Zot!
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Zot! is a comic book created by Scott McCloud in 1984 and published by Eclipse Comics until 1990. 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 and "God of Manga" Osamu Tezuka as a major influence on the book, making it one of the first manga-inspired American comic books.
Contents |
[edit] Heroes
- Jenny Weaver, a sensitive teenage girl from our world.
- Her older brother, Butch, who is transformed into a chimpanzee on Zot's world.
- Zachary T. Paleozogt, known as Zot, a blond haired, blue eyed hero from an alternate Earth who flies via rocket boots and fights villains with a ten-shooter laser gun. Zot's Earth shares certain elements with ours, but its retro-futuristic technology is reminiscent of Golden Age SF.
- Zot's Uncle Max, an eccentric inventor whose gadgets helped Zot fight crime.
- Peabody, Zot's robot butler/guardian.
[edit] Villains
Zot and his friends faced a number of enemies, including:
- 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.
[edit] Publication history
Although the comic has been out of print, it was reprinted in several volumes: Book One (ISBN 0-87816-427-8), which collected issues 1–10; 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 to have been published by Kitchen Sink Press but was a casualty of that company'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.
[edit] Plot summary
[edit] Issues 1 - 10: Key To The Door
Jenny Weaver, a normal lonely girl recently relocated, stumbles across Zot, a superhero from another 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 4, a drab theocratic planet, home of the key. Whilst 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 4. 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.
[edit] Issues 11 - 27
The next sequence features a series of super villians, 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. Bellow's responds by determining that he will whipe 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-evolutionsarie 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 univers 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 delving deep into the bowels of an underground city just in time to prevent it from being accidentally blown up.
- The Blotch was a gangster with a purple splat for a head.
- 9-Jack-9 was an electronically transmitted assassin hired to finish off a royal family on a distant planet. Zot tracks him down to his base and kills the man operating him, but 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 villians and friends of Zot turn up, with said pie making many forrays into the air, until finally hitting one of the assembled cast. At the end of this story ZOt is stranded on Earth.
[edit] Issues 28 - 36
These stories are usually referred to as the Earth stories as they feature Zot being stranded on Earth. They are more character lead 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 Zot's world, though not permanently. The arc also contained an entire issue with Zot and Jenny talking about sex, and an issue dealing with the lesbianism of Jenny's friend Terry.
[edit] Issues 10 1/2 and 14 1/2
Matt Feazell usually drew a non-canonical stick figure back-up strip to Zot! in which the charcters from the book featured in absurd or surreal situations, as well as crossovers with Feazell's work and other Eclipse books, but for two releases Feazell took the helm and produced these stories, set in "dimension 10 1/2".
[edit] Themes
Throughout Zot!'s run the principle theme is the contrast between Zot's utopia-like 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 and abuses of our own world. Whilst 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.
[edit] Awards
The first trade paperback, published by Kitchen Sink, was a top votegetter for the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Reprint Graphic Album for 1998.
