Author(s): Jerry Scott

GRAPHIC NOVEL

Random Zits not-so-randomly combines the previous collections Road Trip! and Teenage Tales into one mega-volume. It includes popular story lines that include Jeremy and Hector fixing up their old van and take it for a clandestine joy ride, and Jeremy learning the value of tact on his girlfriend's bad hair days, selling random household items on eBay, surviving sudden radical growth spurts, and being coaxed into a fishing trip with his father, who seizes the opportunity to have "the talk."

Zits captures the nature of teenage boys with uncanny precision. In one series of strips, Jeremy's mom is alarmed when she finds a fist-size hole in the wall of his room. Pressed to explain it, he balks. When he finally describes what happened, it turns out that the hole wasn't made in a moment of teen hormonal rage. It was made in a moment of teen hormonal idiocy, when he used his mom's meat tenderizing mallet to swat a bug. Anyone who has spent much time around an adolescent boy will recognize this seemingly inexplicable behavior: intelligence and impulsiveness locked in constant battle. This is the natural state of the teen male, and it's portrayed exquisitely in Zits.