Vasquez started drawing in kindergarten. He attended Mount Pleasant High School, where he took a part in a contest to design the Cardinal as a school's mascot. Vasquez submitted an entry, but the judges rejected it. On the back of a preliminary drawing for the contest, he drew his first sketch of the character he would later name Johnny C. Vasquez's high school's student newspaper published a number of comic strips titled "Johnny the Little Homicidal Maniac". Vasquez says the character originated as a personal avatar who could carry out his own revenge fantasies. Comic book artist and filmmaker Rob Schrab makes the same observation. However, Vasquez later distanced himself from the character, saying that Johnny should not be mistaken for an author surrogate. Vasquez also created Happy Noodle Boy while attending Mount Pleasant as a way to stop his girlfriend from asking him to draw comics for her.