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Zot! #complete b&w; issues 11-36
Zot!: The Complete Black-and-White Collection: 1987-1991
From comics pioneer Scott McCloud, the complete black and white collection of Zot! , featuring never-before-seen artwork and extensive commentary by the author Long before manga took the American comics market by storm, Scott McCloud ( Understanding Comics , Making Comics ) combined the best ideas from manga, alternative comics, and superheroes into Zot! —a frenetic and innovative exploration of comics' potential that helped set the stage for McCloud's later groundbreaking theoretical work. Zachary T. Paleozogt lives in "the far-flung future of 1965," a utopian Earth of world peace, robot butlers, and flying cars. Jenny Weaver lives in an imperfect world of disappointment and broken promises—the Earth we live in. Stepping across the portals to each other's worlds, Zot and Jenny's lives will never be the same again. Now, for the first time since its original publication more than twenty years ago, every one of McCloud's pages from the black and white series has been collected in this must-have commemorative edition for aficionados to treasure and new fans to discover.
575 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2008
37 people are currently reading
1266 people want to read
About the author
Scott McCloud
125 books1,580 followersScott McCloud (born Scott McLeod) is an American cartoonist and theorist on comics as a distinct literary and artistic medium.
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November 17, 2018
Zot!: The Complete Black-and-White Collection: 1987-1991 collects issues 11-36 of Zot!, the black and white issues.
Back in the day, my first exposure to Zot! was issues 30 & 31, two of the Earth stories about Jenny and her friends. Since the scars of adolescence were still fairly fresh, I was enthralled. As fate should have it, Scott McCloud published a book of the black and white issues of Zot!, of which the Earth stories were a part of.
The book starts off in the vein of the last book, albeit in black and white. Jenny is pining over Zot and he arrives. After a series of adventures on Zot's earth, the story shifts to our earth and focuses on more human stories.
I don't know how long the hiatus between issues 10 and 11 of Zot were but Scott McCloud's art evolved by leaps and bounds. Black and white definitely did him a favor, both in the more super-heroic tales and the Earth stories. The manga influence is still there, as is the traditional super hero influence, but the man can draw! His earth stories have so much more intricate art. To paraphrase the man himself, drawing utopian cityscapes is one thing but a Burger King in the rain is something else.
While I enjoy the black and white super hero stories, with Dekko, The Blotch, 9-Jack-9, and Bellows, the Earth stories are far, far better. A few of them were nominated for Eisner awards. The Earth stories focus on Jenny and her friends and Zot is in the periphery for the most part. McCloud tells some personal, emotional stories and tackles subjects like alcoholism, homosexuality, homophobia, teenage sex, and racism, all problems that have been solved since 1991. <--- I was being sarcastic before anyone chimes in.
The ending was sad but hopeful. I'm glad McCloud left things open-ended enough to do Zot Online years later. I'll have to give that a read sometime soon.
The first time I read these comics, I was only a couple years older than Jenny and her high school friends. I'm happy to say the past couple decades have not diminished the series. It's still a five star read, particularly the earth stories.
Back in the day, my first exposure to Zot! was issues 30 & 31, two of the Earth stories about Jenny and her friends. Since the scars of adolescence were still fairly fresh, I was enthralled. As fate should have it, Scott McCloud published a book of the black and white issues of Zot!, of which the Earth stories were a part of.
The book starts off in the vein of the last book, albeit in black and white. Jenny is pining over Zot and he arrives. After a series of adventures on Zot's earth, the story shifts to our earth and focuses on more human stories.
I don't know how long the hiatus between issues 10 and 11 of Zot were but Scott McCloud's art evolved by leaps and bounds. Black and white definitely did him a favor, both in the more super-heroic tales and the Earth stories. The manga influence is still there, as is the traditional super hero influence, but the man can draw! His earth stories have so much more intricate art. To paraphrase the man himself, drawing utopian cityscapes is one thing but a Burger King in the rain is something else.
While I enjoy the black and white super hero stories, with Dekko, The Blotch, 9-Jack-9, and Bellows, the Earth stories are far, far better. A few of them were nominated for Eisner awards. The Earth stories focus on Jenny and her friends and Zot is in the periphery for the most part. McCloud tells some personal, emotional stories and tackles subjects like alcoholism, homosexuality, homophobia, teenage sex, and racism, all problems that have been solved since 1991. <--- I was being sarcastic before anyone chimes in.
The ending was sad but hopeful. I'm glad McCloud left things open-ended enough to do Zot Online years later. I'll have to give that a read sometime soon.
The first time I read these comics, I was only a couple years older than Jenny and her high school friends. I'm happy to say the past couple decades have not diminished the series. It's still a five star read, particularly the earth stories.
August 19, 2008
Before
Understanding Comics
, writer/artist Scott McCloud created the adventures of Zachary T. Paleozogr (aka Zot), a teenager from an alternate Utopian Earth in the "far-flung future of 1965." Zot discovers a portal to our consensus 1980s reality and explores our not-so-perfect existence. He befriends the teen Jenny Weaver and their adventures in both universes serve as the centerpiece for these delightful stories. Initially, the tales primarily revolve around Zot, who is a super-hero in his native land, and the colorful villains he encounters. About two-thirds of the way through this massive 575 page collection, the story focus changes dramatically as Zot gets trapped on our Earth and the stories begin to center around Zot and Jenny's friends. Basically, the series evolves into a high school drama with an exiled super-hero. The Earth Stories, the last sequence title, transforms an entertaining exploration of super hero and science fiction tropes into a superior dramatic comic book. Throughout, McCloud offers explanations and digressions into the individual stories through a series of commentaries and end notes. Perhaps most profoundly, this book grants an insight into the artistic evolution of one of comicdom's greatest ambassadors and educators.
