Also you should find a copy of McCloud’s Destroy!! while you’re at it.
Ray Cornwall asks regarding Scott McCloud’s Zot!
“I know there’s a trade of the B&Ws, but are they newer versions that should be read over the originals?”
As of now, The Complete Black and White Collection remains the definitive reprinting of that run of stories. However, it should be noted that there’s a two-part story from issues #19 and #20 that was drawn over McCloud’s layouts by Chuck Austen that is not included in its completed form. Only McCloud’s layouts are included. Also not reprinted are “#10 1/2,” the mini-comic drawn by Matt Feazell, and the full-sized “#14 1/2” also by Feazell.
One caveat is that, while otherwise this book reprints these stories as they originally appeared in print, the actual page size of the paperback is slightly smaller than the original comics. That’s the only real major change between the two presentations. So if I get what you’re asking, Ray, no, it’s all pretty much the same.
I am not sure of the printing status of this particular volume…Diamond Distributors doesn’t have it, but it appears readily available from Amazon.
The color issues were reprinted in a single volume by Kitchen Sink Press in 1997. Needless to say, it’s out of print. I checked out Amazon and there was a copy for (egads) $195, but other copies were available for $35 and up, so shop around a bit here and on eBay and such.
There are two more volumes in this Kitchen Sink book series that reprint up to issue #27 (except for the Austen-drawn #19-20). These are pretty much supplanted by the Complete Black and White volume.
I should also point out that Eclipse Comics published a small trade of the first four color issues, in case you wanted to know.
So basically, if you want the complete print Zot! comics collection, either buy all the comics individually (most of which I have available for sale at my shop right now, almost all signed!), or you buy that first Kitchen Sink trade, the black and white collection, the original print copies of #19 and #20, and the two Matt Feazell thingies.
Print, I said. Which leads me to what adam has to say
“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”
Adam is referring to the Zot! webcomic published at Comic Book Resources a good couple and a half decades ago.
It’s never been put into physical print, especially that one chapter adam mentioned with the long fall panel, designed for scrolling on a screen more than being divvied up across several pages in a book. I suppose it could be put in a single hardcover or something, though, as Scott himself notes, the artwork is a little “jaggy” and may not present well outside this context. Frankly, though, I think it looks fine. Printing it with jaggies an’ all would give it a solid retro feel, I think!
So, Zot! — it’s good, you should read it!
Speaking of collected editions, the newest issue of Groo: Gods Against Groo, #3, has the latest word from Mark Evanier about reprint collections of our favorite The Wanderer. And that word is “they’re looking into it,” basically trying to find a print format that 1) won’t cost you all your kopins, and 2) wouldn’t break any bones if you dropped it on your foot.
My personal feeling is that mimicking Marvel’s current “Epic Collections,” which are thick softcovers that contain about, I don’t know, about 15 to 20 issues or so, and usually costing about $40, may be the way to go. There are, what, at least a couple hundred Groo comics, plus the two graphic novels, plus other appearances here and there. That is about the equivalent of around 13 or 14 of Marvel’s Epic collections. Feels doable to me, but I’m not a comics publisher who’d have to pay for all that and then, hopefully, keep them reasonably in print.
At least that seems within reason, and that Sergio and Mark are actively trying to figure it out is good news. Sergio Aragones is a master cartoonist and that so much of it is out of print is a real shame. Thankfully the individual issues remain relatively inexpensive when you find them, so at least there’s that if nothing else.
“the original print copies of #19 and #19”
#19 and #20, you mean.
I’ve been hoping and hoping McCloud would announce at least one more Zot! story to answer all the hanging questions.
I have the giant-sized Destroy!!
On eBay, there’s a lot of all the comics (including 10 1/2 and 14 1/2) for $143 (or best offer), which I think is a bargain.
Mark and Sergio have been giving that same answer (“we’re looking into it”) for years and years, unfortunately. At HeroesCon 2019, I asked them about it during a panel, and both Sergio and Stan (Sakai) mentioned how they hate omnibus collections (which I thought was interesting on Stan’s part, since pretty much all of Usagi Yojimbo is now available in big thick books). While I agree that that probably isn’t the best format for Groo, it really does stink that most of the work done by arguably our greatest living cartoonist is out of print/hard to get. Personally, I would love to get Groo in volumes similar to Fantagraphic’s Carl Barks Library.
Daniel T – whoops, I swear I saw that typo and thought I fixed it, but obviously I hadn’t. Fixed now!
