, and attempted to implement her good traits into himself. He definitely could've done better by not trying to stab her with giant knives, but I don't think there's much that could've salvadged things from a long-term perspective beyond that. I don't think that most people are beyond rehabilitation, even people who are violent, but Johnny is definitely beyond complete rehabilitation and redemption. He's incapable of being apart of her world. or anyone's world if they're not okay with being around a psychotic, obsessive-compulsive. He knows this, but he still wants, and so he compulsively seeks out surface-level relationships with people who he'll then try killing when the required surface-level nature of those relationships only reinforces the conviction that he's fundamentally and irreperably broken. ...I like thinking about these two even if it hurts because I understand both sides of this, being a psychotic obsessive-compulsive and someone who's a shut-in who's had knives pulled on him. I guess the takeaway from this post is to be kind to anybody you know that's struggling with severe mental health problems and is dealing with the isolation of that, and to draw these two living in a happy world where the stars they they loved sitting underneath so much alligned to allow their happiness together, or write it, or sculpt it, or use whatever medium.

[wastelocking]

WASTELOCKS AND ARTWORK; A FEW IDEAS

I know a few people have mentioned the possibility of Johnny transforming into a tentacle amalgamation resembling the thing in his walls, but I propose something in addition to this. Is Johnny taking the primordial shape of that creature or is the creature assuming a convienient form that's been sourced the imagination of its current host? What if it doesn't have a true form in the corporeal sense? I noticed when preparing a different post that one of Johnny's paintings in the fourth issue resembles Krik's recollection of his transformation.

However, it's stated that Johnny hasn't been painting for a while as a result of his creative abilities being siphoned, so this painting has to predate whenever he ended up kidnapping Krik, which is said to be a few months before the fifth issue. You could draw a few conclusions off this depending on when you believe this painting was created. If it was made in the earliest stages of Johnny's parasitic deterioration, then it's a self portrait that implies he might've once been aware of his transformations. If it was made before he started being consumed at all, then the wall must've assumed its physical form through this painting in the same fashion it would through Devi's painting of Sickness, or if not this specific painting then perhaps others like it throughout the levels of Johnny's house. If that's the case, then does the thing-induced apocalypse look different for every host? If it was an abstract self portrait that Johnny made of himself before his mental infestation then is the thing in his walls partial to latching onto artistic representations of the self, even if not the whole self, as seen with the Doughboys?

If you believe Johnny when he says that he's never seen the thing in his walls, including when it's inhabiting his flesh, then this would seemingly be the implication here. It's dependent upon its host for their "powers of invention" and so its initial form will in a lot of cases probably be created by its unfortunate host. If that's the case, then now I'm wondering at what stage of the consumption process did the thing in Johnny's walls start inhabiting his insides? It's not happening to Devi in the earliest stages of her own struggles against this creature, so it could be something that started happening in the last pre-apocalyptic stages, but it could've also been happening in the first stages of his deterioration. What if it was the very first thing that started happening, even before the autonomous sentience of the Doughboys, which is why he was able to paint what was happening...that is assuming the painting wasn't from before him becoming a wastelock? I feel like the possibilities are endless here, but the fact that Johnny probably screwed himself over in his odds against this thing by having nothing but freaky paintings and science-fiction posters in his house is hilarious. Do you think that if he started painting again, during his fight against this thing, that he could've gained inadvertant control over its presentation, and his own transformations by extension? I'll have to write about that.

I could go a step further and speculate on whether that painting always looked like that or not considering that Sickness added to her own source. I mean, just imagine if Johnny drew a perfectly normal self portrait, or series of portraits, only for some Dorian Grey shit to start happening to them? I'd like to think he's just into drawing stuff like the distorted people and faces that are seen across his house, but it's an interesting thing to consider nevertheless, and I think both ideas could coexist considering how suspiciously Johnny is looking at the paintings in the second cover where the Doughboys are framed among others. It probably started off as little discrepancies, like someone in a portrait looking off to the left instead of the right, and then they began smiling... I like the idea of some of these being of his old friends, and them becoming unrecognizable as he forgets all of them.