The Medium-Sized Book of Zim Scripts: Vol. 1: Pigs ’n’ Waffles: The stories, and the stories behind the stories of your favorite Invader

by Eric Trueheart, Rikki Simons (Illustrator), Aaron Alexovich (Illustrator)

For two years of his limited lifespan on this planet, Eric Trueheart was a staff writer on the cult hit show INVADER ZIM, and was responsible for writing some of the most beloved episodes of the series.This unauthorized and unofficial collection not only brings you the scripts for some of those favorites, but also the stories of how they came to be, and a rubber pig-load of memories from inside one of the strangest cartoon series in the history of the legendry beast they call "Kids' TV."READ IT, OR FACE YOUR DOOM!This volume includes scripts for the episodes... - "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy" - "Hamstergeddon" - "GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff" - "ZIM Eats Waffles" - "Mortos Der Soulstealer" - and the lost episode turned comic book issue "Pants!"Art by original series artist Aaron Alexovich, and Rikki "The Voice of GIR" Simons.

Genres: Nonfiction

282 pages, Paperback

Published July 27, 2020

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes. This was awesome. Even though there was a TON of typos. Even a page of a script got doubled and therefore the next page skipped. This was written end of last year and so clearly was produced quickly. But it was still great. Really cool to learn even more about how the show came to be. I laughed out loud some and smiled more. I hope another volume is written.

[Rachel]

yes i read this a month ago and didn't post it here but it is in fact a book i read this year. gonna hit my goodreads goal somehow

feeling really validated about some piping hot invader zim lore takes i had in 2005 after reading this. vindication after fifteen years

i have a lot i could say but i will spare both you and myself.

[Joe Jaffa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly fun book that takes me back to being a kid and loving this show. Goes into great detail about the scripts, what it was like to work on the craziest NickToon, and the shock and disappointment when it was abruptly cancelled. It squashes many rumors Zim fans have had over the years (Dib was never going to die in Bad Bad Rubber Piggy and Invader Dib was never a proposed finale to name two.)

The thing that stops this from being five stars (and almost brought this down to three) is the constant typos. Did anyone actually proofread this? Throughout the entire book, I found words misspelled. It wasn't just once or twice, but there were far too many of them to count. And then, when the script for "Pants!" was shared at the end, page 2 was printed twice, with no page 3. Hopefully these will be fixed in later editions.

[Kelsey Love · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book desperately needed an editor. There are many, many typos, but more frustrating is how meandering the writing is. Trueheart is obviously a sarcastic writer, yet there are so many facetious asides and jokes that by the midway point I was noticing how little true information was given, making me feel like I was wasting my time even reading the book.

[Charlotte Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hope this book does well enough that Trueheart is able to do more. In the immortal words of GIR, "I love this show"

[Dusty · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a ride. Love what Trueheart can do with a sentence, even if it often leaves me baffled and laughing nervously. It was great, not only to see how some of the episodes came about, but some of the jokes that never made it to screen or pitches that got nixed early on. There’s snippets of lore and ongoing correction for the Zim Wiki and randomness coming out the ears. This is definitely a surreal read and loads of fun. I waited until the physical copy was available because I’ll take a book in my hands over Kindle any day. No regrets. Here’s hoping he really will do a volume 2 (about the episodes that he CO-wrote, as opposed to this book about his solo ventures).