Zap Comix #0 was published in the latter half of 1968, sometime between a few weeks and a few months after Zap Comix #2 was published in August. But if not for the fact that Brian Zahn (publisher of Yarrowstalks) had kept Crumb's artwork for Zap #0 when he traveled to India in 1968, this would have been the first book in the Zap Comix series. If it had been, would Zap Comix #0 have made the same impact that Zap #1 did when it was published? In all likelihood, yes, it would. But it would've been just a little more dicey.

Though still revolutionary for a comic book in 1968, Zap #0 is not quite as controversial as Zap #1, but it does get progressively more outrageous as you get deeper into the book. The inside front cover features Robert Crumb (as "Mr. Sketchum") introducing "Zap Comics" as "Audacious! Irreverent! Provocative!" But the first story, "Meatballs," is about as provocative as a good Mad magazine story of the same era. Sure, there's a "beatnik who was always high" in three panels, but even Mad would be bold enough to do that.

The five-page "Mr. Natural in Death Valley" that follows (see Historical Footnotes for information about new comic pages added after the first printing of the book) is a little more adventurous, as Mr. Natural advises Flakey Floont to take LSD and take a shit, which we know would never fly in any other comic. It's also a very funny story, but if all Crumb did was publish a funny comic it wouldn't have made the same impact that Zap immediately made.

The next story is "Ducks Yas Yas," a three-pager that really exemplifies the social environment of its time, as it features a broke hippie in New York who gets high, steals shit, hitches a ride to San Francisco and drops acid for three weeks. The briskly paced story is replete with the slang and jargon of the era, though it might just as easily have been published in an underground tabloid as Zap. To some degree, that could be said about most of the comics in Zap; the comic-book format really helped Zap stand out from similar types of comics publications.

"Freak Out Funnies" is one of the more mediocre stories in the issue, but it does push the envelope as it introduces (the uncredited) Angelfood McSpade in the second half of a two-pager. Angelfood will always be controversial because she is a racist stereotype. But it should be noted that the term "nigger" isn't used anywhere in this issue, unlike Zap #1. Not that Crumb needed to rely on that slur to create controversy, but its usage is certainly one of the elements that blew people's minds (or pissed them off) in the first issue.

Near the end of the book, the five-page "City of the Future" may be the best story in the issue, as it presents a fanciful peek at the benefits of a modern society, including "everyone will be tuned in to everything that's happening all the time!" and "fantasy machines will manufacture any world you ask for in a matter of seconds!" There will also be androids built for fucking, clocks built into your brain, and babysitting robots with TV heads, but world population control will require everyone to die at 65!

Zap Comix #0 may have been belatedly published, but overall it doesn't disappoint. The first half of the book is relatively tame, but the second half really is quite inspired, so it fits right in with the rest of the series. I don't think there's any doubt that the Zap Comix freight train would have gotten rolling if Zap #0 was the first book published, but it probably worked out for the best that it was the third issue that came out. It also gave all the comic creators working on Zap Comix #3 time to produce what would become the best issue yet in the series.



HISTORICAL FOOTNOTES:
There are 11 known printing variations of this comic book, though there are several more that cannot be distinguished from one another. Kennedy's Price Guide states there were 16 total printings by The Print Mint, totaling 280,000 copies, and that was only through 1982 (and eight identified printing variations produced by The Print Mint). Don Donahue of Apex Novelties published the first printing of 5,000 copies. The following describes the identified print variations:

1st printing - 35-cent cover price, 1/4-inch hairline mark in bottom leg of "Z" in "ZAP" on the front cover, interior pages are numbered in upper right corner (except page 17), the back cover has visible yellow ink in upper-left-corner lettering
2nd printing - 35-cent cover price, hairline mark is removed, interior pages are not numbered, yellow ink on the back cover's upper-left-corner lettering is removed
3rd printing - 35-cent cover price, the front-cover character's spine is damaged
4th printing - 35-cent cover price, front-cover character's spine is partially retouched
5th printing - 35-cent cover price, character's spine retouching is complete
6th printing - 50-cent cover price
7th printing - 60-cent cover price