Zits (comic strip)

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Image:Zits 2006 Day-to-Day Calendar.jpg

"Zits" redirects here. For the skin condition, see Acne Vulgaris

Zits is a comic strip about a teenager named Jeremy Duncan and his relationship with family and friends. The strip began in July 1997. At the time of its debut, the strip had the widest newspaper release of any comic strip in America (the previous record was set by the Muppet Babies comic strip in 1985).

1 Information
2 Characters
3 Zits books
4 External links

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Information

Zits is drawn by Jerry Scott (writer) and Jim Borgman (artist). Scott is also known for writing Baby Blues, a popular comic strip about a family with young children. Borgman was a political cartoonist for The Cincinnati Enquirer when Scott asked him to help create the strip. Borgman recalls that the two stumbled upon the idea while stuck in an airplane as they returned from a cartooning retreat.

Stylistic similarities to Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes have been noted by readers familiar with both strips. Watterson attended Kenyon College during several of the years that Jim Borgman did. In fact, Watterson replaced Borgman's position drawing cartoons for the college's newspaper after Jim's graduation. Both "Calvin and Hobbes" and Zits use a full panel for their Sunday strips instead of the traditional block format. Watterson is credited as the first artist to insist upon this format. Once adopted, Calvin and Hobbes took on a style that has been compared to that of a comic book layout. Zits has followed this style closely, adopting dynamic layouts and large, detailed panels.

Zits is notable for its multi-cultural cast characters including African-American, Asian and Latino ethnicities. The strip also depicts a romantic relationship between a racially mixed couple, a rare situation in popularly distributed newspaper comics.

The National Cartoonists Society has awarded the strip the "Best Comic Strip of the Year" award numerous times and both artists have received the prestigious Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.

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Characters

Jeremy Duncan: Jeremy Duncan is fifteen years old, a freshman in high school, and aspiring Rock God. Favorite Band: Gingivitis. Best Friend: Hector Garcia. Girlfriend: Sara Toomey. Totally embarrassed by his father and completely dedicated to restoring an ancient VW van with Hector in which they will, someday, drive across the country and not stop until they hit an ocean, notwithstanding the fact that it casts no shadow.
Connie Duncan: Jeremy's mother, a bit of an airhead at times but a great mom for all that, or at least that's how readers see her. What Jeremy thinks is something else again. A child psychologist, aspiring writer, and stay-at-home mom, she has become so frustrated with Jeremy's one-word answers that she describes a conversation with him as "Trying to coax a smile out of a clam full of Botox". She seems to have a minor case of road rage, which is why Jeremy would rather have her teach him how to drive than his father.
Walt Duncan: Jeremy's father, an orthodontist. Jeremy carefully records all of Walt's actions, expressions, and mannerisms, on the theory that if he does the opposite he's bound to be cool. Completely helpless with technology until rescued by Jeremy, he is the official Laundry Master. He has been known to butter his cheese. He is a fan of old-time rock and roll, with some of his favorite bands being Moby Grape (he's often seen wearing t-shirts with their name), Led Zeppelin (son Jeremy was conceived to the song Stairway to Heaven) and possibly Chad and Jeremy (he and Connie blame each other for the naming of their sons after them, which they both now regret).
Hector Garcia: Jeremy's best friend, a bit more sensible than Jeremy but can't choose girlfriends to save his life. His first girlfriend, Mandy, was a complete parasite who controlled him until Jeremy told Hector that the girl was bad news. He's currently dating Autumn, a radical vegetarian who calls Jeremy "Vampire", "Carnivore", "Assassin", and "Murderer" whenever she sees him with meat. Hector has become a vegetarian as well to support Autumn, but is not quite as devoted as his girlfriend (he has been seen eating beef jerky bookmarks in Study Hall). Hector is from a Spanish-speaking family and lives with his parents, grandparents, and multiple siblings. His and Jeremy's opinion of this is summed up very well in this quote:

"I've never seen a house so completely happy and bursting with life. I don't know how you stand it."

"It isn't easy."