December 10, 2019
I really can't capture the whole essence of "Zot", but I really want to talk about it. "Zot" is my favorite superhero comic and one of my favorite comics in general. "Zot" is about understanding what superheros really are, it's about getting to know yourself, it's about finding your sexuality, it's about relationships, it's about family, it's about friendship, it's about big ideas, it's about ideals and staying true to them. The characters in this book deal with relationship problems, deal with their fears, deal with bullies, get through divorces, they have crushes, they get jealous, they get angry, they are full rounded persons with unique personalities. The most of the characters in this comic-book are completely realistic and relatable. As a last thing I would like to say that I believe that it's essential for every teenager to read "Zot". (I'm not sure but I believe that " Zot" had a huge influence on Brian K. Vaughan , I know it had on me and the way that I write) (you can also find my review at my comics/books/movies related Instagram account: art_fanatic_313)
June 28, 2021
Un cómic con el que me lo he pasado genial. Una historia que pasa a ser la de un superhéroe luchando contra los villanos de su planeta a una comedia drama donde Zot va a la tierra a conocer a los amigos de Jenny y se queda a vivir un tiempo, viendo lo diferente que es su planeta del nuestro y descubriendo el amor y lo crueles que pueden ser los humanos. Esta segunda parte me ha gustado incluso más y la profundidad de sentimiento que hay en esas páginas me ha enganchado mucho. A parte de todo esto, cabe mencionar el dibujo de Mccloud, una mezcla de clásico y moderno que me entusiasma. Un clásico por meritos propios.
October 7, 2011
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
Long before Scott McCloud became the guru of comics deconstruction with his wildly popular trilogy of nonfiction titles on the subject (1993's Understanding Comics, 2000's Reinventing Comics and 2006's Making Comics), he was the author of the late-'80s underground hit Zot!, an important transitional title between the daring but filthy work that mostly marked this industry in the '70s and the mainstreaming of indie comics in the '90s, but a title that had fallen into almost complete obscurity by our own times; so it's nice to see the almost complete run of the comic (minus its first ten crappy color "proto-issues") repackaged by Harper into a slick, hefty trade paperback, something that I feel deserves to happen to the early work of nearly every artist who manages to survive over the years, for posterity's sake if nothing else. Unfortunately, though, when McCloud mentions in the introduction how inspired he was by the then-unknown "manga" format from Japan (one of the very first American artists to be so, in fact), he doesn't mean the post-apocalyptic hard sci-fi wing of manga but rather the sappy, soap-operaish domestic dramas so loved by thirteen-year-old girls; and what starts as a fairly clever premise (the adventures of a do-gooder superhero in a parallel-universe New York perpetually stuck in Kennedy/Jetsons Late-Modernist shininess, and how this messes with the superhero's head when he visits our own run-down '80s Manhattan) devolves by its halfway point into an endless series of overly sentimental, overly earnest character studies about small-town New England, literally as if the creators of Superman suddenly decided one day to permanently saddle him in his Clark Kent persona, then make him a minor character in Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio (yet another inspiration that McCloud specifically references in his introduction by name).
Now, to be fair, even McCloud himself acknowledges most of the weaknesses in Zot!, in the fascinating 2008 write-ups he did to accompany each issue; plus I always think it's fair to cut a well-known artist a lot of slack when looking back at their raw, early work, and especially any stuff they might've done for just a small audience back in their twenties, like is the case here. But still, it's important I think to acknowledge the problems this series has, and to let people know that they're not exactly going to be stumbling across some forgotten Postmodernist Watchmen masterpiece when picking this up, despite these issues coming out at the same time as Alan Moore's '80s classic and in the early episodes dealing lightly with the same "What Makes Superheroes Really Tick" themes. Fun to read if you have a random chance, and a book I'm glad at least exists, but not something I'd recommend going out of your way to procure.
Out of 10: 7.9
Long before Scott McCloud became the guru of comics deconstruction with his wildly popular trilogy of nonfiction titles on the subject (1993's Understanding Comics, 2000's Reinventing Comics and 2006's Making Comics), he was the author of the late-'80s underground hit Zot!, an important transitional title between the daring but filthy work that mostly marked this industry in the '70s and the mainstreaming of indie comics in the '90s, but a title that had fallen into almost complete obscurity by our own times; so it's nice to see the almost complete run of the comic (minus its first ten crappy color "proto-issues") repackaged by Harper into a slick, hefty trade paperback, something that I feel deserves to happen to the early work of nearly every artist who manages to survive over the years, for posterity's sake if nothing else. Unfortunately, though, when McCloud mentions in the introduction how inspired he was by the then-unknown "manga" format from Japan (one of the very first American artists to be so, in fact), he doesn't mean the post-apocalyptic hard sci-fi wing of manga but rather the sappy, soap-operaish domestic dramas so loved by thirteen-year-old girls; and what starts as a fairly clever premise (the adventures of a do-gooder superhero in a parallel-universe New York perpetually stuck in Kennedy/Jetsons Late-Modernist shininess, and how this messes with the superhero's head when he visits our own run-down '80s Manhattan) devolves by its halfway point into an endless series of overly sentimental, overly earnest character studies about small-town New England, literally as if the creators of Superman suddenly decided one day to permanently saddle him in his Clark Kent persona, then make him a minor character in Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio (yet another inspiration that McCloud specifically references in his introduction by name).
Now, to be fair, even McCloud himself acknowledges most of the weaknesses in Zot!, in the fascinating 2008 write-ups he did to accompany each issue; plus I always think it's fair to cut a well-known artist a lot of slack when looking back at their raw, early work, and especially any stuff they might've done for just a small audience back in their twenties, like is the case here. But still, it's important I think to acknowledge the problems this series has, and to let people know that they're not exactly going to be stumbling across some forgotten Postmodernist Watchmen masterpiece when picking this up, despite these issues coming out at the same time as Alan Moore's '80s classic and in the early episodes dealing lightly with the same "What Makes Superheroes Really Tick" themes. Fun to read if you have a random chance, and a book I'm glad at least exists, but not something I'd recommend going out of your way to procure.
Out of 10: 7.9
September 28, 2008
The modern Superman comes in for quite a bit of criticism for being a bit of a metrosexual wimp, but the Superman of the 1950s was as much a product of his time, with his gratingly patriarchal attitude.
