Creation

Butch was created by Scott McCloud for the first color volume of Zot!, in issue 1.

Major Story Arcs

The Sirius IV Conspiracy

Butch Weaver is the brother of Jenny. They and their parents move to a new town after living in Los Angeles. They have moved around a lot. Butch is a beefy, sometimes-bully kind of guy. Jenny is more of an introspective thinker/feeler. She is 13 and he is older.

One day Zot shows up. He is a hero from another dimension. He defeats some robots and describes how he is looking for a Golden Key, a sacred object for the people of the nearby planet Sirius IV, for its ability to open the Doorway at the Edge of the Universe.

Butch finds the Key sitting around nearby and shows it to Jenny. They follow Zot back to his universe, which is a utopian 1965-style Earth. While there, Butch often complains and argues; a utopian is not good enough for him. He also acts protective about Jenny. Jenny gets a crush on Zot, who is a celebrity here.

They bring the Key to an interplanetary council so it can be returned to Sirius, but Jenny realizes she has lost it. However, the De-Evolutionists, a group committed to turning everyone into monkeys and returning to a life in the trees, breaks in and starts shooting people with their de-evolutionary ray guns, which turn people into monkeys. It should be noted that people actually turn into chimpanzees, which are apes, not monkeys, and do not live in trees. However, the term “monkeys” is largely used, including by the De-Evolutionists themselves (who are not necessarily the brightest bananas in the bunch).

Butch is hit by one of the rays and turns into a monkey. Zot manages to defeat the De-Evolutionists and grabs their ray gun. He reverses it and turns almost everyone back into human form. However, he smashes the gun before realizing that he forgot to revert one person: Butch, who can only speak in monkey.

They decide to ask Zot’s Uncle Max, a scientific genius, to help fix and reverse the de-evolutionary ray gun. Max is happy to help and creates a translator device for Butch, so he can be understood by the others. He needs more time to figure out how to reverse Butch’s body.

They take a tour of the area. Butch takes to riding on the shoulders of Peabody, Zot’s robot butler. He becomes more enthused when he finds out Peabody has been trained in shooting, and when they get to watch some virtual reality games, including one called Survivalax. The player of the game turns out to have the Key. Zot manages to get it after a fight.

They go back to Max’s and meet up with Zot’s friend Vic, who it turns out is the one who originally stole the Key from Sirius IV. He says there is a conspiracy who wants to use the Key to start a war with Earth, relying on the prophecy that whoever opens the Doorway with the Key will be a great leader of Sirius. Sirius’s Prince Drufus also shows up and also wants the key.

Max makes a special belt for Butch. It has a heat ray, forcefield, and emergency alert button. Never one to be too grateful, Butch then makes fun of Max’s Siriusan Flute music as being too “wimpy.” Max is enraged and breaks out a giant organ, which he plays rock and other music on at a high volume, asking if that’s too wimpy. Butch becomes much more enthused, and likes it.

The cyborg villain Dekko comes to steal the Key. Butch tries to stop him with his belt but manages to fumble all three of its abilities. Still, it is a marker of the fact that Butch is getting more invested in the issues of Zot’s universe. He even pats Drufus on the head to console him when Dekko does take the Key.

They all go down to Dekko’s base in Antarctica to get the Key back. Butch discovers a set of tunnels that allow them to sneak in. However, he and some of the others are captured. They eventually defeat Dekko. Vic takes the Key and goes to Sirius so he can open the Doorway and show up the conspiracy.

The rest of them follow in an attempt to get the Key back. They recognize Vic even though he’s in disguise. Butch helps give chase, first by riding on Peabody’s shoulders and then running on his own, taking the lead over the other friends in trying to catch him. However, Vic tricks Butch by making him think the Key is in a hat that he dropped. When Butch searches for the hat, he is caught by some guards who think he’s a regular monkey who escaped from the zoo.

The others let him out and he continues to help them fight against the conspiracy. The conspiracy send guards to arrest them but Butch manages to get away using a combination of his tech-belt and his chimp agility.

