Zot! (1996)

Zot! is a comic book created by Scott McCloud in 1984 and published by Eclipse Comics until 1990 as a lighthearted alternative to the darker and more violent comics that dominated the industry during that period. 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 creator Osamu Tezuka 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 and Uncle Scrooge 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 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 headquarters flooded in 1986. Instead Eclipse funded new color separations by Dennis McFarling. The Original Zot! Book One (ISBN 0-91303-504-1) 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, following the collapse of Eclipse it was collected by Kitchen Sink Press in Book One (ISBN 0-87816-427-8), which collected issues 1–10 and included an introduction by Kurt Busiek; Book 2 (ISBN 0-87816-428-6), which collected issues 11–15 and 17–18; and Book 3 (ISBN 0-87816-429-4) 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 format under the title Zot! Online. He published the 440-panel story arc "Hearts And Minds" at Comic Book Resources. McCloud used an infinite canvas style for Zot! Online, using trails to instruct the reader what the reading order of the panels are.

In July 2008, HarperCollins published the complete black-and-white issues of the series (11–18 and 21–36) in a single volume. The collection also featured previously unpublished material and commentary by McCloud. The "Getting to 99" story from issues 19 and 20 was not included in its published form; instead, the volume contained only McCloud's breakdowns, as the finished artwork had been drawn by Chuck Austen. 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 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.