accidentally blown up. The Blotch was a gangster with a purple splotch for a head, who appears to be made entirely of some form of viscous liquid. When he becomes upset he loses control of his physical form and "melts down" into a large puddle. 9-Jack-9 (J9AC9K), who also featured in the Key to the Door arc, was an electronically transmitted assassin hired to finish off the president and his family of a distant planet. Zot tracks him down to his base, and during the ensuing battle Jack accidentally electrocutes his human operator, Sir John Shears. However, Jack, the programme, survives independently. Following a poll in which Zot! readers could vote for a character to be hit by a pie in the face, a special New Year's party is held in which all the villains and friends of Zot turn up, with said pie making many forays into the air, until finally hitting one of the assembled cast. At the end of this story Zot is stranded on Earth. Issues 28–36 These stories are usually referred to as the "Earth stories" as they feature Zot being stranded on Jenny's Earth. They are more character driven than the earlier stories and focus on Jenny's band of misfit friends. The final culmination of the arc is a cliff hanger in which the whole ensemble leaves to go to Zot's world, though not permanently. The arc also contained an entire Eisner Award nominated issue with Zot and Jenny talking about sex, and an issue dealing with Jenny's friend Terry being a lesbian. Issues 10½ and 14½ Matt Feazell usually drew a non-canonical stick figure back-up strip to Zot! in which the characters from the main story were featured in absurd or surreal situations, as well as having crossovers with Feazell's work and other Eclipse books. For two issues Feazell was allowed to take the helm and produced these stories, set in "dimension 10½", with McCloud providing a one-page back-up to issue 14. Themes Throughout Zot!'s run the principal theme is the contrast between Zot's utopian world and Jenny's flawed version. The two lead characters find each other's worlds fascinating: Jenny desiring the tranquility of the parallel world and Zot embracing the challenges of Earth. Later on, teenage sexuality, bigotry, homosexuality and a sense of not belonging are all explored in a sensitive way, displaying Zot (and by association his world) as socially liberal.