Zot, on the other hand, is like a Superman out of time, free of the need to appear in twenty comic books a month or to maintain a status quo. He's happy, comfortable with his powers, accepting of the things he can't change, determined to change the things he can. He has no hang-ups, but is understanding of the hang-ups of others.
This superb and substantial book contains nearly all of his adventures in black and white (leaving out backup strips and a couple of issues drawn by Chuck Austen - though Scott McCloud's layouts are included). The stories are light-hearted, funny and exciting, with a bit of soap opera to keep you going from issue to issue. McCloud's approach to super-heroics and super-villainy is imaginative and innovative.
If the book has one flaw it's that the author's notes, which appear at the end of each story, might have been better collected at the end of the book. They are fascinating, but it feels sometimes as if the author is trying to overdetermine the reader's response, in particular in his attitude to the later issues, which take place almost entirely on Earth.
He obviously loved those issues (as did a lot of readers), but after reading so many notes about how much better the comic is without the superhero stuff, I found those issues rather underwhelming. I much preferred the bulk of the book, in which the relationship stuff is just one element among many.
The art is astounding from start to finish. McCloud uses a variety of approaches to create various effects, but his main mode is a clear line style similar to that seen in Tintin, with a dash of manga expressionism.
All in all, a joy to read, and a feast for the eyes!
Zot, on the other hand, is like a Superman out of time, free of the need to appear in twenty comic books a month or to maintain a status quo. He's happy, comfortable with his powers, accepting of the things he can't change, determined to change the things he can. He has no hang-ups, but is understanding of the hang-ups of others.
This superb and substantial book contains nearly all of his adventures in black and white (leaving out backup strips and a couple of issues drawn by Chuck Austen - though Scott McCloud's layouts are included). The stories are light-hearted, funny and exciting, with a bit of soap opera to keep you going from issue to issue. McCloud's approach to super-heroics and super-villainy is imaginative and innovative.
If the book has one flaw it's that the author's notes, which appear at the end of each story, might have been better collected at the end of the book. They are fascinating, but it feels sometimes as if the author is trying to overdetermine the reader's response, in particular in his attitude to the later issues, which take place almost entirely on Earth.
He obviously loved those issues (as did a lot of readers), but after reading so many notes about how much better the comic is without the superhero stuff, I found those issues rather underwhelming. I much preferred the bulk of the book, in which the relationship stuff is just one element among many.
The art is astounding from start to finish. McCloud uses a variety of approaches to create various effects, but his main mode is a clear line style similar to that seen in Tintin, with a dash of manga expressionism.
All in all, a joy to read, and a feast for the eyes!
July 21, 2019
Zot es un ser de una dimensión paralela, un mundo como este pero sin todo lo malo supongamos. Resulta en un personaje inocente, carente de siquiera el concepto de la maldad.
Sí hay villanos trillados, fantásticos malvados con super tecnología que presentan un desafío desde ridículo a capaz de terminar el universo.
Lo mejor está al final, en Earth stories, cuando queda varado en este mundo. Toda la parafernalia super heroica queda de lado para focalizar en la sociedad, otorgando la madurez que escasea en las primeras aventuras.
Impresionante la evolución tanto del dibujo como de la propuesta narrativa, de la cual el autor hizo carrera con aportes fundamentales al cómic en todo sentido.
Un librazo imperfecto y necesario.
Sí hay villanos trillados, fantásticos malvados con super tecnología que presentan un desafío desde ridículo a capaz de terminar el universo.
Lo mejor está al final, en Earth stories, cuando queda varado en este mundo. Toda la parafernalia super heroica queda de lado para focalizar en la sociedad, otorgando la madurez que escasea en las primeras aventuras.
Impresionante la evolución tanto del dibujo como de la propuesta narrativa, de la cual el autor hizo carrera con aportes fundamentales al cómic en todo sentido.
Un librazo imperfecto y necesario.
May 26, 2014
Just got it, by the author of Understanding Comics. Wow, that's a lot of comics for 20 bucks. Black and white though.
All done. It was uneven in the beginning, but I felt my interest escalate as everything improved working my way to the end. The "director's commentary" every few chapters helped me appreciate it. I wasn't a big fan of the cheesy supervillians except for Dekker, who sees the world in what looks like modern art. Manga influenced, but the author doesn't go overboard on silent panels (sooo overused these days), plus he brings in a lot of other techniques from manga as well. He's also not afraid of words and small panels. Maybe he should sell the 'earth stories' seperately. That's the last 3rd where the stories are more about everyday life. I like this technique where he occasionally shifts from a cartoonish face to a more realistic 3d one. An indie but well-drawn black and white comic. I'll be sure to check out his webcomics and the next graphic novel he's working on.
May 19, 2022
What a great ride. I started this a long time ago but never had the chance to finish it. After reading some of Scott McCloud's informative comics, you can see how he tried to experiment with the medium even early on in his career. There's a bunch of inspiring stories, many great ideas, and a whole world (or two for that matter) of well developed characters we come to know through exploration of the medium. Having McCloud's thoughts annotating various arcs adds more depth to the content. Really glad I finally got a chance to read Zot again in its entirety.
September 19, 2008
It's like reading stories you wrote in high school, slightly uncomfortable, juvenilia for sure, but every so often shot through with moments of beauty that show you knew more than you thought you did, even though you thought you knew everything and really knew nothing at all.
June 10, 2018
I bought this 550 page graphic novel used from my fav comic shop. Maybe the best five bucks I ever spent! Zot is a treasure. A deconstruction of the superhero genre that is as hopeful as Watchmen is bleak. The commentary from Scott McCloud after each issue is always humble and thoughtful and sometimes emotional. It adds a ton to this collection. If you like comics at all, definitely check out Zot.
April 9, 2023
This was a bit of a slog if I'm being honest. There's a reason I don't read Manga. I just found this all a bit tiring. The endless optimism of Zot and endless pessimism of Jen who, let us not forget, is supposed to be 15 just wore me out. I understand why those last few issues with Zot stranded on our Earth which focus on all the peripheral characters are the most lauded, but I definitely like McCloud more when he's explaining how comics work than when he's writing them.
