Zero Zero

Issues 1-5, 7-11, 13-15 and 17 of 'Zero Zero'

Fantagraphics Books, 1995-2000

Zero Zero is an alternative comics anthology that was 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".

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 conventionally 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 (published in the year 2000) this feature was replaced with an Al Columbia strip depicting the demise of an experimental subject named "Cheapy the Guinea Pig", which can be taken as a metaphor for the end of Zero Zero itself.

An incomplete list of contributors...

Doug Allen, Rick Altergott, Max Andersson, Marc Arsenault, 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, Alexsandar Zograf