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April 1984 |
"He's fought on a dozen worlds - rushed headlong into a hundred deadly battles - and saved the lives of thousands! Now another world will know his name! Now Zot comes to Earth!" Where Jenny Weaver is bored in her new home. "Just like they said. No noise, no trash, no crime... no friends." Jenny is 13, and her family has moved sp many times in her life she feels 80. "And it's all just a dead end!"  It doesn't help that her brother Butch is a jerk, who, for instance, snatches up a frog Jenny found and runs off with it. Jenny is ready to cry. "It's all just too much." |
But her life is about to change. A pink pulsating portal opens in the air. Out zooms...
... Zot! |
Zot explodes on the scene via rocket boots. He bellows for Jenny to"Look out! They're coming through!" Jenny is too stunned to move - - and is almost run over by rampaging one-eyed robots. Zot swoops off the roof and scoops up Jenny. "Out flashes a gleaming golden pistol - POW! POW! POW!" The robots are reduced to junk. Always friendly, Zot blathers. "Sorry to whip you around like that. But they're big suckers, you know? Hmm. Only one charge left... Um, is there something wrong?" "Who ARE you?" "Oh, pardon me. Zachary T. Paleozogt at your service. But you can call me Zot! But you've still got that confused look on your face." "What's the big glowing thing?" A "window to another world." What world? "Uh, too hard to explain. Oh, heck, I'm in no hurry. You want to hear the whole story?" |
Zot comes from a peaceful and laid-back planet (another Earth). But their nearest neighbors on Sirius IV are paranoid and buttoned-down religious fanatics. They're especially hung up on a golden Key that opens the Doorway at the Edge of the Universe. This door just HANGS in space, and no one's been able to move or open or damage the door for millions of years. The Sirians keep the Key under heavy guard.  Still, someone stole the Key. The Church went nuts, shooting up everything in their hunt for the key. They caught the thief, but "No key." The thief escaped. More tearing around. So Zot stepped in to help stop the robots. "The rest you know." |
OK. She's Jenny Weaver. "I always thought the world was so small. Dull, drab, and boring." Now she's glimpsed Zot's world and wants to visit. "Please." "No problem, if that's what you want. Uh, you look kind of pale..." That's because Jenny can see one leftover robot about to kill Zot.  The robot clocks Zot. Jenny grabs the gun. "'One charge left,' he said." Jenny blows the robot to smithereens. That's taxing. But not as unnerving as her hand accidentally touching Zot's. They both blush. Police sirens sound. Zot zooms off through the portal. |
Jenny's left flat-footed. And amazed when her stupid brother Butch finds a key. "I think it's gold!" Jenny snatches the key and runs for the portal. Butch runs after. "Sis, don't go in there!" But he trips and knocks Jenny and himself through. And the portal winks closed. While on Zot's world... Jenny finds herself hanging by one hand to a ledge sixty stories high! Butch reaches. Jenny slips - and falls - and blacks out. |
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And wakes in Zot's house. "Then it wasn't all a dream, was it?" Zot's house is on the "outskirts of town", very Jetsons. He even has a robot butler named Peabody. (He's on the cover in blue and shades.) It was Peabody who caught Jenny in their air-car. "Wait a minute!" yells Jenny. "You called this world Earth and you speak English! This isn't another world, is it?" Jenny guessed right. "Welcome, one and all, to the far-flung future of - 1965!" So... "Not exactly the same Earth." Oh, and Jenny has the Key.  Great! Peabody suggests they return it. Zot argues for some sightseeing first. "C'mon, Peabody, where's your sense of fun?" The robot replies, "I'm the standard model, Zachary. Fun was optional." They blast off in the air-car. Peabody drives because Zot's too young. Jenny's in love with the new world and plans to spend the rest of her life exploring it. As the air-car flashes through the city heights, people cheer Zot. Even the cops want an autograph. Butch finds it sickening. Nobody notices a baseball-sized robot trails them... Our heroes fly to the CPZP, the council that runs this part of the solar system. A Councilman Zarbim of Sirius, a serious dude, demands the key. The other councilors sigh. Zot arrives and announces, "I have the key!" Except right then, unnoticed, the baseball-robot lifts it from Jenny's pocket. Zot asks for the Key. Jenny stalls... |
And the wall blows in. Someone else demands the key. A nutbar with a gun! "Give me the Key! Or suffer the wrath of De-Evolution!"  |
The gun doesn't kill. It reverts everyone it blasts to a monkey. Councilmen get zapped, as does Butch. The monkeys shriek, "Ook! Ook!" Zot zips around the room to draw fire. He can't use his gun, Peabody explains to Jenny, because it has only one setting: Destroy. And Zot doesn't kill. Peabody can, via an earpiece in Zot's ear, advise. He recommends Zot swoop low and blast the floor where it says, "Emergency Sub-Zero Extinguisher Unit." Zot zaps. The De-Ev chills out. Zot uses the devo gun to turn monkeys back into people. The De-Evolutionary pulls a "Silurian hand grenade"! Zot yells, "Gimme that!" and flies it out the window, then pitches. FOOM! "Whew!" Returning, Zot breaks the De-Ev gun. "So much for that little troublemaker!" But the Key is lost again. The Council decides to participate in the search. "Even mere whelps like that?" asks Councilman Zarbim. Zot grins. "Hey, happy to be of service!" |
"All those in favor?" The room resounds to "Aye!" And one "Ook!"  Whoops. Missed changing Butch back to human... "It's not over yet." |
Comments In the next issue, "Zot goes 'Into the Grid' to catch a thief! Also introducing 9-Jack-9 [one of comics' best villains], Prince Drufus, and the indescribable Uncle Max!" We could talk about Zot! all day and you still wouldn't grasp all the cool and pithy and fun details. The book was chock-full of wonderful and bizarre and unique characters and concepts. Better see for yourself. Learn more about ZOT! at Scott McCloud's corner of Comic Book Resources. |
