Zot!: The Complete Black and White Collection: 1987-1991

(H. Bala gives a good detailed review, so won't repeat what he says). I first encountered Zot! back when it was published by Eclipse during its color phase and got all the color issue (was initially put off by the comic until I really checked it out and liked what I saw). When it went into hiatus and came back in black & white, I got it. Great stuff. Then Kitchen Sink started to collect the comic in trade paperback (I think Eclipse had gone under by then). I got all the trade: #1 (first 10 issues in color), then the 2nd and 3rd (all black and white). We were just missing the 4th collection (covering the 'Planet Earth' storyline) when Kitchen Sink went under!! Arggh. For many years, we Zot fans awaited this to come out from SOMEONE. McCloud, mean while, moved on to other things, like Understand Comics and the follow ups to that. Pretty much the only new fiction stuff he's done was the 'new adventures of Lincoln' and a new Zot webcomic. Now, finally, ALL the black and white issues (except for the 2 parter done with Austen and the 1/2 issues by Frezel) are collected. I'll still keep my old KSP collections, especially the one of the first 10 color issues. (McCloud really shouldn't put down those issues. While they might not be as good as the later b/w, they are still pretty good.) Now, if only McCloud would come out with more Zot comics...

The old quip is that those who can't do, teach. It's a witty enough remark, but does it really hold true? The case I want to look at is Scott McCloud. He is best known for writing the classic Understanding Comics, which goes into the nuts and bolts of what makes comics work (along with the near classic Making Comics and the less memorable Reinventing Comics). But can he actually write comics? Zot! shows he can. Zot! covers issues 11 to 36, all written and drawn by McCloud (an earlier ten issue run (in color) is not included, but #11 pretty much is a reboot in black-and-white). The principal characters are Jenny Weaver, a teenage girl in the "real" world and her friend (boyfriend?) from an idealized Earth, Zachary T. Paleozogt, also known as Zot. Zot, also a teenage, is a superhero in his world, but in a land where crime is minimal and the villains tend to be more silly than dangerous, Zot has developed into a pure idealist. Jenny, having to deal with family issues and the usual teenage pressures of school and peers, has a more jaded view of her own world. The book is divided into two parts. In Part One - Heroes and Villains - we get somewhat standard superhero fare, with Zot contending with various bad guys. Some, as mentioned above, are silly, while others are far more dangerous. Part Two - The Earth Stories - take a radical turn. As these issues begin, Zot is stranded in Jenny's reality; it doesn't bother the eternally optimistic superhero, but it does shift the focus. Zot is almost pushed to the side as stories focus on Jenny and her friends as they deal with the mundane (but still significant) problems in their own lives. As Jenny is in the middle of a romantic triangle with Zot and her friend Woody, other characters must deal with issues such as poverty, gay-bashing and divorce. And though Zot may view things through rose-colored glasses, he is still savvy enough to provide an alternate, somewhat alien viewpoint to his friends. For a comic to succeed, not only must the writing and the art be good on their own, they have to mesh perfectly together, and they do in this series. What makes McCloud stand out is not only good at writing comics, he is good at explaining how they work as well (and he provides a lot of commentary on his own work in this volume; in other works, not all who can do can teach, but McCloud can. But even if you've never read McCloud's more well-know nonfiction, this is still well-worth picking up.

Dudes, hearken back. The 1980s gave rise to a slew of classic independent comic books. And it's been slow going, but, in recent years, we're finally seeing their collected reprints come to light. Case in point, this: Before Scott McCloud authored the critically acclaimed Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, he created the terrific little comic book ZOT! ZOT! holds a special something something in my heart, even though this title's been so ridiculously hard to find, even during its initial run. But it was always worth hunting this down for McCloud's wonderfully offbeat storytelling and subtly simple yet evocative artwork. I am so stoked that ZOT! THE COMPLETE BLACK & WHITE COLLECTION is finally out! So what exactly is ZOT!? Zot is Zachary T. Paleozogt, a cheerful teenaged superhero (or techno-hero) who hails from a utopian alternate Earth, gleaming and rife with futuristic technological marvels. He meets Jenny Weaver, a disillusioned 14-year-old, when he goes thru a dimensional portal and crosses over into her much darker (read: more real) Earth. Zot soars thru the skies on gravity boots, wields a laser pistol and tussles with a gallery of weird villains. But, really, what made the comic book so special was Zot's sweet, sensitive relationship with Jenny. Jenny peers at the world thru morbid eyes, and she yearns for the clean-cut simplicity of Zot's idealized Earth. Zot, time and again, attempts to counteract Jenny's pessimism with his unwavering enthusiasm and optimism. He happens to find Jenny's Earth unendingly fascinating. This is a lighthearted yet character-driven take on the superhero, and graced with a breezy innocence and whimsy. Seemingly simple on the surface, ZOT!'s stories unfold in rich layers. The quirky tone is built on by the eccentric supporting cast: Zot's Uncle Max, a genial inventor who equips Zot with crimefighting gadgetry; the polite mechanical butler, Peabody; Butch, Jenny's obnoxious older brother, who transforms into a chimp whenever he visits Zot's world ("Aah!! I'm a monkey again!!"). Meanwhile, Jenny's down-to-earth friend, Terry, provides a grounding element. As mentioned, there's an unusual mix of villains, the deadliest of whom are the soul-searching robot Zybox ("Season of Dreams") and Zot's archnemesis, the very frightening 9-Jack-9, who can jump into and control machinery and surf on electricity and radio waves ("The Ghost in the Machine"). On the opposite side of the spectrum, the De-evolutionaries are a silly bunch whose shtick is reverting humans into chimps. Scott McCloud raises several thought-provoking themes, issues dealing with sexuality, young love (there's even a romantic triangle), of divorce and a search for identity and the desperate need to escape one's grim reality. McCloud focuses most on the stark contrasts between the two parallel Earths. Zot's world embodies optimism and dreams and our hopes for a bright future while Jenny's Earth is our Earth, bleak and mean and perhaps not as tolera

While most people know Scott Mccloud for his award winning book Understanding Comics the praise should be directed toward his first series ZOT! The art is a combination of manga and western influences. The story is about a boy from another parallel world where everything is straight out of the golden age of comics in other words innocent and perfect. On the other end is a girl from our world who finds her life to be mundane and depressing. Their existences collide and at first the stories are typical of a superhero book, but later in the series ZOT! is stranded on our world. The stories were ahead of their time and the characters are for the most part believable. Overall highly recommended.

If you've read Scott McCloud's theoretical books, you'd know that he is one smart, awesome, dedicated comic writer/illustrator. He's got a faith in the medium that seems to inspire all of his readers to explore the vastly underused medium and to explore all the wonders it contains. Happily, we can now finally read the largest example of his own use of the medium. Despite his self-criticism at the beginning of the book, Zot! reads like some of the best that American comics has to offer. I highly suggest it to anyone interested in superhero books OR, more importantly, experimental works in the world of comics. Also, check out his website, scottmccloud.com, for some very cool webcomics. I personally can't wait to see what this comic master's next masterpiece will be. I'm willing to bet that whatever he makes at this point in his career will take the entire industry by storm.