New ‘Invader Zim’ Episodes Appear On Vine… Sort Of [Video]

Seven years since the last new episode of Invader Zim broadcast on Nickelodeon, fans of the enduringly popular sci-fi comedy have finally got what they asked for: new Zim animation from creator Jhonen Vasquez.

Well, not really. Barely. Hardly. It really depends on how liberally you wish to define "animation." If it can mean "terribly drawn cutouts manipulated by someone's hands in front of an iPhone for a few seconds," then Zim fans are in luck.

The truly hilarious saga of a dangerously inept, wannabe alien invader who who wears an Elvis wig to disguise himself as a human child (and his sidekick GIR, a robot made of garbage), Invader Zim ran for 46 episodes on Nickelodeon between 2001 and 2006, earning a fan base so large as to necessitate an actual Invader Zim convention and a ceaseless stream of merchandise that continues to this day. Unfortunately, this was unforeseen by Nickelodeon and the show was cancelled before completion of its second season, reportedly for low ratings amongst a desired demographic. Since then, Vasquez has been asked at virtually every opportunity -- likely every single day of his life -- if or when Zim will return with new episodes, which as we can see from the clips below has obviously driven him to madness.

"You wanted new episodes of Zim, you got 'em! Be thankful!!" was what Vasquez captioned an amusingly crude video posted to Vine on Sunday night. The cartoonist behind the memorably... well, bad Bad Art Collection would no doubt characterize the clips as very bad indeed, but they nevertheless constitute the first new Invader Zim content in quite some time. The last time we saw anything this substantial is when the voice cast reunited at 2011's Invadercon to perform some completed but ultimately unproduced scripts.

While Vasquez and Nickelodeon will likely not reunite to produce more Invader Zim cartoons (properly), the cartoonist has been keeping busy in the animation business. He worked on character designs for the Disney XD series Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja, and announced this year that he was working with Titmouse, Inc. (producers of Jim Mahfood's D.I.S.C.O. Destroyer) to adapt his cult classic comic book Squee (and perhaps its similarly beloved predecessor, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac).