comic book
A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...
created by
Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud (born Scott McLeod; June 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist and comics theorist. His non-fiction books about comics, ''Understanding Comics'' (1993), '' Reinventing Comics'' (2000), and '' Making Comics'' (2006), are made in comic ...
in 1984 and published by
Eclipse Comics
Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book store, comic book specialty stor ...
until 1990 as a lighthearted alternative to the darker and more violent comics that dominated the industry during that period.The Webcomics Examiner » Making Lightning There were a total of 36 issues, with the first ten in color and the remainder in black and white.
Creation
McCloud credited ''
Astro Boy
''Astro Boy'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka. It was serialized in Kobunsha's ''Shōnen'' from 1952 to 1968. The 112 chapters were collected into 23 volumes by Akita Shoten. Da ...
'' creator
Osamu Tezuka
Osamu Tezuka (, born , ''Tezuka Osamu'', – 9 February 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist and animator. Considered to be among the greatest and most influential cartoonists of all time, his prolific output, pioneering techniques an ...
as a major influence on the book, making it one of the first manga-inspired American comic books. He also cited ''
The Adventures of Tintin
''The Adventures of Tintin'' ( ) is a series of 24 comic albums created by Belgians, Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century. By 2007, a c ...
'' and ''
Uncle Scrooge
''Uncle Scrooge'' (stylized as ''Uncle $crooge'') is a Disney comic book series starring Scrooge McDuck ("the richest duck in the world"), his nephew Donald Duck, and grandnephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and revolving around their adventures in ...
'' as inspirations.
Publication history
Despite critical acclaim, ''Zot!'' was initially cancelled after 10 issues due to low sales in July 1985. However, McCloud and Eclipse came up with the idea of switching from color to black-and-white, and the comic was then able to run profitably from January 1987 to July 1991 before McCloud ended the series after a total of 36 issues. Issues #19-20 shipped together, and due to McCloud's honeymoon featured
Chuck Austen
Chuck Austen (born Chuck Beckum) Kees Kousemaker's Lambiek Comiclopedia. Retrieved November 14, 2011. is an Ameri ...
inking the artist's pencils.
Eclipse planned to print the color issues as trade paperbacks to support the revived series, but the original color negatives were destroyed when their
Guerneville, California
Guerneville () is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County, California, United States. The town is historically known as a logging community. It was founded by the Guerne family in th ...
headquarters flooded in 1986. Instead Eclipse funded new color separations by Dennis McFarling. ''The Original Zot! Book One'' () was released in August 1989 which collected issues 1–4 and included an introduction by McCloud. ''The Original Zot! Book Two'' followed in June 1990, containing issues 5-8.
Although the comic has been
out of print
An out-of-print (OOP) or out-of-commerce item or work is something that is no longer being published. The term applies to all types of printed matter, visual media, sound recordings, and video recordings. An out-of-print book is a book that is ...
, following the collapse of Eclipse it was collected by
Kitchen Sink Press
Kitchen Sink Press was a comic book publishing company founded by Denis Kitchen in 1970. Kitchen Sink Press was a pioneering publisher of underground comics, and was also responsible for numerous republications of classic comic strips in hardcov ...
in Book One (), which collected issues 1–10 and included an introduction by
Kurt Busiek
Kurt Busiek ( ; born September 16, 1960) is an American comic book writer. His work includes the '' Marvels'' limited series, his own series titled '' Astro City'', a four-year run on '' The Avengers, Thunderbolts,'' and ''Superman.''
Early lif ...
; Book 2 (), which collected issues 11–15 and 17–18; and Book 3 () which collected issues 16 and 21–27. Book 4, collecting the "real world arc" of issues 28–36, was a casualty of Kitchen Sink's turmoil.
In 2000, ten years after the last print issue appeared, McCloud brought the series back in
webcomic
Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on the internet, such as on a website or a mobile app. While many webcomics are published exclusively online, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or ...
format under the title ''Zot! Online''. He published the 440-panel story arc "Hearts And Minds" at ''
Comic Book Resources
''CBR'', formerly ''Comic Book Resources'', is a news website primarily covering comic book news, comic book reviews, and comic book–related topics involving movies, television, anime, and video games. It is owned by Valnet, parent of publicat ...
''. McCloud used an
infinite canvas
The infinite canvas is the feeling of available space for a webcomic on the World Wide Web relative to paper. The term was introduced by Scott McCloud in his 2000 book ''Reinventing Comics'', which supposes a web page can grow as large as needed. ...
style for ''Zot! Online'', using trails to instruct the reader what the reading order of the panels are.
In July 2008,
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...
published the complete black and white issues of the series (11–36) in one volume. This edition included never-before-seen material and commentary by McCloud. It did not include the published "Getting to 99" story, but only McCloud's breakdowns, as the art was done by another artist,
Chuck Austen
Chuck Austen (born Chuck Beckum) Kees Kousemaker's Lambiek Comiclopedia. Retrieved November 14, 2011. is an Ameri ...
Grand Comics Database
The Grand Comics Database (GCD) is an Internet-based project to build a database of comic book information through user contributions. The GCD project catalogues information on creator credits, story details, reprints, and other information use ...
. Retrieved November 16, 2011. In addition, HarperCollins published a limited, signed collector's edition of this collection in November 2008.
Plot summary
Issues 1–10: "Key to the Door"
Jenny Weaver, a normal lonely girl recently relocated to a new town, stumbles across Zot, a superhero from an alternate world who is chasing a troop of robots in pursuit of a key that will open a door hanging out in space. Jenny returns with Zot and her brother Butch to his world. They retrieve the key and take it to the authorities, but it is stolen again. Eventually their pursuit leads them to Sirius IV, a drab theocratic planet, home of the key. While there they uncover a plot to use the key, and the subsequent door opening, as an excuse to lead a holy war against Earth. To foil the plot Zot and Jenny take themselves through the door where they converse with the spirit of Sirius IV. Once out again they lead the revolt against the acting leader of planet who is tricked into goading his subjects on live television. Zot defeats the tyrant, but refuses to lead the planet, stating that they must learn to look after themselves.
Issues 11–27
The next sequence features a series of super villains, each of which Zot must defeat in turn.
* Ignatius Rumboult Bellows was his planet's foremost scientist, pioneering the Industrial Revolution, but all his work is made obsolete when more sophisticated worlds share their technology. Bellows responds by determining that he will wipe out the technocrats of Earth.
* Zybox was a huge supercomputer, channelling most of North and South America's communication. When his creator is let go by the government, Zybox escapes to our world, plotting to kill everyone simultaneously and steal a soul for himself in an attempt to fully understand the human condition.
* A cult of de-evolutionaries who believe that coming down from the trees was a bad idea turn the lead cast into monkeys, before Zot manages to save the day.
* Dekko, a villain previously seen in the Key arc, engineers his release from a mental institution and turns up to Zot's birthday party. He is apparently determined to destroy the universe and recreate it with his own sense of order, but instead ends up delving further into his own psychosis.
* Getting to 99 is the only story not drawn by McCloud and features Zot flying deep into the bowels of an underground city (to the 99th floor) just in time to prevent it from being accidentally blown up.
* The Blotch was a gangster with a purple splotch for a head, who appears to be made entirely of some form of
viscous
Viscosity is a measure of a fluid's rate-dependent resistance to a change in shape or to movement of its neighboring portions relative to one another. For liquids, it corresponds to the informal concept of ''thickness''; for example, syrup h ...
liquid. When he becomes upset he loses control of his physical form and "melts down" into a large puddle.
* 9-Jack-9 (J9AC9K), who also featured in the Key to the Door arc, was an electronically transmitted assassin hired to finish off the president and his family of a distant planet. Zot tracks him down to his base, and during the ensuing battle Jack accidentally electrocutes his human operator, Sir John Shears. However, Jack, the programme, survives independently.
* Following a poll in which Zot! readers could vote for a character to be hit by a pie in the face, a special New Year's party is held in which all the villains and friends of Zot turn up, with said pie making many forays into the air, until finally hitting one of the assembled cast. At the end of this story Zot is stranded on Earth.
Issues 28–36
These stories are usually referred to as the "Earth stories" as they feature Zot being stranded on Jenny's Earth. They are more character driven than the earlier stories and focus on Jenny's band of misfit friends. The final culmination of the arc is a cliff hanger in which the whole ensemble leaves to go to Zot's world, though not permanently. The arc also contained an entire Eisner Award nominated issue with Zot and Jenny talking about sex, and an issue dealing with Jenny's friend Terry being a lesbian.
Issues 10½ and 14½
Matt Feazell
Matt Feazell (born 1955) is an American cartoonist from Hamtramck, Michigan, primarily working in minicomics. He is best known for his wryly humorous ''The Amazing Cynicalman'' series and the simple "stick figure" art style he uses for it. Cynic ...
usually drew a non-canonical stick figure back-up strip to ''Zot!'' in which the characters from the main story were featured in absurd or surreal situations, as well as having crossovers with Feazell's work and other Eclipse books. For two issues Feazell was allowed to take the helm and produced these stories, set in "dimension 10½", with McCloud providing a one-page back-up to issue 14.
Themes
Throughout ''Zot!''s run the principal theme is the contrast between Zot's utopian world and Jenny's flawed version. The two lead characters find each other's worlds fascinating: Jenny desiring the tranquility of the parallel world and Zot embracing the challenges of Earth. Later on, teenage sexuality, bigotry,
homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...
and a sense of not belonging are all explored in a sensitive way, displaying Zot (and by association his world) as socially liberal.
Characters
Heroes
* Zot (Zachary T. Paleozogt) – a blond haired, blue eyed teenage hero from an alternate Earth who flies via gravity boots and fights villains with a ten-shooter laser gun and boundless optimism.
* Jenny Weaver – a sensitive teenage girl from our world and the reader's point-of-view character throughout the series.
* Butch – Jenny's older brother, a typical blustering bully who, after a mishap in the first issue of the series, is transformed into a talking
chimpanzee
The chimpanzee (; ''Pan troglodytes''), also simply known as the chimp, is a species of Hominidae, great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close rel ...
whenever he is on Zot's world.
* Uncle Max – Zot's uncle, an eccentric inventor, artist and surrogate parent whose gadgets help Zot fight crime.
* Peabody – Zot's robot butler/guardian.
* Woody – Jenny's nerdy but sweet "boyfriend" and close friend for the majority of the series
* Terry – Jenny's best friend
* Ronnie – a comic book obsessed writer
* Brandy – Ronnie's girlfriend, a thin bubbly, slightly ditzy, girl with an alcoholic mother
* George – a lazy genius determined to get straight D's only
* Spike (Bob) – a violent and rude comic book nerd
* Elizabeth – Spike's extremely quiet and fairly odd sister
Villains
Zot and his friends faced a number of enemies, including:
* Bellows – The main villain of the second arc and the only one of two villains (the other being Zybox) who was not introduced in the colour arc. Bellows is a psychopathic, megalomaniacal, and socially awkward inventor whose planet used to be dependent on his inventions before they were replaced by creations by another inventor. Bellows lost his mind and traveled to Zot’s planet, where they clashed before Bellows mysteriously traveled to Earth alongside Zot, where he was defeated. He reappears in the “Ring in the New” arc as The Blotch’s friend.
* 9-Jack-9 – assassin for hire who can travel through any electrical signal. Originally the astral projection of a man named Sir John Sheers, he was killed by Zot. Upon his death his astral form remained and is now a being of pure energy, even more dangerous than before.
