ZOT!

In addition to the happy, happy, joy, joy that saw the release of the Howard The Duck Omnibus this week, the other great trade paperback release collecting a great from yesteryear is Zot! by Scott McCloud of Undertanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, and Making Comics fame. This collection which is priced at a mere $24.95 for 575 pages collects all of McCloud's black and white Zot! issues. Zot! originally ran as a color comic for ten issues, but these aren't included in this volume as McCloud believes those were just the training wheels for the Zot! reboot of which this fine edition contains.
I actually haven't re-read Zot! since I first read them when they came out from 1985-1991, so I can't tell you what it's about in a nutshell, but I remember loving this book for its characterizations of the two central characters, Zot and his girlfriend Jenny, and that there were several really powerful scenes involving them. I vaguely remember that Zot was from another dimension which had science that was advanced from Earth's and that he met Jenny (from Earth) when he somehow crossed dimensions. I'm happy to have all of the black and white Zot! in one book and look forward to sitting done and revisiting a book ahead of its time.

Anyone who's read Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, and Making Comics knows what a master McCloud is of this medium and Zot! is a perfect example of a timeless, ageless comic that guys and gals will enjoy. Go to: www.harpercollins.com and enter Zot in their search field as they have several pages from the book that a person can read.