With issue #28, though, Zot! underwent a major tonal shift as our hero found himself stranded in Jenny's dimension, and McCloud began focusing single issues on his heroine's Earthbound friends. In a way, the act was comparable to the moment Love And Rockets' Jaime Hernandez took his protagonist Maggie out of the world of pro-solar mechanics and dinosaurs and plunked her down into the So Cal barrio. While McCloud's big move doesn't have the same degree of specificity that Hernandez did -- Jenny's Anytown U.S.A. setting is just a tad too generic -- as a storytelling gambit, it seriously opened up the writer/artist. The stories may have become smaller, but our interest in McCloud's characters grew. In one memorable issue, he devotes the entire thing to a bedroom conversation between Zot and Jenny about whether the couple should "have sex." The results are both convincingly awkward and believably tender.
McCloud's art was significantly inspired by the largely untranslated manga of the day, most particularly Osamu Tezuka, whose Astro Boy and Metropolis comics can be clearly seen in Zot's "future world." Though he can be especially hard on himself in the new collection's copious between-chapter notes, McCloud's clean linework is snugly suited to his boyish and girlish characters. While Zot! doesn't shy away from grimmer themes -- one of the later stories centers on the demoralizing effects of gay bashing, for instance -- McCloud's essentially humanistic take runs counter to the hard-boiled cynicism so prevalent in mainstream comics of its day. His art beautifully mirrors this.
As a collection, Zot! is not without its minor glitches: McCloud's decision to exclude the early color stories results in a few characters and plot points popping up awkwardly - the most glaring revolving around Jenny's brother Butch turning into a monkey whenever he enters Zot's dimensions. Too, midway into the run McCloud handed the art chores over to Chuck Austin for two issues, so the writer/artist could go on his honeymoon. Austin's finished artwork isn't included in this collection: instead, we're treated to shrunken versions of artist McCloud's roughs, fitting four pages onto a single book page. A definite eyestrain.
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