August 28, 2021
Two stars to the beginning, five stars to the last third and we're left with this average of sorts.
April 19, 2009
I suspect this isn't the most frequent word people use for Scott McCloud's work, but I keep coming back to thinking of Zot! as... charming. I was absolutely and undeniably charmed by the wistful, worldly Jenny and her friends on our Earth, and by her cheerful, clueless superhero boyfriend Zot (Zachary T. Paleozogt) and his Earth.
McCloud's clean black-and-white drawings, openly influenced by manga style (before that sort of thing became ubiquitous), seamlessly evoke the shining towers and soaring skyways of Zot's far-flung alternate future 1965, a more-benign version of William Gibson's "Gernsback Continuum." Gibson himself is quoted calling Zot! "The classic retrofit of the postwar comic gestalt." Zot's world bears more than a little resemblance to the land of Faerie, streamlined and chromed for more moderne eyes. But McCloud doesn't ignore the grit and grief of our own urban and messy Earth, either. Especially in later episodes, Zot! reflects reality without flinching.
This omnibus edition encompasses the entire monochrome run of McCloud's comic, from 1987 through 1991, with new autobiographical and technical commentary by McCloud. It's full of costume-clad superheroes and super-villains, but it is by no means only that. McCloud's conceit allows him to explore deeper contrasts between what is and what ought to be - and Zot's world, attractive as it is, does not always come out on top in such comparisons.
This admirable book is not just a fun read, though it is certainly that as well - it also inherently and without fanfare helps establish significance for the graphic format, telling a story that would be very difficult to render as plain text, and prefiguring the case McCloud made more explicit in his landmark analysis, Understanding Comics.
And, it's charming.
McCloud's clean black-and-white drawings, openly influenced by manga style (before that sort of thing became ubiquitous), seamlessly evoke the shining towers and soaring skyways of Zot's far-flung alternate future 1965, a more-benign version of William Gibson's "Gernsback Continuum." Gibson himself is quoted calling Zot! "The classic retrofit of the postwar comic gestalt." Zot's world bears more than a little resemblance to the land of Faerie, streamlined and chromed for more moderne eyes. But McCloud doesn't ignore the grit and grief of our own urban and messy Earth, either. Especially in later episodes, Zot! reflects reality without flinching.
This omnibus edition encompasses the entire monochrome run of McCloud's comic, from 1987 through 1991, with new autobiographical and technical commentary by McCloud. It's full of costume-clad superheroes and super-villains, but it is by no means only that. McCloud's conceit allows him to explore deeper contrasts between what is and what ought to be - and Zot's world, attractive as it is, does not always come out on top in such comparisons.
This admirable book is not just a fun read, though it is certainly that as well - it also inherently and without fanfare helps establish significance for the graphic format, telling a story that would be very difficult to render as plain text, and prefiguring the case McCloud made more explicit in his landmark analysis, Understanding Comics.
And, it's charming.
April 24, 2011
You may only be familiar with Scott McCloud's work for his critically acclaimed, Understanding Comics, and if that's all you know him for you're really missing out. Zot is a fantastic comic series and one that I wish I had read sooner.
Zot is a teenage superhero from an alternate Earth, where laser guns and transformation guns are everyday, and the world has evolved to a more idealistic place. Zot comes to our world where he meets Jenny, an everyday teenage girl who just wants to escape from our everyday world. As the series progresses we see more of Zot's world and how it compares to our own. And as Scott's style matures we see Zot and Jenny discussing a wide range of topics from the normal everyday to sex, gender identity, and death. At one point in the series Zot is stuck in our world with no way to get back to his own. But that doesn't stop him from trying to take to make this Earth a better place, even though our world still has guns and people turn a blind eye to pain and suffering sometimes.
This is not your average superhero comic. While in the beginning Zot seems like the typical superhero, as the series progresses we come to realize he isn't. Nor is Jenny just an average girl. Together the two of them explore issues that every reader can relate too, even those that we're often afraid to discuss. And Scott was clearly ahead of his time in having his characters openly discuss not just sexuality, but sexual preferences as well. Scott has created a world where frank discussions can happen and give hope that all is not lost. And although McCloud may think some of his early art is rough...I think he's mistaken. His artwork captures a full range of human emotions and displays a sense of hope, depth, and power that some of the artists of today's comics just can't pull off.
This is a must read, even if you don't like superheroes. Give Zot a chance to make you see the world in a different way.
Zot is a teenage superhero from an alternate Earth, where laser guns and transformation guns are everyday, and the world has evolved to a more idealistic place. Zot comes to our world where he meets Jenny, an everyday teenage girl who just wants to escape from our everyday world. As the series progresses we see more of Zot's world and how it compares to our own. And as Scott's style matures we see Zot and Jenny discussing a wide range of topics from the normal everyday to sex, gender identity, and death. At one point in the series Zot is stuck in our world with no way to get back to his own. But that doesn't stop him from trying to take to make this Earth a better place, even though our world still has guns and people turn a blind eye to pain and suffering sometimes.
This is not your average superhero comic. While in the beginning Zot seems like the typical superhero, as the series progresses we come to realize he isn't. Nor is Jenny just an average girl. Together the two of them explore issues that every reader can relate too, even those that we're often afraid to discuss. And Scott was clearly ahead of his time in having his characters openly discuss not just sexuality, but sexual preferences as well. Scott has created a world where frank discussions can happen and give hope that all is not lost. And although McCloud may think some of his early art is rough...I think he's mistaken. His artwork captures a full range of human emotions and displays a sense of hope, depth, and power that some of the artists of today's comics just can't pull off.
This is a must read, even if you don't like superheroes. Give Zot a chance to make you see the world in a different way.
