Zot! Book 2, Issues 11-15 & 17-18

Zot! #2 (KSP); issues 11-15 & 17-18

by Scott McCloud

Zot! is Scott McCloud's critically acclaimed take on superhero comics, and was one of the greatest cult comics of the '80s.

Volume 2 collects issues 11-15 and 17-18, the beginnings of the black-and-white relaunch of the series.

Genres: Comics, Superheroes, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult

176 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1998

About the author

Scott McCloud (born Scott McLeod) is an American cartoonist and theorist on comics as a distinct literary and artistic medium.

Reviews

[Brynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this one up at my friend's house on a whim, and was surprised to discover it was actually really interesting. I haven't read the first book so my knowledge of characters and all is unfortunately incomplete - luckily it didn't take long to get a general but strong impression of what they're like... though that might not be a good thing. More or less, Zot! is fashioned from the "Peter Pan and Wendy" relationship mould, with an interesting sci-fi world built around it. The two main characters, Jen and Zot, are so archetypal it almost hurts - I would've liked it more five years ago, probably, but after seeing Peter Pan and Wendy re-created so many times I'm not sure I can let it lie anymore. Zot is the striking good guy, equal parts lovably semi-oblivious and inscrutable; Jen is the more common sense-oriented heroine who is "swept up into his world". I feel I had to give that sentence quotation marks because I've written it so often.
Maybe the first book wasn't THAT cheesy. I have no idea. Luckily, that part is over mostly by book 2 - Zot and his world have been established, and so has his and Jen's relationship, which by this point has gone past "unbearable romantic tension" to "all right now we can let it play out, and isn't it adorable?" Is it? I don't know; maybe I'm not invested enough in them to feel much emotion towards them, but at least it didn't really put me off. Which is pretty much the best I can hope for these days, after growing so incredibly bitter and cynical. Help me.

The supporting characters are good - somewhat archetypal as well, but they all have their own personalities, and I can tell them all apart, so who's complaining.
The first story in book 2 concerns Zot coming to Jen's earth and being exposed to all the evils of humanity that apparently don't exist on his earth. (There are different dimensions and stuff, yeah.) Zot is too good-hearted and childishly innocent to expect this kind of thing from people and Jen doesn't know what to do about it, other than just kind of observe him realising the way it is. I really like how this part ends; it's subdued and grim - there's no big speech or fuss thrown - Zot just tells Jen he needs some time alone, and then he leaves. Just like that. That's really the best way I can think of to end an arc like that, and I commend the author for it.
The second story dips into stupid waters, before surfacing again near the end. This one is about an artificial intelligence that wants to make everybody kill themselves The Happening-style so that it can figure out if humans have souls. It's just about as iffy as it sounds. There's also a nigh-unbearable "Jen might have imagined the whole thing!" bit but thank God that it ends almost as soon as it begins - almost as if McCloud knew how bad it was potentially going to get and cut it off before it could get there. Then they blow up the villain and it ends.

It's the final story that's really the one to pay attention to. I was shocked when I realised how cool it was. When you hit page one of "The Eyes of Dekko", you are met with bizarre abstract shapes, accompanied with basically nonsensical dialogue, alarming and totally off-tone from the rest of the book - gone is the lighthearted aspect, and in comes the dark tones that I had already been getting a hint of beforehand. But it's here that those tones really take hold, and it works so well.
Arthur Dekko is a robot whose body was somehow destroyed; he used to be human and isn't anymore. It's even freakier than it sounds. It's like Doctor Who "Asylum of the Daleks" freaky. That freaky. It also reminded me a bit of Calvin and Hobbes (of all things) because of how the author was playing around so much with perspective and art style - it's an incredibly dark and erudite entry into what seems otherwise like a more or less lighthearted, tween-oriented series. "The Eyes of Dekko" would really be more at home as a chapter of Watchmen.

For all the book's occasional, cheesy "I'm an author catering to the tween age-group" feel, it has these moments of adult seriousness and dare I say brilliance. It's well-written and the dialogue is often quite natural (that's such a rare thing in comic books), and the art can be fantastic; in the last chapter more obviously but also when they were inside Zybox - all those solid shadows and strong shapes were so nice to look at.

I'm looking forward to finding the first book, when I can get my hands on it. A really interesting little series here. 4/5.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

What's the opposite of Dystopia and teen angst?
Because that's what genre Zot! is.

I missed this series the first time around, vaguely recall reading a couple issues a friend had, but only recently, when I found the trades cheap finally decided to give it a whirl.

Vol. 2 is when McCloud finds his stride and becomes sure of what he wants to do: Big, bold, old school pulpy sci-fi, quiet themes and teenagers that actually feel like teenagers.
The art style is, at first glance, old school and straight forward, but the pseudo manga look and clean lines are used to do some bold, really interesting stuff.
Not every comic works in B+W, but it almost feels like colorizing it would hurt Zot.

Everything in this volume clicks and McCloud makes some magic happen.