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Part one of a wide-ranging interview with the young creator of ZOT!, conducted by Jim Salicrup with Kurt Busiek (a childhood friend of McCloud's) present. McCloud argues passionately that comics are a medium, not a genre, capable of far more than super-heroes, and discusses the influence of Japanese and European comics — particularly Osamu Tezuka — on his approach to visual storytelling and reader participation. He recounts how he developed ZOT! while working in DC's production department, shopped it to six publishers simultaneously (nearly landing at WaRP Graphics before settling on Eclipse), and describes the book's central theme as "hope — making hope work, making it practical." The interview is labeled Part One, with Part Two to follow in a later issue.

In part two of his interview, McCloud discusses the Jungian archetypal framework underpinning *Zot!*'s four main characters, and his belief in the writer-artist as auteur — arguing that the best comics come from a single unified creative vision. He defends Zot! against the perception that it is merely a children's book, emphasizing its serious emotional underpinning including a major character death in issue #6, and connects the book's optimistic future-world premise to nuclear anxieties and a desire to reclaim naive, hopeful visions of the future. He also advocates passionately for mini-comics as a way for aspiring creators to develop their own voices outside the Marvel/DC system.

Busiek explains that Image offered him the most creatively interesting post-*Marvels* opportunities, leading to a slate of projects including Shadowhawk: Images of Tomorrow, The Regulators (a villain-centric mini-series with Kerry Gammill), Youngblood: Year One (a Washington political thriller), and solo mini-series for Spartan and Velocity. He traces his career from fanzines and a high-school collaboration with Scott McCloud through assistant editing Marvel Age and later stints on Power Man and Iron Fist.