'Zits' Comic Substitutes 'Sucks'

By: Dave Astor Updated at 5:25 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

Two newspapers felt the presence of the word "sucks" in "Zits" would be a blemish on their comics pages. But 1,100 or so other clients went along with it.

The June 20 strip showed 15-year-old Jeremy Duncan mowing the lawn. To express his disgust with the task, he etched "this suc" in the grass. Readers could fill in the "ks" with their imaginations. "That's not a word we're comfortable printing anywhere in the paper -- even if it's just the first three letters," said Sherry Stern, assistant features editor at the Los Angeles Times.

"We prefer to be a little more elegant than that," added Geoff Brown, associate managing editor/features at the Chicago Tribune, referring to the "sucks" word.

After discomfort was expressed with the strip, King Features Syndicate provided a substitute showing Jeremy spelling out "this sti" (as in "this stinks") with his mower. "We aim to please," said "Zits" co-creator Jerry Scott, referring to the alternate-comic option. "We're in the business to make clients happy."

But Scott doesn't feel the word "sucks" is that big a deal. "I don't love the word, but it's not considered profane in a lot of places," he told E&P Online. "In that situation, any teenager would probably have used that word. I hear parents using it. I hear it on prime-time television and talk radio."

Scott emphasized that he's not crusading to "bring crude language to comics" -- and doesn't want to use words like "sucks" very often. "But," he added, "you're binding the hands of a humorist when you can't use popular slang in comics, which are supposed to mirror and reflect society."

The King cartoonist also observed that he didn't use the entire word, though it was obvious what was being mowed into the lawn. Scott noted that when cartoonists use things like asterisks and exclamation points to substitute for profanity, they're often implying far worse language than "sucks."

With "Zits" co-creator Jim Borgman on vacation, Scott was the one who redrew the substitute comic. Usually, Scott focuses on the writing and Borgman on the art. Scott joked that it was like "the assistant to Michelangelo" filling in.

As of June 24, the Times had received one letter about the June 20 comic from a reader who saw the "sucks" version in another paper. "He objected to it being sanitized," Stern said.

The Tribune also received one letter by June 24 -- from a reader wondering if the paper was guilty of censorship. "It's not censorship," said Brown. "We're just editing the newspaper. People write all kinds of things editors don't let into the paper for all kinds of reasons."

Stern emphasized that she's still a fan of "Zits," saying: "I think it's great. It's one of our most popular comics."