Zits Unzipped: Sketchbook #5

Bad haircuts, "clueless" parents, pimples, hormones, loyal and/or ditsy friends, the girl's posse, dreams of the uncharted future, weird friends, untamed appetites and endless insecurities-- ZITS is a hilarious commentary on the foibles of being a teenager in middle America. In this compendium of strips, Jeremy deals with having to get girlfriend Sara a Christmas gift (he gets her a tire); body-pierced Pierce the drummer makes his first appearance; Jeremy, on a rare free weekend with his parents at an orthodontists conference, spends the weekend in the company of an armload of horror videos *and* his overactive imagination; and then there's Ms Butcher, the Econ teacher who truly does stay up at night looking for ways to torment him. ZITS is constantly fresh, drawn with humorous and deft exaggeration - the cover illustration showing a mountain of CDs, headphones, calculators and tapes spewing out of Jeremy's backpack should ring a familiar bell with any parent of a high-schooler. "Zits: Unzipped" has been read and reread and re-reread in my household. Scott and Borgman have put together a terrific strip that can be enjoyed by teenagers and their parents. Awesome!

Zits Unzipped is 'sketchbook 5' in the comic strip books and chronicles the life of adolescent Jeremy and his suffering parents, from his relationships with parents and friends to his on/off relationship with his girlfriend. Fans of the strip may find many they've missed over the years; newcomers will relish this coverage of the teen's ironies and agonies.

Here's the plot: Team two interesting and funny fellows together to write a comic strip about teenagers. Geographically situate them thousands of miles apart connected only by email, phone and fax and instruct them to do a daily strip, plus Sunday in color. Tell these guys the content has to illustrate a lovable but sometimes impossible kid and two tolerant parents, and see what you get! Zits!

The 5th book on Zits collection is still a sure time of laugh. This book is very well balanced and is good sample of what you are missing for not having it on your daily newspapaer (like me :( ...).