Zot!

Main characters included:

• Jenny, a sensitive teenage girl from our world
• Bruce, her oafish brother
• Zot, a blond haired, blue eyed hero from an alternate Earth who flies via a rocket pack and fights villains with a laser gun. Zot's Earth shares certain elements with ours, but its 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

The comic has long been out of print. It was reprinted in several volumes: Book One (ISBN 0878164278), which collected issues 1-10; Book 2 (ISBN 0878164286), which collected issues 11-15 and 17-18; and Book 3 (ISBN 0878164294) 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 web comic format with a story called "Hearts And Minds," which comprised 440 panels spread out over 16 weekly installments.

Plot Summary

(The following section contains spoilers for issues 28-36.)

The first 10 issues were set primarily in Zot's alternate universe. Later issues placed a greater emphasis on stories set in our universe, culminating in the "real world arc" of the book's nine final issues, in which Zot is stranded in our universe for a number of months. He attends high school with Jenny and encounters problems such as poverty, bigotry, and alcoholism which are virtually unknown in his utopian Earth.

The series is notable for its SF Golden Age influence, its metafictional underpinning, and its energetic visual design. Also notable is the real world arc's exploration of teenage sexuality.

Other Meanings of "Zot!"

Zot! is also the sound that the anteater makes in the B.C. comic strip authored by Johnny Hart.

The mascot of the University of California, Irvine is an anteater based on the BC comic. Its battle cry is Zot!.

External links