An original graphic novella, totaling over 440 panels (roughly the equivalent of 70-80 standard comics pages) in 16 weekly installments. The story reunited the cast of my '80s superhero series Zot!, the only place outside the original series that the characters have appeared.
The artwork was rough. I was still getting used to drawing on a Wacom tablet (in late 2004, I finally started using a Cintiq) and some of it was a bit rushed. The images were compressed too (to accommodate turn-of-the-century dial-up speeds) and look a bit jaggy in places.
"Hearts and Minds" gave me the opportunity to test-drive some of my screen-as-window design ideas for online comics, while still telling a more-or-less straightforward story. Some were subtle, like varying the space between panels to influence pacing or creating storylines that were both literally and figuratively "parallel." Others were more bombastic, like Week Three's infamous 6,000 pixel-tall falling panel (might have to click that one to get your browser to display at full size).
Click the big map inside any column to "zoom in" on that chapter, or click on the chapter buttons below.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16
Squiddie Award Winner, Best Online Comic. Dude, remember the Squiddies? Seems like a million years ago...
Note: This Story was originally commissioned by Jonah Weiland's Comic Book Resources and ran there as well (Thanks, Jonah!) and was sponsored by Mile High Comics.
Originally posted in 2000.
While the comic ran, we also posted a guide to thirty of Zot!'s characters at CBR. The formatting was kinda klunky, but it has some interesting factoids.