Nicolas – it’s really a case of “poop or get off the pot” — they’re going to have to finally settle on an option (optimally, mine) and just do it. This stuff needs to be available. I imagine if the recently-announced movie ever happens, that’ll give everyone the necessary goose to get it done.
Those Zot!s on eBay–I put them on my watchlist and the seller sent me an offer for $120. I don’t need them so somebody jump on that!
NOTE: I have 1-36 except 19 and 20 and the Feazell issues for a lot less than that, and most of them are signed! Anyone needs ’em, hit me up! (I also have a couple of original pages from…#35, I think?)
I’d think that a Complete Zot! would be ripe for a crowdfunding campaign.
Buy them from Mike! Calling them a bargain didn’t mean I thought they were the cheapest–I just think in a just world they would sell for more than $3 each.
I’m only missing the Groo Garden from the Groo collected editions. My biggest claim to fame (I….I don’t get out much) is that I had the first volume of Groo Chronicles signed by Evanier at a Phoenix convention, and he mentioned on his website he was surprised to see a copy not already signed by Sergio. I am obliquely immortalized on newsfromme!
Re:
” ‘Bob Oksner’ is a hard name to say when you’re from Oxnard.
back me up here @xaimeh”
What if… on pre-COIE Earth 1, the Earth 1 Bob Oksner and the Earth 1 Xaime Hernandez collaborated on a Love & Rockets/Swing with Scooter time travel multiversal crossover one-shot comic…and Prosolar mechanic Maggie fixes Scooter’s scooter–which has broken down in Oxnard! Guest appearance by Zot (because why the hell not?)!
Sean M: if you are the Sean that Mike wrote is a customer at the store, expect an envelope. Explanation written on a JLI postcard, all good to go.
I have all of the LOVE & ROCKETS trades and have yet to read one. Same with PROMETHEA. Got them all from a friend who was moving. He also gave me the MIRACLEMAN trades, but I read those in floppies as well as in WARRIOR magazine.
Somebody give all those Zot!s a good home! Funny to think that the guy who sold them to Mike smartly kept 19 and 20 but stupidly forgot to pull out 14 1/2….
There are times when I wonder about a complete collected Groo, but then I read a few and I swear it’s like… same sitcom, different week. I feel like there’s supposed so be a big roaring laugh track every time “cheese dip” comes up.
A complete collection of Groo makes about as much sense to as a complete Dennis The Menace. As a work of comic art, I agree it deserves preservation somehow, but I think even one omnibus-sized book would be twice the Groo I would ever need.
Now a complete collection of Sergio Aragones Funnies would be very nice to have, and I think a better testament to Sergio’s versatility.
Sergio Aragones’s Funnies is probably in my Top 5 comics series of all time, and I would love to see it collected. But if all you’re looking for is “a testament to Sergio’s versatility,” there’s already this:
https://www.amazon.com/MADs-Greatest-Artists-Aragones-Decades/dp/0762436875
Michael, while I “kind of” disagree (I love Groo and even though it is kind of repetitive, I’ve read all of them multiple times over the course of my life) I do think that that might be part of the reason we’ve not seen a big reprint project. The original collections, which reprinted (I think) 4 issues each was probably ideal, to prevent sameness/burnout, but that’s not how things work nowadays. And I agree about Funnies – that and his Solo issue are my favorite work of his. In a perfect world, we’d get a Complete Aragones Library, that included Groo along with everything else!
I made a monumental fuckup trying to buy some pages in that mentioned back-of-the-issue sale list and had to back out of the sale. In case you didn’t know, Scott is a saint.
In spite of or because of that, I leapt on two pages when he had more on his site a few years later. I ended up with the Death of Drufus and “Lead us!” And you know what? I ended up with the right ones. Invariably, folks that see them, who have never read the story, still “get” them. The first one, particularly.
I got Matt to draw my artist’s statement for my first show many years ago and I display that proudly in my studio where I’m a grad student these days. I need to get a copy of 10 1/2 and 14 1/2.
Daniel T: “I have the giant-sized Destroy!”
Me too. It truly is GIANT-SIZED.
I used to have(might have in my old room still) most or all the b&w Zots, excluding 19&20.
Death of Drufus still tugs my heartstrings, just reading Hal Shipman mentioning it prompted me to delurk and comment here.
Sorry, its dusty here. I gotta dig out my copy of Zot B&W collection before it collects too much more dust.
If i could find my copy of Zot bk 1, eclipse edition from the 90s. I’d go reread both back to back. Didnt buy the Kitchen Sink volume tho so i might forever wonder how the Door at the End of the Universe story ended. Sigh!
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