August 3, 2014
This book offers a good object lesson in the possibilities and the limits associated with the comics boom of the 1980s/1990s. On the one hand, McCloud's ambition becomes increasingly clear as the series progresses and he tries to move away from the superhero tropes that initially defined it. Even early on, within those tropes, he is trying to shake things up a bit, especially in his depiction of some of the villains, who don't seem so much villains as expressions of philosophical points of view. However, about halfway through, he pretty much abandons what he had been doing and shifts into a series of loosely-connected "issue"-driven (e.g gayness) stories focusing on characters who hitherto had been secondary or even non-existent, with the supposed hero, the eponymous Zot, pushed mostly to the background. McCloud thereby tries to redefine, if not transcend, the superhero genre, by making it about real (or "real") people, not costumed adventurers. And he does do some nice work, notably with increasingly complex visuals.
What he doesn't do, however, is a coherent story. Things that seemed to be building in the first part are just abandoned when the book shifts gears. And then, the stories in the second half never really add up to anything. As individual stories intended to be read serially, one a month, they are fine, but when one reads them gathered together like this, their limits become clear. McCloud was working towards the graphic novel, but still stuck with open-ended serialization as the publication method; and he wanted to move away from superheroes but couldn't quite let go of the gimmick. When he finished the series, it does not feel like an end so much as a stop.
His notes on the series do acknolwedge its limitations, which is nice to see. He makes no grand claims for his accomplishments. Said accomplishments are modest here--worthwhile, occasionally interesting, but ultimately . . . well, shallow.
What he doesn't do, however, is a coherent story. Things that seemed to be building in the first part are just abandoned when the book shifts gears. And then, the stories in the second half never really add up to anything. As individual stories intended to be read serially, one a month, they are fine, but when one reads them gathered together like this, their limits become clear. McCloud was working towards the graphic novel, but still stuck with open-ended serialization as the publication method; and he wanted to move away from superheroes but couldn't quite let go of the gimmick. When he finished the series, it does not feel like an end so much as a stop.
His notes on the series do acknolwedge its limitations, which is nice to see. He makes no grand claims for his accomplishments. Said accomplishments are modest here--worthwhile, occasionally interesting, but ultimately . . . well, shallow.
April 28, 2009
This book was unexpectedly loaned to me by a friend who works in the same shopping center that I do. I've read Understanding Comics and its sequels, and was only sort of vaguely aware that Scott McCloud had done an actual comic series before writing them.
This wasn't really my thing, but I think it was largely a product of the time it came out of. There was a 'very special episode' quality to some of the more serious stories (a fact that McCloud acknowledges in his commentary), and the less serious stuff was ohmygosh kind of silly and lighthearted in a way that I didn't really know what to do with.
Actually the commentary was really worth reading. For one thing, McCloud is one of the best writers-about-comics that I've read, he's aware of the shortcomings of his youthful endeavors, and his discussions of the areas that he was not pleased with were interesting. I also really enjoyed his breakdown of the six main villains in the story (though I was surprised that he thought the 'ghost in the machine' characters were more frightening and likely than the 'capitalism run amok' ones).
Also, I think McCloud's academic approach to comic making is evident in his drawing and panel layouts. It was cool to see things that he's written about, elements of visual storytelling that I recognize because I read 'Understanding Comics', and go, ooh! Look! He's doing that thing! Although I sometimes found that the inclusion of those elements did make the comic feel more academic and less natural.
This wasn't really my thing, but I think it was largely a product of the time it came out of. There was a 'very special episode' quality to some of the more serious stories (a fact that McCloud acknowledges in his commentary), and the less serious stuff was ohmygosh kind of silly and lighthearted in a way that I didn't really know what to do with.
Actually the commentary was really worth reading. For one thing, McCloud is one of the best writers-about-comics that I've read, he's aware of the shortcomings of his youthful endeavors, and his discussions of the areas that he was not pleased with were interesting. I also really enjoyed his breakdown of the six main villains in the story (though I was surprised that he thought the 'ghost in the machine' characters were more frightening and likely than the 'capitalism run amok' ones).
Also, I think McCloud's academic approach to comic making is evident in his drawing and panel layouts. It was cool to see things that he's written about, elements of visual storytelling that I recognize because I read 'Understanding Comics', and go, ooh! Look! He's doing that thing! Although I sometimes found that the inclusion of those elements did make the comic feel more academic and less natural.
August 5, 2015
What an interesting look at the first work of the man who showed many of us what comics could be. Sometimes overwrought and melodramatic, it was overall pretty great.
September 23, 2021
Disappointing mainly because of the hype around McCloud's other works. So I am grading based upon what I would have thought of this if it were just a book I picked up without knowing who he was, and the result is about the same.
Back in Ye Olden Tymes authors writing for the serials and pulps would be paid a per word rate, a fact that made it easy for publishers to fill their magazines with content but had the unfortunate effect of making Dickens and L Ron Hubbard use 30 word sentences when ten would serve as well. Here, in ZOT!, McCloud is obviously finding his way to the required page count by puffing out thin ideas and plots with Manga inspired visual riffs. On the whole this book has an arc common to novice authors writing in a series. The start of the arc is a jokey and kind of fun genre spoof that the author realizes can't be sustained at a certain point, and from there the book takes a more serious turn. Blah blah blah, a hundred pages on and we are embarrassed by a 1990s style very special episode of a not very original teen show.
It's clear that McCloud was learning how to tell as story here, but it's a silly story at the start and it's a banal one at the end. His style debt to the soap opera teen romance manga is painfully clear in the plotting of any relationship arc. The addition of McCloud's humble bragging and patting his own back at the end of each chapter was especially repellent in this context since I would finish an issue and think, wow that was soap opera level crap, and then have him describe how hard he worked to get that line just right. Uggggghhhhh.
And when it comes to the art, I think we can all agree that McCloud draws people badly. Not faces or expressions, and he isn't one of those who hides feet because they are hard. Nope, his full people are just wrong/awkward/proportion challenged/impossibly posed either singly or in combination. The result is something of an uncanny valley, where the figures almost look right enough, but something....