Sara Toomey: Jeremy's girlfriend; although he thinks the world of her, she thinks of him as a "salvageable male." Also a patient of Jeremy's dad, a situation which has caused Jeremy a certain amount of irritation and embarrassment. Her parents are divorced and she lives with her mother, visiting her father every month or so. She is very nice but incredibly temperamental. She has two turtles: Peaches and Mordac, Lord of Unholy Fury. She explains this by saying they were bought at different times of the month.
Pierce: a member of Jeremy's band who has had about every part of his body pierced (he even likes having braces because his orthodontist, Jeremy's father, tells him to think of it as "piercing his smile"). He has a pet rat, partially deaf parents, and is the only person Walt has ever treated who wanted to get braces: "More metal attached to my head? I'm psyched!". Pierce has a lot of weird interests (like X-Treme Skydiving) and has an odd sense of fashion (he practices foot binding and once went to school with a funnel on his head thinking it was a hat). He says his family life "is like a symphony. But there aren't any musical instruments, and the musicians just yell at each other." He is also, to his eternal shame, an incredibly courteous driver and a decent person in his weird sort of way. He is D'ijon's boyfriend.
RichandAmy: Richard and Amy hugged each other in seventh grade and never let go, and are now referred to as though they were one person (when people even remember they're different). They spend much of their time coming up with millions of new ways to say "I love you".
Chad Duncan: Jeremy's brother, older child by four years (this supposedly makes him 19 since Jeremy is 15, but his age has never been stated). Attends college at Notre Dame. In his first few appearances, Chad was said to be the "perfect" child, and his face was slightly obscured because of his "perfect" looks. He was later redesigned to look like an older and toothier version of Jeremy. Rarely seen (a semi-recurring character), but often shows up during the holiday seasons.
Phoebe: One of Jeremy's classmates. She consumes a great deal of caffeine, and dreams of high grade achievement. Constantly pads her college resume ("Here Jeremy, have my apple. ORGANISED A FOOD DRIVE FOR MALNOURISHED STUDENTS! YES!!!"), and now has no pupils in her eyes, which she claims is due to selling her soul for a 4.9 GPA. It was also noted that Phoebe downloads her school essays from the internet and once tried to get Jeremy to do so.

Jeremy:"Are you aware that your eyes no longer have pupils?

Phoebe:"Okay, I sold my soul, but my G.P.A is 4.3!"

D'ijon: Pierce's girlfriend, and a friend of Sara's. Typically more level-headed than Sara, which is shocking given that she's the one who goes out with Pierce. She has a copy of Edvard Munch's The Scream tattooed on her tongue, and occasionally wanders around with Pierce after connecting their respective earrings. Her real name is Dionne, but claims to have started doing an "apostrophe drop" in 7th grade.
Autumn: Hector's girlfriend. Known for her extreme political and environmental views. She is a radical vegan and activist for any other cause you care to name. She once prompted Hector and Jeremy into releasing, during the passing time between classes, the 50,000 live crickets that were going to be massacred in the science lab in school.
Brittany: Another one of Jeremy's classmates. Being the information pipeline for the freshman class, Brittany is famous for knowing every rumor in the school and giving somewhat helpful advice and occasional relationship counseling.(Jeremy has come to her several times for this) Although she tends to get on both Jeremy and Hector's nerves (especially Jeremy's) by critiquing them on the size of their feet, head, nose, and ears.

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Zits books

Each Zits book (subtitled as Zits Sketchbooks and numbered sequentially) contains approximately one year of collected Zits strips. Each of the Zits collections combines the material from two Sketchbooks.)

Book	Cover	ISBN	Pages	Published	Collection
Zits	Image:Zits.jpg	ISBN 0-8362-68253	128 Pages	Tuesday, September 01, 1998	No
Growth Spurt	Image:Growth Spurt.jpg	ISBN 0-8362-78488	128 Pages	Thursday, April 01, 1999	No
Humongous Zits	Image:Humongous Zits.jpg	ISBN 0-7407-00138	256 Pages	Wednesday, March 01, 2000	Yes
Don't Roll Your Eyes At Me, Young Man!		ISBN 0-7407-11660	128 Pages	Friday, September 15, 2000	No
Big Honkin' Zits	Image:Big Honkin' Zits.jpg	ISBN 0-7407-18541	256 Pages	Tuesday, August 28, 2001	Yes
Zits Unzipped	Image:Zits Unzipped.jpg	ISBN 0-7407-23227	128 Pages	Monday, April 01, 2002	No
Thrashed	Image:Trashed.jpg	ISBN 0-7407-51174	128 Pages	Tuesday, April 30, 2002	No
Busted!	Image:Busted!.jpg	ISBN 0-7407-26757	128 Pages	Sunday, September 01, 2002	No
Zits Supersized	Image:Zits Supersized.jpg	ISBN 0-7407-33079	264 Pages	Friday, April 04, 2003	Yes
Road Trip!	Image:Road Trip!.jpg	ISBN 0-7407-38143	128 Pages	Monday, September 01, 2003	No
Teenage Tales	Image:Teenage Tales.jpg	ISBN 0-7407-41446	128 Pages	Thursday, April 01, 2004	No
Random Zits	Image:Random Zits.jpg	ISBN 0-7407-46693	248 Pages	Wednesday, September 01, 2004	Yes
Zits 2006 Day-to-Day Calendar	Image:Zits 2006 Day-to-Day Calendar.jpg	ISBN 0-7407-52170	736 Pages	Friday, July 01, 2005	No
Zits 2006 Family Organizer	Image:Zits 2006 Family Organizer.jpg	ISBN 0-7407-52189	24 Pages	Friday, July 01, 2005	No
Pimp My Lunch	Image:Pimp My Lunch.jpg	ISBN 0-7407-54432	128 Pages	Saturday, October 01, 2005	No