The most intriguing section of Zot! 1987-1991: The Complete Black and White Collection, by Scott McCloud, comes in the middle with “The Ghost in the Machine.”
The plot involves the attempted assassination of the president and his family, and a truly sinister bad guy called, oddly enough, 9-Jack-9, who appears as a sort of electric avatar.In his notes, McCloud, now probably better known as the author of Understanding Comics, concedes this is probably his darkest Zot! story.
“Every major villain I created for the series represented a different potential future, and level of credibility I assigned to that future determined the gravity of the character,” McCloud writes. “9-Jack-9 represented the most credible of all those futures — the very real possibility that technology, for all its benefits, would eventually do us all in.”The story may be dark, but in this black-and-white collection that bit of weight makes for deeper reading.
Read my earlier post on Zot! here.
I considered giving up about a quarter of the way in to Zot! 1987-1991: The Complete Black and White Collection, by Scott McCloud, who’s become better known as the author of Understanding Comics.
The characters just weren’t that interesting, and the super hero storyline seemed like a send-up — “Lies! Balderdash! You never would have survived my first assault without your infernal gun!” bellows villain Doctor Ignatius Rumbault Bellows.
But in his notes between sections, McCloud discusses his thoughts on comics and how Zot! changed over time, to be less about super hero adventuring and more about human interaction. So I skipped ahead.
In “Ring in the New,” some three-quarters of the way in, one of Zot’s friends is arrested for operating his parents’ car with only a learner’s permit. “Dad won’t pay for driving lessons and he just won’t take the time to teach me,” Digger moans.
“Look, do you want me to talk to him, Digger? He always listened to me,” friend Vic volunteers.
“Would you really do that, Vic? I sure would appreciate it ….”
“C’mon, let’s go.”
Oh, my. I’m not certain which is more unrealistic — that dialogue or the notion of a father who’ll take counsel from his teen-aged son’s teen-aged pal.
But there are some good bits in Zot!, mostly with a bad guy called 9-Jack-9 ….
More to come.
Scott McCloud interviewed Jeff Smith, creator of Bone, on the DVD The Cartoonist. See my post here.