Not my favorite, but neither is it anywhere near the worst. As a launching point this is nowhere as exciting as something like Bone: The Complete Edition, where there was at least an actual story arc. But neither is it on the level of the disposable DC comic trash that composed McCloud's day job for a while. I suppose, aside from McCloud's attachment to teen romance comics, it is the aimless story that brings this book down for me. Nothing happens, it's empty calories. It is clearly beyond McCloud to pull a Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett and move from pure parody to the sublime, but neither did this book have to fall short of even the standard set by Joss Whedon, who for all of his faults is at least continually inventive and keeps an eye on some end point.
Back in Ye Olden Tymes authors writing for the serials and pulps would be paid a per word rate, a fact that made it easy for publishers to fill their magazines with content but had the unfortunate effect of making Dickens and L Ron Hubbard use 30 word sentences when ten would serve as well. Here, in ZOT!, McCloud is obviously finding his way to the required page count by puffing out thin ideas and plots with Manga inspired visual riffs. On the whole this book has an arc common to novice authors writing in a series. The start of the arc is a jokey and kind of fun genre spoof that the author realizes can't be sustained at a certain point, and from there the book takes a more serious turn. Blah blah blah, a hundred pages on and we are embarrassed by a 1990s style very special episode of a not very original teen show.
It's clear that McCloud was learning how to tell as story here, but it's a silly story at the start and it's a banal one at the end. His style debt to the soap opera teen romance manga is painfully clear in the plotting of any relationship arc. The addition of McCloud's humble bragging and patting his own back at the end of each chapter was especially repellent in this context since I would finish an issue and think, wow that was soap opera level crap, and then have him describe how hard he worked to get that line just right. Uggggghhhhh.
And when it comes to the art, I think we can all agree that McCloud draws people badly. Not faces or expressions, and he isn't one of those who hides feet because they are hard. Nope, his full people are just wrong/awkward/proportion challenged/impossibly posed either singly or in combination. The result is something of an uncanny valley, where the figures almost look right enough, but something....
Not my favorite, but neither is it anywhere near the worst. As a launching point this is nowhere as exciting as something like Bone: The Complete Edition, where there was at least an actual story arc. But neither is it on the level of the disposable DC comic trash that composed McCloud's day job for a while. I suppose, aside from McCloud's attachment to teen romance comics, it is the aimless story that brings this book down for me. Nothing happens, it's empty calories. It is clearly beyond McCloud to pull a Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett and move from pure parody to the sublime, but neither did this book have to fall short of even the standard set by Joss Whedon, who for all of his faults is at least continually inventive and keeps an eye on some end point.
Read
April 18, 2018The comic before Understanding Comics, and it's wobbly in all sorts of ways - McCloud will sometimes find his theme and his world-building at odds, the characterisation which makes sense to him isn't always conveyed to us, and he freely admits that some of the plotting is hokey. On top of which, it's a late eighties/early nineties superhero comic, albeit a black and white indie one with strong manga influences, so it was always bound to feel dated in places. But there's still a sense running through it of an artist learning his craft, a thrill of discovery to match Zot's own fascination with life. The core idea sounds corny as Hell - a visitor from a better world, teaching a pessimist who lives here that our Earth can be a beautiful place too. And yeah, sometimes it does feel corny. But more often it manages to pull off doing what art's supposed to, and showing us the everyday in a new and compelling light. At times it's a full-on Socratic dialogue in indie superhero clothes (though obviously better, because even in this apprentice work McCloud is ethically and logically superior to Plato*). And then Zot gets trapped on our Earth, and you assume from the first couple of stories that it will be all about seeing whether his sunny disposition will hold up now he can't call his uncle and stop it all...but no, he mostly becomes a supporting character as we look more closely at the lives of the supporting cast. And by this point McCloud's evolved massively as both artist and writer, such that 'Autumn' is just gorgeous, and 'Normal' had me bawling on the train, and it pains every bit of defiant reverse snobbery in me to admit that the more slice-of-life Zot! is better than the larger-than-life superhero stuff but damn you, critical respectability - you win this round.
Between stories, McCloud also shares his thoughts on the work, and an account of his life as he was making it. Which would be an interesting addition to archival publications in general, wouldn't it? Though I chiefly remain amazed that he was at school with Kurt Busiek. What a class that must have been! Though one detail he doesn't really mention is the way that, for suburban kids back then, many of the leads seem surprisingly open to a faltering exploration of non-monogamous relationships. I wonder if that was drawn from experience, or intended as another of Zot's effects on those around him?
*Though when you think about it, who isn't? I mean, even a similarly mendacious prick like Putin at least has the basic grasp of causality to work his wretched will upon the world, which Plato's shambolic arguments suggest he lacked.
Between stories, McCloud also shares his thoughts on the work, and an account of his life as he was making it. Which would be an interesting addition to archival publications in general, wouldn't it? Though I chiefly remain amazed that he was at school with Kurt Busiek. What a class that must have been! Though one detail he doesn't really mention is the way that, for suburban kids back then, many of the leads seem surprisingly open to a faltering exploration of non-monogamous relationships. I wonder if that was drawn from experience, or intended as another of Zot's effects on those around him?
*Though when you think about it, who isn't? I mean, even a similarly mendacious prick like Putin at least has the basic grasp of causality to work his wretched will upon the world, which Plato's shambolic arguments suggest he lacked.
July 28, 2021
So, for better or worse, comics in our agnostic household have sort of replaced the notion of religious reading. While that's not entirely true, there are aspects of it (hallowed be Ozama Tezuka's name). In a way these reviews are written to my kids 20 or more years down the line, especially this one.
Will either of them wind up in the field of comics/graphic novels or whatever the VR version is? Unlikely, but who knows? Will either of them meet Scott McCloud? Maybe, the boys are familiar with his work and they even had one of his books as a text book in a high school class....
This collection works on a couple of levels. It moves from more straight-ahead fantasy heroics into almost an afternoon school special. And does so deftly and with a clearly marked cleft. There is a clear shadow of Fatherhood, as McCloud and his wife unite and form a family. There is some pretty frank talk about "mature" subjects, so maybe check this out before sharing with your own little X-men and X-women. The Book One Zot might be a starting safe space for younger readers.
