Zot! Book One

Zot! Book 1 by Scott McCloud
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When young Jenny Weaver and her family move to a new town, she's friendless until a portal to another universe opens up and Zot pops out just in time to stop some killer robots. Zot invites Jenny to visit his universe, dragging her into the adventure of a lifetime involving the missing key to the Doorway at the Edge of the Universe...

I first stumbled upon Zot in a dollar bin sometime in 1996 or 97. I'd seen ads for it in various Eclipse comics over the years but never picked it up. Needless to say, I was hooked and acquired this volume around the turn of the century. Now, decades later, I've taken the plunge again.

Zot! was created as a response to the trend of darkness in comics that led to Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, a throwback to the early days of comics with modern (at the time) sensibilities. It was and is a lot of fun.

The world Zot inhabits runs not quite parallel to our own, a retro-future 1965 straight out of the pulps of the 1930s, full of robots and flying cars and such. Zot is the world's only super-hero, his powers are his relentless optimism and gadgets created by his uncle, Max. When Jenny sees a chance to escape the despair in her new hometown, she jumps at it.

I have to think there's some Peter Pan in Zot's parentage, at least for the setup. The minimalist art is part manga, part CC Beck, with some silver age Marvel worked in. It's baffling that this is Scott McCloud's first work and he published it at 23. McCloud must have been a prodigy. His panel layouts and use of perspective show a maturity far beyond 23 years. There's some Steranko, some Ditko Doctor Strange, and some manga influenced panels. Some of the character designs are very iconic, like Dekko, with his head resembling the Empire State Building, or Zot himself, who looks like he could be the son of Adam Strange, Captain Marvel, and/or Captain Comet.

The story encapsulates a lot of fun things: robots, talking simians, flying cars, holy war, teenage love, and jetpacks. McCloud tells an epic tale in ten issues but each issue is satisfying on its own.

In my opinion, Zot! has more than stood the test of time. Someone should collect all 36 issues in a snazzy hardcover one of these days. 4 out of 5 stars.

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