Jerry Scott - What Was That All About?: 20 Years of Strips and Stories

Also by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

Zits: Sketchbook 1

Growth Spurt: Zits Sketchbook 2

Dont Roll Your Eyes at Me, Young Man!: Zits Sketchbook 3

Are We an Us?: Zits Sketchbook 4

Zits Unzipped: Zits Sketchbook 5

Busted!: Zits Sketchbook 6

Road Trip: Zits Sketchbook 7

Teenage Tales: Zits Sketchbook 8

Thrashed: Zits Sketchbook No. 9

Pimp My Lunch: Zits Sketchbook No. 10

Are We Out of the Driveway Yet?: Zits Sketchbook No. 11

Rude, Crude, and Tattooed: Zits Sketchbook No. 12

Jeremy and Mom

Pierced

Lust and Other Uses for Spare Hormones

Jeremy & Dad

Youre Making That Face Again

Drive!

Triple Shot, Double Pump, No Whip Zits

Zits en Concert

Peace, Love, and Wi-Fi

Zits Apocalypse

Extra Cheesy Zits

Treasuries

Humongous Zits

Big Honkin Zits

Zits: Supersized

Random Zits

Crack of Noon

Alternative Zits

My Bad

Sunday Brunch

Gift Book

A Zits Guide to Living with Your Teenager

To our remarkable families, without whom this book would have been a lot thinner and less funny.

J.S. J.B.

contents

Jerry Scott

In February of 1995, when I was living in Cave Creek, a small town north of Phoenix, Arizona, I got a call from Jim Borgman, the Pulitzer Prizewinning editorial cartoonist for the Cincinnati Enquirer and a guy I barely knew. We had served on the board of directors of the National Cartoonists Society together. And by served I mean we kept our heads down when work was being assigned and volunteers sought.

Jim had been invited to speak at the Arizona Press Club and, it being February and all, was looking for an excuse not to get back to the Midwest too quickly. He asked me what he should do to kill some time in the sun, and I suggested he try a place I knew of near Sedona. Garlands Resort is a little gem in the Oak Creek Canyon area with individual cabins, great food, and plenty of nothing to do. I described it in such glowing detail and mouthwatering terms that by the end of the phone call I had invited myself to come along. The only rule was that there was to be no cartooning work done... just hanging around, hiking, and eating good meals while unwinding from deadlines.

So we did that for a couple of days, and then I broke the rule. I had been fired from the Nancy comic strip a few weeks before this and was frantically working on an idea for a new strip. The new one was supposed to be about a teenager, but all of my drawings looked less like teenage boys than freakishly elongated Sluggos. So I grabbed a few beers (a recognized currency among cartoonists) and ambled over to Jims cabin, sketchbook in hand.

Funny stuff, he said. But your teenagers look like elongated Sluggos. We talked about all the reasons a strip about a teenager wouldnt work, and then Jim said, If youre asking me how I would draw a teenager, Id just draw my son.

Dylan Borgman was fifteen years old at the time, and Jim explained that boys that age dont just occupy space... they drape, slouch, crowd, and dominate it. Then he drew this:

And this:

By beer two I knew that something was happening. Or might happen. This idea of mine suddenly had a brilliant new look and a deeper sensibility with the prospect of two creators contributing to it.

Then we decided to forget the whole thing and go home.

July 7, 1997

July 9, 1997

July 10, 1997

July 17, 1997

July 18, 1997

July 22, 1997

July 20, 1997

July 27, 1997

July 24, 1997

July 26, 1997

July 29, 1997

August 5, 1997

August 9, 1997

August 14, 1997

August 19, 1997

August 26, 1997

September 12, 1997

August 10, 1997

December 14, 1997

September 26, 1997

October 3, 1997