What elevates this collection, I hope for inquiring kids of any age, is McCloud's "commentary" tracks. To me, they were informative on McCloud himself, the circumstances surrounding the Zot thought process, and I'm hoping some instruction for people, including my kids soon to enter their final teenage year, on putting together comics and a story.
Of course McCloud has his deservedly touted series of Understanding/Reinventing/Making - but here it feels more like a view to an apprenticeship. Perhaps a bit of a stretch...
Anyways, I think one son tracked down the Zot action because he was curious about the Kurt Busiek connection, and it was great to hear about the teenage connection between Scott and Kurt. Again I'll have to see in a handful of decades what our kids are up to. And if they'll trot on this collection when they have kids in high school.
Will either of them wind up in the field of comics/graphic novels or whatever the VR version is? Unlikely, but who knows? Will either of them meet Scott McCloud? Maybe, the boys are familiar with his work and they even had one of his books as a text book in a high school class....
This collection works on a couple of levels. It moves from more straight-ahead fantasy heroics into almost an afternoon school special. And does so deftly and with a clearly marked cleft. There is a clear shadow of Fatherhood, as McCloud and his wife unite and form a family. There is some pretty frank talk about "mature" subjects, so maybe check this out before sharing with your own little X-men and X-women. The Book One Zot might be a starting safe space for younger readers.
What elevates this collection, I hope for inquiring kids of any age, is McCloud's "commentary" tracks. To me, they were informative on McCloud himself, the circumstances surrounding the Zot thought process, and I'm hoping some instruction for people, including my kids soon to enter their final teenage year, on putting together comics and a story.
Of course McCloud has his deservedly touted series of Understanding/Reinventing/Making - but here it feels more like a view to an apprenticeship. Perhaps a bit of a stretch...
Anyways, I think one son tracked down the Zot action because he was curious about the Kurt Busiek connection, and it was great to hear about the teenage connection between Scott and Kurt. Again I'll have to see in a handful of decades what our kids are up to. And if they'll trot on this collection when they have kids in high school.
April 12, 2025
This is not a superhero comics, but rather it's a comics about the struggle that is life and finding meaning and light within that chaos.
Zot is not a classic super hero story. It focuses less on the super powers and more on the characters.
The book is divided into two parts:
In the first half of the book, we follow an enemy of the week formula and jump between earth and Zor's dimension. I really liked the first 2 issues that were an absolute masterpiece comics in the way they were organized and the story was told leading to the beautiful kissing scene that is on the cover of the book.
The second story featuring Zybox was a cool story about artificial intelligence going berserk. Still, very solid writing and strong world building.
Unfortunately, from that point on I felt like the monster of the week formula made me less invested in the story. Sure, we got some beautiful drawings and fantastic panels formulated by Scott Mccloud, but the overall story was trudging with its slow pacing.
The second part of the book with the earth stories is where this book really shines. The stories are contemporary and are absolutely great. I liked how Mccloud decided to not even show Zot doing super hero stuff and just focus on developing the stories of the characters surrounding him.
In the time Zot was released, the comics industry was full of gloom and edginess. Watchmen just came out and everybody tried to be a copy of it. Yet, Scott Mccloud brought a positive story about life and its struggles, heavily influenced by manga structure (you could feel the influence throughout the whole book) and combined with Mccloud's formalistic artistic approach, this book is a real treat.
Zot is not a classic super hero story. It focuses less on the super powers and more on the characters.
The book is divided into two parts:
In the first half of the book, we follow an enemy of the week formula and jump between earth and Zor's dimension. I really liked the first 2 issues that were an absolute masterpiece comics in the way they were organized and the story was told leading to the beautiful kissing scene that is on the cover of the book.
The second story featuring Zybox was a cool story about artificial intelligence going berserk. Still, very solid writing and strong world building.
Unfortunately, from that point on I felt like the monster of the week formula made me less invested in the story. Sure, we got some beautiful drawings and fantastic panels formulated by Scott Mccloud, but the overall story was trudging with its slow pacing.
The second part of the book with the earth stories is where this book really shines. The stories are contemporary and are absolutely great. I liked how Mccloud decided to not even show Zot doing super hero stuff and just focus on developing the stories of the characters surrounding him.
In the time Zot was released, the comics industry was full of gloom and edginess. Watchmen just came out and everybody tried to be a copy of it. Yet, Scott Mccloud brought a positive story about life and its struggles, heavily influenced by manga structure (you could feel the influence throughout the whole book) and combined with Mccloud's formalistic artistic approach, this book is a real treat.
March 29, 2018
Among the small handful of books I've taken from the library that I wouldn't mind owning, there is Zot! Jenny comes from our world, a confused teen with divorcing parents, an indifferent older brother and not many friends. Zot is a ray gun-firing, rocket boot-wearing superhero from a similar world, where apparently all the messy, confusing parts don't exist. The first half of the book goes back and forth between the two universes, mixing sci-fi action with off-beat humorous issues, all the while fitting in plenty of character work. It's solid, but not exceptional comics.
The latter half of the book finds Zot and Jenny stranded on our world, and here, the book takes off, becoming something truly memorable. McCloud narrates entire issues from the perspective of supporting cast members, illustrating their emotional struggles effectively (if sometimes obviously). Particularly effective was the issue in which Jenny's best friend tries to come to terms with being a lesbian. The fake-out last page is a great one. The art's effective, and the characters are believably complex and easy to feel for. The weakest part was probably Woody's confrontation with the one-note, utterly predictable and obvious school bully. That was the only mediocre issue in the entire second portion of the book.
The latter half of the book finds Zot and Jenny stranded on our world, and here, the book takes off, becoming something truly memorable. McCloud narrates entire issues from the perspective of supporting cast members, illustrating their emotional struggles effectively (if sometimes obviously). Particularly effective was the issue in which Jenny's best friend tries to come to terms with being a lesbian. The fake-out last page is a great one. The art's effective, and the characters are believably complex and easy to feel for. The weakest part was probably Woody's confrontation with the one-note, utterly predictable and obvious school bully. That was the only mediocre issue in the entire second portion of the book.