For some time Butch remains separated from the rest as they continue to work against the conspiracy; Zot and Jenny get the Key, going through the Doorway, and coming back. Butch ends up getting caught by the De-Evolutionists and their leader, the Grand Poo-Bah. They simultaneously torment him and tell him that he’s a singular hero for being the first longtime convert from human to monkey—all the others who have been turned into monkeys have been returned to humanity. Now they want to put him through a Ceremony of Obedience. The Grand Poo-Bah puts one of his Obedience Masks on Butch, which is supposed to control his mind, like that of his other (human) followers). However, Butch’s monkey mind is apparently immune to the mask’s control, and he breaks out, turning on his forcefield, surrounding him with a blue glow.

Little did he know that they had a prophecy about this—that they are, in fact, properly called the Church of the Blue Monkey. They all—even the Grand Poo-Bah—kneel down and wait for his commands.

Meanwhile, Zot, Jenny, and the others have been captured by the conspiracy and are about to be killed. Suddenly, Butch and the De-Evolutionaries break in and start turning the soldiers into monkeys—even Grand Inquisitor Von Clokmann. Butch is a hero and is happy to be reunited with Peabody. The tide is turned and the heroes are now ready to make a final attack on the conspiracy’s lone remaining member, General Schrapp.

As they make their plans, Butch counsels Zot to act more like the Punisher or another “dark, troubled” style of hero. Zot, however, can’t be anything but idealistic.

They end up engaging in a two-pronged attack. Zot fights Schrapp and gets him to admit to his crimes, which are recorded by Floyd, Vic’s robotic remote. Uncle Max and Butch, with his De-Evolutionary army, take over the fortress’s communications center and broadcast that confession.

The populace turns against Schrapp and asks Zot to be their leader. He refuses, saying they need to learn to rule themselves.

Butch loses his own prophecy-based leadership as well. When his forcefield runs out of battery power, he is no longer surrounded by his blue glow, and the De-Evolutionaries turn against him. He manages to escape their grasp.

Max sends Jenny and Butch back to their Earth after Zot promises to visit in the future. Stepping through the portal turns Butch back into a human—albeit one with no pants.

Heroes & Villains

Butch makes xenophobic remarks about Jenny’s friend Terry, who is Latina. He tries to reach out and have a conversation with Jenny about their parents and dinner, but she ignores him.

Later Butch chats with Jenny about Zot, trying to convince her that he sees her as a temporary girlfriend. Jenny gets annoyed. They are often on their own, with their dad out of town and their mom at work late.

Zot invites Jenny and Butch back to his dimension. Butch unhappily discovers that he still turns into a monkey when he is there. He confronts Max about it but Max says that it will always happen when Butch comes back.

They go to watch Zot and Vic play in an augmented reality combat game. Butch decides he wants to play too, but ends up just causing chaos.

Butch is at Max’s along with the others when Zybox comes to announce his intentions to go to Jenny’s Earth, where he proceeds to try to take over. Jenny is captured by Zybox and put in a dream state where she dreams she is back at home, but also that Zot never existed. In this state, Zot was a crutch she invented to feel better about life. In this dream state, Butch and her mom try to help her. He is sympathetic to her “insanity.” However, Jenny eventually breaks out of the dream state to find herself a captive of Zybox.

Meanwhile, Butch travels with Max and Peabody to try to stop Zybox. Butch is hypnotized by one of Zybox’s TV subliminal energy waves, but Max wakes him up. They arrive at Zybox’s location and break inside to rescue Jenny and Zot. Butch is a monkey when he is inside Zybox, because Zybox is naturally from Zot’s world. They finally manage to stop Zybox.

Butch joins the others on another trip to Zot’s world, where they try to stop the De-Evolutionaries from attacking the president. Butch is entertained when many of the others are turned into monkeys by the De-Evolutionaries’ guns. He tries to get the Devoes to recognize him, as their former ally, but they ignore him.

