invader zim

In 2020 (when I was around 9-10) when I was bored out of my mind, I dicovered Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus on Netflix. It was recommended to me for a while, but I avoided it because I have never been a huge fan of alien shows or movies. But I deciced to watch it out of boredom and essentially forgot about it until I went on Hulu one day and found the show the movie was based off, and got hooked. I rewatched the movie and finally understood the characters in it. I have adored this show ever since!

I think about Invader Zim every fucking day. Mostly scenarios in my brain about Dib's and Zim's relationship (once you're a ZADR shipper you're a shipper forever). Actually help.

What the heck is Invader Zim?

If you've been living under a fucking rock this entire time, Invader Zim is a show that was created in 2001 by Jhonen Vasquez, which aired on Nickelodean. Unfortunetely, the show was cancelled due to poor ratings from it's target audience of kids 2 to 11. Despite this, Invader Zim is widely recognized as a classic with old Nick shows, coming back to get a series of comics throughout 2015-2021 an a movie in 2019.

So the plot is about this stupid wimpy alien named Zim who tries to invade Earth with his robot GIR but miserably fails every time, and his plans are kinda stupid (though he comes really close in the movie). Then this 12 year old kid named Dib who's hyperfixated on aliens tries to stop Zim but also fails miserably fails. Dib also has a purple haired sister named Gaz (does she dye her hair...?) and a dad named Professor Membrane that is negligent the majority of the time. There's also Zim's leader's Red and Purple (or The Tallest for short) who hate him and banished him to Earth in the first place. That's all I'm elaborating.

I love it's pointy artstyle and just the gloomy vibes. Not a lot of shows do this often and the only example I can think of it Making Fiends! This show made me a sucker for pointy artstyles in the future, and made me want to make a TV show as cool as Invader Zim.

Involvement in the fandom

My first real social media besides from Youtube was Amino when I was around 10 (we don't talk about that era...) and later Instagram when I was 11. I started making and posting fanart and started writing fanfics (though my Invader Zim fanfics are never good because I can never get the character personalities down). My first real fanfic that I've made was a ZADR fanfic that I made in Google Docs that is now lost to time. I made 3 fan OCs (Eemy, RIR, and MIR) in 2022, which I don't use much anymore, but I've considered drawing them again. I also made a lot of quizzes on Quotev in summer 2022, and some of them are still up! I even excusively followed IZ fan artists for a while as well before I got sick of IZ only on my feed 😭

I also used to eat up those ZADR and just general Invader Zim animatics and videos (they're how I discovered Lemon Demon in the first place tbh)

I also played The Invader Zim Dating Sim a while back which was uhhh...an experience ever that's for sure!!!!

My favorite headcanons are:

- Dib listens to Lemon Demon

- Dib and Dipper from Gravity Falls would be besties (I want an official collab so bad)

- Dib has anxiety and depression (this is only so he can relate to me tbh)

- Zim has trust issues

- Dib has a one sided crush on Zim but Zim doesn't care/is too oblivious or,

- Dib and Zim would be besties

- Gaz and Tak would be besties (I forgot to mention Tak...but that's kinda spoilers)

- GIR would listen to nightcore

- Zim would love and be fascinated with snow globes

Comics

Nickelodeon created Invader Zim comics throughout 2015-2021, in the form of 50 issues, 7 volumes, and 4 quarterly comics, which take a while to read fully.

I've read every comic and I distinctly remember the hype over the last comic coming out, which imo wasn't a very good finale, and you can tell Jhonen Vasquez was getting bored of writing Invader Zim :,) Still, I think the last comic is a very cute but confusing ending (they time travel I think? I haven't read it in a while).

One aspect I really like about the comics is that they introduce a new character named Recap Kid, who, as you can tell from their name, recaps the show and the previous issue, which I've grown to like. I also like that they include other artists to draw an issue and interpret the characters in their own way!

Also all the characters look extra stupid, especially Zim and Dib, who make the funniest panels. (I like calling the characters stupid because they are stupid (affectionate). Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.)

Games

Invader Zim is still being included in a lot of Nickelodeon games today, so it's nice to know that the show is not completely forgotten about (the most recent as of 2024 is the Nickelodeon All-Stars Brawl). Whenever Zim is in a Nickelodeon game, Zim usually looks so scary and uncanny in 3D. The only Invader Zim specific games are Dib's Nanochase, Good GIR Gone Bad, In-Sanitation, and The Doom Game, with Dib's Nanochase and In-Sanitation being very hard to find.

The only Invader Zim I've played personally was The Doom Game, while it was still up on some UK version of the Nickelodeon website (UK version's of cartoon websites usually have more games up than the US version most of the time for some reason). What really annoys me is how the game is NOT multiplayer, despite you having to switch between GIR and Zim frequently. The game isn't much, being very tedious, but you can finish in less than an hour (probably idk I'm not double checking).

Movie

On August 16, 2019, Nickelodeon released Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus on Netflix.

This movie was my first encounter with Invader Zim, and I couldn't thank this movie enough! This is one if my favorite movies ever, and I always rewatch it once in a while. I watched the movie so many times that I could repeat every line when it was playing!

Trying to not give too many spoilers, that intro is just straight up a JoJo reference with an abosolutely insane artstyle, which confused the heck out of me when I first watched it, but very funny! The movie looks a lot different from the main show, having brighter, more pastel colors and having the characters be a bit rounder, but I personally like it!. Also Dib and his dad's relationship in this movie is so cute, as well as Gaz not hating Dib that much. New characters show up too! And the backgrounds are so pretty! Highly recommend watching this movie at least once. :>

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This is only so I can talk about Dib

There are 4 variations of Dib, science/concept art Dib (really hard to find images of this Dib bc it's only really in the Invader Zim art book), Pilot Dib (yellow shirt), TV show Dib, and Movie Dib. He's the kid obbessed with aliens, if you forgot.

Dib Membrane is a character that I really resonate with, even though in a technical sense I don't really. I don't relate to his family life or his interests or whatnot, but he's stuck with me out of all the other characters. As I do with all my other favorite characters, I project on them a lot when it comes to writing my fanfics and coming up with stories in my head (which ends up not making that character not very accurate to cannon anymore, but I don't really care). I think he was one of my first cartoon crushes when I was 10, though I can't really tell now. He is me and I am him.

Merch that I have

I bought an GIR sweater from Hot Topic and the Invader Zim art book for my 13th birthday, but I'm planning on buying so much more merch, especially the comic books!

Conclusion

Invader Zim impacted me in a way I can't even imagine. It's so hard to describe why I love this show because I'm always at a lost of words. I hope this shrine shows why I love this stupid franchise so much!

Now time for the fun stuff:

Fanart

I've made a fuck ton of Invader Zim art around the years, but most of them are in my old sketchbooks or old CSP files that are now gone. But here's some of my fanart that I can still find or are recent! (I'm uploading my Invader Zim OCs later so I can get better photos)