September 18, 2017
The rise of independent comic book publishers in the 1980's brought forth many engaging characters and stories from deep well of talented writers and artists. I remember when Eclipse Comics introduced Scott McCloud's "Zot!" The first ten issues were in color, then the comic went to black-and-white. It is quite possible (my memory a bit sketchy as this was over three decades ago) that I stopped picking up the book when it went to b&w.
I enjoyed this collection of the black-and-white issues. Not only does it contain the stories, but also Scott McCloud's commentary on them.
As I read through 'Part One: Heroes and Villians', I was at the 3-star level of liking the book. However, when I hit 'Part Two: The Earth Stories,' my opinion changed. With Zot stranded on Earth, these stories focused on the Earth characters, not the standard super-hero fare. And I loved them. This section of the book I'd give a 5-star 'it was amazing' rating.
I enjoyed this collection of the black-and-white issues. Not only does it contain the stories, but also Scott McCloud's commentary on them.
As I read through 'Part One: Heroes and Villians', I was at the 3-star level of liking the book. However, when I hit 'Part Two: The Earth Stories,' my opinion changed. With Zot stranded on Earth, these stories focused on the Earth characters, not the standard super-hero fare. And I loved them. This section of the book I'd give a 5-star 'it was amazing' rating.
May 22, 2023
I think I am following the randomest order to read McCloud's works. My process so far has been as follows: The Sculptor > Superman Adventures > Understanding Comics > Zot! So I could say I have returned to the fictional indie facet of this author. The classical superhero duality is based on the supernatural and daily-life angles associated with the two personalities of the characters. Here we have both sides of the coin in two separate parts, each of which is addressed in an absolutely brilliant manner. In the first part, McCloud uses a reduced set of villains who are rather stereotypical and yet represent different future and plausible realities. This combo is very refreshing. The second part is like a soap opera, which honestly is my favourite aspect of superheroes. All of it is drawn with McCloud's particular style, which reminds of both schematic classical US authors and manga art. One of the best superhero comic books I have ever read.
July 27, 2018
This is an incredibly big, heavy book - actually reading it was something of a challenge - but well worth it. McCloud writes mini-essays at the end of each story-arc (of which there are many), which add another level of fun in themselves.
He explains that he was actively trying to push against classic superhero tales of good vs evil with plot machinations, and indeed he succeeds in that admirably. It's kind of sad that this hasn't been copied more - a lot of his themes remain under-explored, as does his ability to take a large cast of characters and tell stories from multiple points of view.
But I'll be honest, some of the more plot-based superhero shenanigan stories in this collection were my favourites, especially those involving art-based villain Arthur Dekko. Creepy!
He explains that he was actively trying to push against classic superhero tales of good vs evil with plot machinations, and indeed he succeeds in that admirably. It's kind of sad that this hasn't been copied more - a lot of his themes remain under-explored, as does his ability to take a large cast of characters and tell stories from multiple points of view.
But I'll be honest, some of the more plot-based superhero shenanigan stories in this collection were my favourites, especially those involving art-based villain Arthur Dekko. Creepy!
September 5, 2018
Me gustó más de lo que esperaba. Se nota aún que McCloud estaba en proceso de aprendizaje, pero no tenía miedo a tocar temas complejos en un género que a veces se siente trillado. La historia de superheroes de fondo sirve para tocar temas bastante terrenales, principalmente en la segunda parte, que aún siguen bastante vigentes.
El arte me recordó a Terry Moore (de Strangers in Paradise, y quizás también un poco la temática), aunque no tan elaborado. Hay unas escenas hermosas en blanco y negro, mientras que algunas caras todavía no logran expresiones naturales.
Me llama la atención que no se haya visto antes este cómic en español, considerando que fue nominado a varios premios, y ya tiene casi 30 años (en su formato original mensual).
El arte me recordó a Terry Moore (de Strangers in Paradise, y quizás también un poco la temática), aunque no tan elaborado. Hay unas escenas hermosas en blanco y negro, mientras que algunas caras todavía no logran expresiones naturales.
Me llama la atención que no se haya visto antes este cómic en español, considerando que fue nominado a varios premios, y ya tiene casi 30 años (en su formato original mensual).
September 21, 2023
Much of this reprint collection is comprised of Zot's "Heroes and Villains" stories, which ran the gamut from unnecessary to thrilling to tragic. Readers new to Zot will likely feel somewhat lost, as I did, as a good deal of backstory is not included here. Helpfully, Scott McCloud offers his own reactions to each issue, written with the benefit of hindsight; these personal reflections add quite a bit of gravity to what might otherwise seem like frivolous narrative choices. And the final third of this volume, unexpectedly (to me at least), shies away from superhero material almost completely and diverts into some of the loveliest, most thoughtful, most grounded character-centric material I've ever found in comics.
September 2, 2020
Earned the fourth star towards the end when the high school stories got stronger. Even though Zot doesn't really change or grow over time, our understanding of him evolves as he faces different aspects of the two worlds. Zot is written as a shallow, always upbeat, character, but his resolve and unusual personal ethics made him interesting to me. I liked Woody, the treatment of the nerd issues he brought in and his comics geek friends. I thought having the George character, who was intelligent enough to get good grades, musing about his accomplishment in getting straight "D" report cards with never a plus or minus, was an intriguing idea.
March 10, 2023
In truth, this is probably a four star book, but nostalgia brings it up to five for me. I was there perfect age for this book when it was coming out, and it was a must pick up for me when I saw it at the comic store. Some of the book has aged a little, but there is still a lot to love in here. Big colorful villains and retro-futuristic sci-fi worlds worlds populated with fun characters make up most of the first 2/3’s of the book. The last third spends all of its time on our earth with some closer looks at the supporting cast, and it is very different, but still delightful.
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