The colorful Mexican movie posters in Seymour's room are authentic, and are by artist Ernesto Cabral.
When Enid visits Seymour's garage sale and thumbs through his records for sale, she briefly pulls out a record by R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders, of which director Terry Zwigoff and R Crumb were members - a reference to Zwigoff's documentary Crumb (1994).
When inside "Zine-O-Phobia", visible is "Pussey" a comic by Daniel Clowes, who wrote the graphic novel "Ghost World" and co-wrote the screenplay. There is also visible "Eightball" and "David Boring", also by Daniel Clowes. The unicorn painting shown in Enid's summer art class was also done by Daniel Clowes.
Cameo: [Daniel Clowes] The Ghost World comic book author and screenwriter plays one of the customers in the porno shop.
Enid Coleslaw, the main character's name, is an anagram of the film and comic book's author, Daniel Clowes.
When Enid and Rebecca are going through the picture album, there is a photo of a young Enid (Thora Birch), that was also used in Patriot Games (1992) and American Beauty (1999).
The Coon Chicken Inn was a real restaurant chain, founded in 1925 in Salt Lake City. However it folded in the late '50s and never changed its name to Cook Chicken, as in the film.
Terry Zwigoff originally wanted infamous Satanist Anton LaVey to play the husband in the "satanist couple" in the Quality Cafe, but his death made him unavailable (at least for the movie).
The art school brochure shows a picture of the University of Washington Campus. The gothic library and the Red Square towers are clearly visible in the picture.
The character of Seymour is based in part on director Terry Zwigoff. Like Seymour, Zwigoff is an avid collector of 1920's jazz and blues records.
The cashier at Zine-O-Phobia who is talking about how to remove flesh from a corpse is also leafing through a supplemental catalog from Loompanics Unlimited, a company that sells controversial and unusual books. The book with the reddish cover on the counter in front of the cashier is "Secrets of a Super Hacker" (it's about computers, not machetes) which is available from Loompanics.
Thora Birch gained 20 pounds for the role of Enid.
The song "Jaan pehchaan ho..." from the Indian movie Gumnaam (1965) was sung by Mohammad Rafi. The name of the band shown performing the song is (according to the drum-kit) "Ted Lyons & His Cubs". A band with the same name appears in "Janwar" (1965).
There are several references to other comic strips written and drawn by Daniel Clowes. Most notably, the coffee shop patron in the wheelchair is from Clowes' strip "Feldman" and the "tampon in a teacup" gag is from a strip called "Art School Confidential". Both strips appeared in a comic book called "Eightball" which also contained "Ghost World".
The actor who plays the high school principal in the graduation scene also plays one of the customers in the porno shop. This was not intentional - Terry Zwigoff cast him as a porno shop customer forgetting that he also played the principal.
The 'Coon Chicken Inn' poster that Enid submits as her final piece for art class was actually painted by R. Crumb.
The male Satanist is played, uncredited, by production designer Edward T. McAvoy. He got the part at the last minute, based largely on his resemblance to Anton Levey, the director's first choice. He had to shave his head completely bald for the scene.
The shirt that Enid wears with the smile and tongue is a PBLoco shirt.
This was the first film to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay based on a Graphic Novel or Comic Book.
According to director Terry Zwigoff, Steve Buscemi was so uncomfortable playing the role of Seymour that whenever shooting was finished for the day, he would immediately change his clothes so he could look completely different.
The character of Seymour appears only as the victim of the girls' prank in the comic and was made significant at Zwigoff's suggestion. Another change includes Rebecca having a rather diminished role compared to her role in the comic, which gave a more balanced amount of attention to both girls.
Seymour's room was modeled after director Terry Zwigoff's own - particularly the shelved record collection, pinup art and historical memorabilia.
Interested in directing Ghost World as a feature film for some time, Zwigoff sat in on an acting class in San Francisco. Zwigoff said that after the class had wrapped up, he had approached the instructor and asked if she could hold a crash course for him in how to direct actors.