Zot!
Encyclopedia
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 predominated 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. 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.
technological utopia, reminiscent of imagery from Golden Age SF
, flying cars
, robots 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.
In Zot's utopian Earth, years seem to not pass by as it is permanently stuck in 1965. The inhabitants of Zot's world are unable to notice this fact, but Jenny and her friends from our 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 our own.
, it was reprinted in several volumes. The first collection was Zot! Book One (ISBN 0-91303-504-1) from Eclipse Press which collected issues 1-4 and included an introduction by Scott McCloud. The series was then 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 with a story called Hearts And Minds which comprised 440 panels spread out over 16 weekly installments.
In July 2008, HarperCollins
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 include the published "Getting to 99" story, but only McCloud's breakdowns, as the art was done by another artist, Chuck Austen
. In addition, HarperCollins published a limited, signed collector's edition of this collection in November 2008.
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 14½.
McCloud uses Zot to juxtapose his own naivety against the bigotry
and abuses of our own world. While on Earth Zot is less successful as a hero, representing the fact that our own world does not conform to the same rules as his. Later on, teenage sexuality, bigotry, homosexuality
and a sense of not belonging are all explored in a sensitive way, displaying Zot (and by association his world) as socially liberal.
The series is notable for its Golden Age
influence, its metafictional underpinning, and its energetic visual design.
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
created by Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud is an American cartoonist and theorist on comics as a distinct literary and artistic medium...
in 1984 and published by Eclipse Comics
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 specialty store market...
until 1990 as a lighthearted alternative to the darker and more violent comics that predominated 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. McCloud credited Astro Boy creator Osamu Tezuka
Osamu Tezuka
was a Japanese cartoonist, manga artist, animator, producer, activist and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Black Jack...
as a major influence on the book, making it one of the first manga-inspired American comic books.
Heroes
- Zachary T. Paleozogt, popularly known as Zot, a blond haired, blue eyed teenage hero from an alternate Earth who flies via rocket 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.
- Jenny's older brother, Butch, a typical blustering bully who, after a mishap early in the series, is transformed into a talking chimpanzeeChimpanzeeChimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...
whenever he is on Zot's world. - Zot's Uncle Max, 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 (whom some consider to be a stand-in for the creator)
- Terry, Jenny's lesbian best friend
- Ronnie, a comic obsessed writer
- Ronnie's girlfriend, Brandy, a thin bubbly, slightly ditzy, girl with an alcoholic mother
- George, a lazy genius determined to get straight D's only
- Bob, or "Spike" is the other comics nerd, who is violent and rude
- Elizabeth, Spike's sister, is extremely quiet and fairly odd
Villains
Zot and his friends faced a number of enemies, including:- Bellows, a former inventor who is angry that his environmentally un-friendly inventions are no longer used.
- 9-Jack-9, assassin for hire who can travel through any electrical signal.
- 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.
- Zybox, a supercomputer hoping to acquire a soul.
- The Blotch, a gangster/businessman with a warped face trying to stay out of jail.
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-futuristicRetro-futurism
Retro-futurism is a trend in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced prior to about 1960...
technological utopia, reminiscent of imagery from Golden Age SF
Golden Age of Science Fiction
The first Golden Age of Science Fiction — often recognized as the period from the late 1930s through the 1950s — was an era during which the science fiction genre gained wide public attention and many classic science fiction stories were published...
, flying cars
Flying car (fiction)
In fiction, a flying car is a car that can be flown in much the same way as a car may be driven. In some cases such flying cars can also be driven on roads....
, robots 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.
In Zot's utopian Earth, years seem to not pass by as it is permanently stuck in 1965. The inhabitants of Zot's world are unable to notice this fact, but Jenny and her friends from our 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 our own.
Publication history
Although the comic has been out of printOut of print
Out of print refers to an item, typically a book , but can include any print or visual media or sound recording, that is in the state of no longer being published....
, it was reprinted in several volumes. The first collection was Zot! Book One (ISBN 0-91303-504-1) from Eclipse Press which collected issues 1-4 and included an introduction by Scott McCloud. The series was then collected by Kitchen Sink Press
Kitchen Sink Press
Kitchen Sink Press was a comic book publishing company founded by Denis Kitchen in 1970. Kitchen owned and operated Kitchen Sink Press until 1999. Kitchen Sink Press was a pioneering publisher of underground comics, and was also responsible for numerous republications of classic comic strips in...
in Book One (ISBN 0-87816-427-8), which collected issues 1–10 and included an introduction by Kurt Busiek
Kurt Busiek
Kurt Busiek is an American comic book writer notable for his work on the Marvels limited series, his own title Astro City, and his four-year run on Avengers.-Early life:...
; 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
Webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
format with a story called Hearts And Minds which comprised 440 panels spread out over 16 weekly installments.
In July 2008, HarperCollins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
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 include the published "Getting to 99" story, but only McCloud's breakdowns, as the art was done by another artist, Chuck Austen
Chuck Austen
Chuck Austen is an American comic book writer/artist, TV writer and animator. In the comics industry, he is known for his work on War Machine, Elektra, Action Comics, and the X-Men franchise, and in television, he is known for co-creating the aniamted TV series Tripping the Rift.-Early life:Austen...
. In addition, HarperCollins published a limited, signed collector's edition of this collection in November 2008.
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, chanelling 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 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. This may be a reference to the famous issue of BatmanBatmanBatman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
where the American comic-reading public were asked to vote in a poll as to whether or not RobinRobin (comics)Robin is the name of several fictional characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, originally created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson, as a junior counterpart to DC Comics superhero Batman...
should survive an explosion which had happened in that issue. 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 (normal) 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 issue with Zot and Jenny talking about sex (which was nominated for an Eisner Award), and an issue dealing with the lesbianism of Jenny's friend Terry.Issues 10½ and 14½
Matt FeazellMatt Feazell
Matt Feazell is a Hamtramck, Michigan comics artist, 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...
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 14½.
Themes
Throughout Zot!'s run the principal theme is the contrast between Zot's utopian world and our own (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.McCloud uses Zot to juxtapose his own naivety against the bigotry
Bigotry
A bigot is a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices, especially one exhibiting intolerance, and animosity toward those of differing beliefs...
and abuses of our own world. While on Earth Zot is less successful as a hero, representing the fact that our own world does not conform to the same rules as his. Later on, teenage sexuality, bigotry, homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
and a sense of not belonging are all explored in a sensitive way, displaying Zot (and by association his world) as socially liberal.
The series is notable for its Golden Age
Golden Age of Science Fiction
The first Golden Age of Science Fiction — often recognized as the period from the late 1930s through the 1950s — was an era during which the science fiction genre gained wide public attention and many classic science fiction stories were published...
influence, its metafictional underpinning, and its energetic visual design.
Awards
- 1985 Jack Kirby Award for Best New Series
- 1985 Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award
Nominations
- 1988 Harvey AwardHarvey AwardThe Harvey Awards, named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman and founded by Gary Groth, President of the publisher Fantagraphics, are given for achievement in comic books. The Harveys were created as part of a successor to the Kirby Awards which were discontinued after 1987.The Harvey Awards are...
for Best Cartoonist - 1988 Eisner AwardEisner AwardThe Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, and sometimes referred to as the Oscar Awards of the Comics Industry, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books. The Eisner Awards were first conferred in 1988, created in response to the...
for Best Single Issue for Zot! #14 - 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 for Best Single Issue or Story for Zot! #33
- 1991 Eisner Award for Best Story or Single Issue for Zot! #33
- 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