Award-Winning Zits Original Comic Strip Art to Auction

Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman have selected 103 pieces from their 26-year-old, award-winning strip Zits for Heritage Auctions’ sale on January 4. Zits has appeared in more than 1,700 newspapers worldwide since its introduction in July 1997. 

The strips chronicle the daily doings of Scott and Borgman’s teenager Jeremy Duncan and his well-meaning, compassionate and only slightly out of touch parents, Connie and Walt. Charles Schulz was a fan, though he noted that “Zits is the worst name for a comic strip since Peanuts.”

“How many people have the opportunity to touch people with their work?” Scott says. “When we hear from people, it’s very gratifying. And it’s always the same: You got that right, and it’s honest. When Jim and I talk about why we’re offering these strips, it always comes back to this, Zits is like the moon. Anyone can look at and enjoy the moon for free, but only a limited number of people can own a moon rock. We’re offering a piece of our moon to those who want the real thing.”

“It will be nice to know they found homes everywhere,” Borgman says. “Some people will treasure them. That’s the exciting part of letting them go. These pieces will be in places of honor in people’s homes and not on the walls of museums. I’d love to think people with teenagers or who navigated their teenage years successfully have a drawing of ours somewhere and one day pass it down to their children. That, to me, is every bit as exciting as being in a museum.”