Sam Kieth’s Zero Girl Returns to Print

Zero Girl (IDW)

Sam Kieth was famous for his unique art style and quirky visions, with his work on The Sandman, Epicurus the Sage, and his own The Maxx, before I started reading those kinds of comics. Zero Girl thus may have been the first of his work I read.

It was originally a five-issue miniseries from the Wildstorm imprint Homage (a part of DC Comics), who put out a collection in 2001. Now, IDW is reprinting that collection.

Zero Girl (IDW)

Their description is:

Amy Smootster [is] a 15 year-old high school student whose feelings of alienation and loneliness occasionally manifest in the form of odd abilities. She deals as best she can with the help of her high school guidance counselor Tim, whom she is secretly in love with.

I elaborate: When Amy gets embarrassed, a strange liquid oozes from her feet. She sees shapes, with circles being friendly and squares dangerous, and she’s bullied for being weird.

This is the kind of story that is likely to find a much more sympathetic audience now than it did then, with more customers that like strange stories about teen girls with abilities now in the market. The romance between a 15-year-old and 25-year-old might not play as well, although that aspect is apparently autobiographical.

I just re-read the series, and I’m not sure what I think of it. The images are interesting, and most anyone can identify with adolescence seeming like a time where everyone is out to get you and decisions are life-or-death, but ultimately, the ending wasn’t very satisfying to me, without enough explanation of the weirdness.

There was a sequel, Zero Girl: Full Circle, that I assume we’ll see reprinted if this does well.

Zero Girl is due out from IDW on September 20 (September 26 for bookstores) at a suggested price of $17.99. It can be preordered from your local comic shop with Diamond code JUN17 0569.



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