OnePageWonder.com, Interview with Jeremy Smith part two

Interview with Jeremy Smith, the illustrator for the comic Zoo Force

1. Can you tell us a bit about the setting behind Zoo Force?

ZOO FORCE is the worst-ranked super team in the metropolis of Freedom City, Texas. Freedom City is an ugly, sprawling, pre-fab tangle of hastily-built freeways and strip malls (with some quirky tall buildings poking up in the middle) that sprang up following WWII. Even the city's name has that "quickly-chosen-from-a-short-list-of-power-names-at-
a-backroom-bigwig-meeting-with-not-enough-doughnuts" feel to it. I suppose it once had an original, mod plan to be some kind of utopian seat of government (like the "failed" attempt of Brasilia, capital of Brazil), but has long since spilled over these ideas and into the surrounding countryside. is no building here older than 50 years, no history. So people make their own, they start from here. Or in the case of the members of ZOO FORCE, they start out on the outskirts of town, in a trailer park called La Tornada. The trailer park, the adjacent convenience store and check-into-cash place, and the off-ramp from the George Washington Freeway: this is their beat. The trailer they live in (rent-free, y'all) is their government-issued "base". They drive an awesome metallic-pea-colored station wagon called the Trawler. It is a 1971 Fjord test car.

2. Zoo Force is made up of some interesting superheroes, can you explain the characters in ZF?

In Zoo Force's world, superheroes are tolerated, but have to register with a governmental organization called the National Defenders Regulatory Agency (NDRA) and be given a license and assignment. The agency also groups heroes into two categories: defenders (which are like firemen, ready for "clear and present danger") and enforcers, who undergo actual police training and are legally deputized as law enforcement agents. Zoo Force is the latter. They can arrest you. A chicken could arrest you in Freedom City.

Anyway, ZOO FORCE is: Ding, a really nice twenty-something guy with a six-foot tongue and a big heart to match, and wears a brass bell-shaped helmet...Pythagoras, a sassy white hen who currently houses the reincarnated soul of the Greek mathematician...Prairie Dawg, a nearly mute human/prairie dog hybrid with buck teeth and killer claws for digging through the earth soopa-fast...and last, but certainly not least, Snowball, a honest-to-garsh polar bear (all nine feet of her) from Up North who can read and makes frequent use of her library card. Their actual government team designation is "Enforcer Group #77 (EG 77)".

zoo force

Ding on Patrol

3. Like any group of superheroes there has to be an arch nemesis, does ZF have any rivals or arch enemies?

Remember how I mentioned that the superteams in town are ranked according to their performance by the NDRA? Well, Zoo Force is #77, the lowest-ranked team in town. They do a good job; they just don't see enough action in their neck-o-the-woods to bring their stats up. They don't get depressed about being last though, they just keep on keepin' on, smiling. For the team who is ranked #76, THIS FACT DRIVES THEM CRAZY. EG #76 hates Zoo Force sooooooo much that they call themselves Not Zoo Force. They want some crying losers below them in the rankings, someone they can yell "Boo-yah!" at and taunt, not a bunch of nice, helpful people with good self-esteem!!!

Not Zoo Force live a little ways away (in an actual house) and are comprised of: The Vet, self-appointed team leader with a beer gut and the ability to mentally control the weaker wills of small defenseless animals to do his bidding (he seems to have special success with dachshunds...they call him the "Jesus Christ Awlmighty of Weiner Dogs")...Mystic Fork, a semi-functional alcoholic who can summon "your worst fear" by thwacking the fork-shaped tumor on his head....Pillowfight, a pudgy little guy dressed in a pillowcase who can be pummelled for hours and not feel a thing...and last but, again, certainly not least, CAPTAIN CAT. Captain Cat is a hyper-intelligent kitty who has built a fearsome suit of armour for himself out of top-of-the-line pet supplies and state-of-the-art electronics (most of his own ingenious design) and added a pair of ridiculously scary and powerful robotic arms, with which he draws mini-comics about his exploits (and how much he hates Zoo Force and his fellow teammates). He is portrayed in our books by my cat Noodles. Noodles is NOT a genius. He just plays one on tv.

4. I once saw a greased pig contest at a county fair, who do you think greases the pig down?

I am from Iowa, so this is an area of particular expertise for me. The "greaser of the pig" has been selected many ways since the days of antiquity. Vikings played "spin-the-battle-axe" to pick the honoree, ancient Mayans hurled a pig from atop a pyramid into a greased crowd below, the Chinese have to wait until the Year of The Pig to do their's, and so on. In these days of genetically-modified foodstuffs, new high-tech pigs secrete their own grease when signalled to do so by microwave transmissions from nearby cellphone towers.

But if you are asking me who I think greases the pig...The Freemasons.

Jeremy Smith

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