* Dekko (Arthur Dekker) – Max's friend turned madman who slowly replaced his cancer-ridden body with robotic parts.
* The Devoes – a cult of humans who believe that coming out of the trees was a bad idea, hence the name de-evolutionaries. Use de-evolutionary guns to "revert" humans back into monkeys. They are generally unintelligent, and rarely have any chain of command (with the exception of Butch in the colour run), and wear football outfits.
* Zybox – a supercomputer hoping to acquire a soul.
* The Blotch – a gangster/businessman with a warped face trying to stay out of jail. When he feels any important emotional reaction, he may turn into a mass of strange liquid. In “Ring in the New” it is revealed that he can shape-shift when he turns into a cycloptic being.
Zot's Earth
Using a portal created by Uncle Max, a link is created from contemporary Earth to the alternate reality of Zot. It is a
retro-futuristic
Retrofuturism (adjective ''retrofuturistic'' or ''retrofuture'') is a movement in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. If futurism is sometimes called a "science" bent on anticipat ...
robots" \n\n\n\n\n\n\nrobots.txt is the filename used for implementing the Robots Exclusion Protocol, a standard used by websites to indicate to visiting web crawlers and other web robots which portions of the website they are allowed to visit.\n\nThe sta ...
and interplanetary travel are common and nearly all of its inhabitants benefit from peace, prosperity and a marked lack of conventional social ills. There also seem to be subtle differences in the essential nature of the two Earths, as on Zot's world events naturally favor the "good guys" in any conflict. Still, there are several commonalities between Zot's world and the "real" Earth, such as the careers of several popular musicians.
On Zot's utopian Earth, the year is permanently 1965. The inhabitants of Zot's world are unable to notice this, although Jenny and her friends from their Earth realize it. The true nature of Zot's world is never truly explained in the comic, and is left as a loose end, but it is hinted that Zot's world is a copy of the real one.
Reception
Chester Brown was among those to praise the series. Several ''
Amazing Heroes
''Amazing Heroes'' was a magazine about the comic book medium published by American company Fantagraphics Books from 1981 to 1992. Unlike its companion title, '' The Comics Journal'', ''Amazing Heroes'' was a hobbyist magazine rather than an anal ...
'' reviewers were also highly positive about ''Zot!'', including
Andy Mangels
Andy Mangels (born December 2, 1966) is an American science fiction author who has written novels, comic books, and magazine articles, and produced DVD collections, mostly focusing on media in popular culture. As an openly gay man,T.M. Maple, and Eddie Sacks.
Awards
*1985
Jack Kirby Award
The Jack Kirby Comics Industry Awards were a set of awards for achievement in comic books, presented from 1985 to 1987. Voted on by comic-book professionals, the Kirby awards were the first such awards since the Shazam Awards ceased in 1975. Spo ...
Harvey Award
The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be a successor to the Kirby Awards, which were ...
Eisner Award
The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are awards for creative achievement in American comic books. They are regarded as the most prestigious and significant awards in the comic industry and often referred ...
for Best Single Issue for ''Zot!'' #14"1988 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominees" Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac. November 16, 2011.
*1988 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series
*1988 Eisner Award for Best Black-and-White Series
*1988 Eisner Award for Best Writer/Artist
*1991 Harvey Award for Best Writer for"1991 Harvey Award Nominees and Winners" Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac. Retrieved November 16, 2011.
*1991 Harvey Award for Best Single Issue or Story for ''Zot!'' #33
*1991 Eisner Award for Best Story or Single Issue for ''Zot!'' #33"1991 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominees" Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac. November 16, 2011.
*1991 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series
*1991 Eisner Award for Best Black-and-White Series
*1991 Eisner Award for Best Writer
*1992 Harvey Award for Best Single Issue or Story for ''Zot!'' #35"1992 Harvey Award Nominees and Winners" Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac. Retrieved November 16, 2011.
Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...
. at
Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...