Zero Zero (comics)

Zero Zero was an alternative comics anthology published by Fantagraphics Books from 1995 to 2000. It was notable among comics anthologies for the number of serialized works that appeared in its pages, including Richard Sala's "The Chuckling Whatsit", Dave Cooper's "Crumple", Mack White's "Homunculus", Kaz and Timothy Georgarakis's "Meat Box", and Kim Deitch's "The Strange Secret of Molly O'Dare" and "The Search for Smilin' Ed". Derf Backderf's short strip "My Friend Dahmer", which was later expanded to an award-winning graphic novel, also appeared in its pages.

Zero Zero was published in a typical 6½″ × 9¾″ comic book format. Issues ranged between 40 and 64 pages in length, printed mostly in black-and-white with a color cover but occasionally including sections printed in one or two colors, notably a series of stories by Al Columbia. Zero Zero's release schedule was irregular, fluctuating between bimonthly and quarterly intervals over the course of its run. A total of 27 issues were released.

Early issues of Zero Zero were not numbered; however, the back cover of each issue featured a captioned illustration depicting an ordinal "Sign of the Impending Apocalypse" which also served as an ad hoc numbering system. For the final issue this feature was replaced with an Al Columbia strip depicting the demise of an experimental subject named "Cheapy the Guinea Pig".

Partial list of contributors

• Doug Allen
• Rick Altergott
• Max Andersson
• Marc Arsenault
• Derf Backderf
• Jim Blanchard
• Stephane Blanquet
• David Collier
• Al Columbia
• Dave Cooper
• Kim Deitch
• Mike Diana
• Michael Dougan
• Joyce Farmer
• Bill Griffith
• Glenn Head
• Sam Henderson
• Kaz
• Michael Kupperman (as "P. Revess")
• David Mazzucchelli
• Mark Newgarden
• Ethan Persoff
• Archer Prewitt
• Spain Rodriguez
• Joe Sacco
• Richard Sala
• Ted Stearn
• Henriette Valium
• Penny Van Horn
• Mack White
• Skip Williamson
• Aleksandar Zograf

References

• 'Zero Zero' at the Comic Book DB