Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site cornell.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!drutx!mtuxo!mtunh!mtung!mtunf!ariel!vax135!cornell!Pavel.pa@Xerox.ARPA
From: Pavel.pa@Xerox.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.comics
Subject: ZOT! to suspend publication
Message-ID: <3040@cornell.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 10-Jul-85 16:19:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: cornell.3040
Posted: Wed Jul 10 16:19:03 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 12-Jul-85 04:40:32 EDT
Sender: daemon@cornell.UUCP
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept.
Lines: 50

From: Pavel.pa@Xerox.ARPA

Eclipse Comics News Release
June 24th, 1985
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


ZOT! TO SUSPEND PUBLICATION

Despite its nomination in the Jack Kriby Awards for ``Best New Series,''
Scott McCloud's ZOT! has not been a record-breaking book in terms of
sales.  Thus it is, with a very heavy heart, that Eclipse regretfully
announces the suspension of this title.  ``We are definitely NOT
cancelling this series in the normal way that term is used,'' says
Eclipse editor-in-chief Catherine Yronwode.  ``Scott has decided to
temporarily suspend production, and ZOT! No. 10, now at the printer,
will be the last issue for a while.  I want to be as honest and up-front
about this as it is possible to be in the world of media-hype and
careful press-release hoopla: if ZOT! had only sold five thousand more
copies per issue, it would still be around.  It is ironic -- perhaps
even tragic -- that a series written up in THE NEW YORKER magazine and
listed among the personal top-ten favourites of this industry's leading
professionals and critical reviewers cannot sustain the broad economic
base it needs to suport one lone creator, but that appears to be the
case.  Personally, if i had the money i would publish the series at a
loss, indefinitely, but i don't, so for now, ZOT! is off the schedule.''

Scott McCloud, equally frank, has this to say about the situation,
``We've kept ZOT! going in its present format as long as possible, but
even with Eclipse's generous profit-sharing arrangement, there's just no
way I can continue through issue 12.  I would have gone into debt almost
immediately.  More importantly, I'm not at all sure that my work on the
book would have improved without some sort of pause.  At least this way,
when ZOT! does start up again, in whatever form, I'll have a better
perspective on what I'm doing.  I know this all sounds kind of drastic,
but I'm betting you'll see ZOT! again pretty soon.  After all, how else
can I finally introduce Zybox, The Blotch, Bellows, Digger and about a
dozen other characters I've been holding onto?!''

With ZOT! on sabbatical, McCloud plans to produce a few small-press type
b&w comics, just to experiment with that form.  ``But,'' says Yronwode,
``That `Next Issue' ad at the end of issue 10 still holds true -- ZOT!
will be back, and the next story will be set on Jenny's Earth, where she
must re-acquaint herself with mundane reality after her planet-hopping
adventures by Zot's side.  When this material will appear, we can't yet
say.  But the day we announce that ZOT! is back on the schedule will be
one of the happiest days of my life.''

Repleacing ZOT! on the Eclipse schedule will be Timothy Truman's SCOUT,
a new science fiction series.