No relation to the University of California Irvine.
So I’ve had Scott McCloud‘s Zot! on the mind lately, inspired primarily by recently processing a nearly-complete run of the series, most of which were signed by Scott. As is usual whenever I’m dealing with comics at the store that I have and love in my own collection, this made me want to reread the entire series. This, on top of the fact that I’ve already got a giant “to read” pile caused by my eye troubles, of course.
That didn’t stop me from rereading a few issues anyway, primarily the 3-part 9-Jack-9 story from the black and white run, a heartbreaking read that also raised a question or two in my mind about the nature of 9-Jack-9 himself. In my brief Googling on that topic (as well as a particular loose thread regarding the nature of Zot’s parallel “future” Earth of 1965), I discovered this documentary. Understanding Scott McCloud’s Zot! is an overview of the comic, as well as a biographical sketch of McCloud, his family, his entry into comics, his meeting the wonderful Ivy…all squeezed into under half and hour. Well worth the watch, and I hope you spend the time to do so:
An addendum: I’ve probably mentioned a million times before that my very first issue of Zot! was in fact picking up brand new the Zot! #10 1/2 mini-comic by Matt Feazell (which I believe I first mentioned waaay back the first month of this site’s life).
That got me to start reading the regular Zot! series when #11 launched the black-and-white run, and naturally sent me back issue hunting for the earlier color run. The elusive #5 was the last one I needed, which took me what seemed to me like forever to find…but probably only a few months, in reality. Nevertheless, every time I come across an issue 5 in the wild, like in this collection I was working on, I can’t help but to think “where were you when I was looking for you back in ’86?”
I know there’s a trade of the B&Ws, but are they newer versions that should be read over the originals?
Oh, hey, I own the original art to the last page of that 9+Jack-9 story (“Oh, Harry… I NEVER work for free…”)! I bought it directly from Scott back in the day from his original art ad that would run on the letters page. (I bought it a year or two after that story and was surprised it hadn’t already sold and jumped on it)
Still need that #10 1/2 though…
I discovered zot thru scott’s website in the 90s. has anyone ever collected that series? don’t know how youd print that amazing episode thats just about falling thru the sky tho
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That Zot! documentary was cool, thanks for linking to it.
I don’t know if you know this- but there are two variants of the ZOT! 10 1/2 mini-comic. There was the one eclipse put out before the black-and-white relaunch of the book, which sold for $25 cents. There is also a “First printing” without the 25 Cents on the cover, which is signed McCloud and Feazell inside the front cover and is numbered from ### out of 700. I had been watching for a cheap copy of the book for some time on eBay, and when I finally jumped on one, I was surprised when I got and saw the signatures and noticed the price missing from the cover (which for some reason was clearly in my mind).
I found a couple of links to the covers:
The Eclipse 25-cent version: https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/md/md31215603172.jpg
The signed and limited to 700: https://storage.googleapis.com/hipcomic/p/7c228bba5607b171561057cc7e179f7e-800.jpg