Pepito

A scene in JtHM #4 includes an early appearance of Pepito. This early, slightly different design of Pepito can be seen holding the hand of his mother in the panel in which Devi recalls the day she saw Nny at the bookstore. He also appears, in this same form, in the nightmare Squee has after Johnny leaves his room at the end of JtHM #7.

Pepito is a new classmate of Squee's who happens to be the Antichrist. Squee secretly agrees with Pepito's apocalyptic rantings, but isn't quite sure those who have taunted or hurt him in his life really deserve to be punished. After inviting Squee over for dinner one night, Pepito professes his boredom with the human world, and complains to his father, Satan, that he has no one to play with in this "infernal inferno". This prompts Satan to try and recruit Squee into his dark army by using a metaphor involving breadsticks and nachos, among other things, basically implying that Squee's life will be better overall if he would simply give up his soul. Squee politely declines Satan's offer and the subject is immediately and permanently dropped. Despite this, Pepito still considers Squee and himself friends.

Shmee

Squee carries around with him a dilapidated teddy bear he has named Shmee. Often, Squee talks to Shmee like a real person, confiding in the stuffed toy, who apparently responds though no readable dialogue is ever exchanged between the two, save one strip in which Squee has a conversation with Shmee in his dreams. Shmee claims to be a "trauma sponge", soaking up all the negative feelings and experiences and storing them inside himself for Squee. He says this will prevent Squee from becoming like Johnny C. During the silent exchanges they share on various occasions, Shmee often suggests that Squee do something violent, like arson in retaliation for some wrong committed against him. Squee laughs these suggestions off, assuming that Shmee is joking, though to the reader it is fairly obvious that he is not.

Issue 1

The series begins with Squee in bed praying for his father to be happy, when he notices that his teddy bear, Shmee is not in bed where he should be, he finds him in the closet where two aliens are waiting to abduct Squee for experiments. Another pair of aliens, who are notably more intelligent than the first pair, show up, and the aliens all argue over who should get to take Squee back with them and perform their tests on him, until the second pair tricks the others and take Squee for themselves. Squee later returns home just in time to go to school the next morning. On the way he sees his only friend get attacked by a small dog after his lunch, who proceeds to drag him into his dog house where he is assumed killed. At school, a new kid named Pepito joins the class, and claims to be the antichrist. Pepito is immediately disgusted by everyone in the class except for Squee who he knows feels the same way as him about the others. Pepito violently attacks the other schoolchildren and decimates the school, until the teacher excuses class for the day.

Issue 2

During a family drive, Squee is dropped off at a restaurant to use the restroom. While at the urinal, Squee hears a man in the stall groaning and screaming. As the noise becomes louder and louder, Squee becomes more nervous, until a pool of blood flows out from under the stall and Squee runs out in terror. Later, a man dressed in a large Squee costume appears to Squee on the roof, and claims to be his future self, but before he can say anything noteworthy, the ravages of unperfected time-travel techniques liquefy his spine. That night, Squee dreams he's having a conversation with Shmee, who tells him the nature of his existence, that he acts as a "trauma-sponge" for Squee, soaking up all the bad things that happen to him. Grandpa comes for a visit the next day, and attempts to eat Squee to gain vitality. This issue was created entirely with a paint brush, instead of Vasquez's usual pen and ink technique.

Issue 3

Squee becomes paranoid that dust mites are everywhere, when a large one falls out of his pillow. Angry at being disturbed, he attempts to kill Squee. Squee is woken up in the night by the ghost of a dead girl who died in his room. At school Squee meets a dog who appears to want to be his friend, but Squee realizes that terrible things happen to anyone around him and so attempts to keep the dog away (Soon after that, the dog was hit by a car) After school Squee is invited to dinner at Pepito's house where he meets his Pepito's father, Satan (otherwise known as Señor Diablo who also appeared in the sixth issue of JtHM) who attempts to recruit him to his Soulless Army of Darkness.

Issue 4

Squee is once again approached by the first pair of aliens who attempted to abduct him in issue 1, this time he manages to convince them that it would be smarter for them to take his parents, which they agree to. At school, Squee is bullied by a group of kids and then laughed at by a girl who is then hit with a baseball, causing her eye to pop out and Squee to run away screaming. In class, Squee questions a textbook typo which angers his teacher into ordering the other students to attack him. Squee realizes that his classmates have been turned into zombies by the administration so that they will unquestionably follow the teacher's commands. Squee is saved by Pepito who proceeds to destroy the whole school. At home, Squee's parents return from their abduction and decide to bring Squee to a mental institution for several weeks, where he is briefly reunited with Johnny C. who is there as a volunteer for sleep study.

Further reading

• Squee's Wonderful Big Giant Book of Unspeakable Horrors (1998) SLG Publishing (ISBN 0-943151-24-4)