Butch then spies on the people who are in a conspiracy to take over. After a variety of battles and chases, Butch and the others catch the conspirators and turn everyone but Butch back into a human.

They return to Zot’s dimension again for Zot’s birthday party at Max’s house. Butch enjoys being carried on Peabody’s shoulders as they mix in with the partygoers. Then Dekko shows up. He says he’ll destroy the universe, but not until Zot eats all the chocolates in a box. Everyone more or less goes back to partying. Butch hates Max’s music. Eventually, Butch grabs the last of the chocolates and eats it. Dekko prepares to destroy everything, but ends up just going crazy inside his own head, with his robot body shutting down.

Butch watches Zot’s newest venture, a sponsorship for a cola drink, along with Zot’s other friends from his dimension. Butch loves it and thinks Jenny will, too, but some of the others are not so persuaded.

Later they are all together when they run into the villain the Blotch, who it turns out secretly owns Zot’s cola contract. Butch tries to help Zot and Peabody overturn the contract. They end up tricking the Blotch into going through a dimensional door into a prison cell.

When Butch and Jenny are at home making microwave dinner, Jenny sees the lethal villain 9-Jack-9’s image in the screen. Butch helps turn off the power so he can’t enter the home. Zot and Jenny only defeat Jack after a prolonged and painful campaign.

When Butch next joins them at a New Year’s party at Max’s, Jenny’s friend Terry is shocked to see that Butch is a monkey, and almost ends up knocking a pie on the ground. The pie is part of a running joke in the letters pages, where Scott McCloud has been running a contest to see which character the readers would most like to see get a pie in the face. Soon others turn into monkeys, as the Devoes break in and start blasting people with their de-evolution guns. They stop when they see another guest—the recently defeated 9-Jack-9. The Blotch and Bellows also show up; all are defeated or otherwise do not cause trouble. Later, they have to rush back home to avoid some dimensional inspectors, and they—including Zot—all get stuck in Jenny’s home dimension, with no way to travel back.

The Earth Stories

Jenny and Butch’s parents start considering divorce. The kids annoy each other with little ways to poke at each other, like Jenny turning on the faucet at the sink to take away the hot water in Butch’s shower.

Both kids take the separation badly. Butch starts getting drunk and arguing with his mother after she catches him drinking and driving. On the other hand, he takes Jenny’s side when, after eating the last of her birthday cake, he points out that their mom wasn’t even there—and she forgot his.

He comes home drunk in the morning to find Jenny, frantic about Zot. He went to the city to fight crime and hasn’t come back. Drunk and surly as he is, he agrees to help look for him if he’s not back in an hour. The two of them go to the city and find Zot in a hospital. He stays by her side as she sits in fear and sadness. Some other friends come by. They go home and Butch helps deal with their mom, who’s away; he is transitioning into a caretaker role.

Max finally finds a way to open a portal back up between their dimensions. Butch, Zot, and all Jenny’s friends from Earth take a vacation back to Zot’s utopia after a hard year on Jenny’s Earth. All her friends that haven’t been there are, once again, shocked to see Butch as a monkey.

Hearts and Minds

Sometime later, Zot and Jenny run into Butch at Max’s. He works for Max now. He hasn’t been home for days and is not interested in the recent family issues. Jenny thinks he should say goodbye to their dad but Butch feels like they have been separated for a long time.

Max doesn’t want Butch to leave because he says Butch is actually a big help and is good at this.

After a fight with some Devoes and Dekko, Zot is injured, and is shocked to see that his arm is robotic.

They go to Max’s house and do some scans, and discover that Zot’s entire body is robotic. Max theorizes that Zot’s brain and body are elsewhere and are remote-controlling the robot body. They also guess that Dekko, who seemed to die in the fight with Zot, wasn’t the real one. The hospital reports that a group of hostages that Dekko had taken are all remote-controlled robots too.

While Max fixes Zot’s arm, Zot has a dream about Dekko. Dekko explains that he has given the gift of eternal life to Zot and the hostages. Now that they’re robots, they’ll never die, just like Dekko.

Dekko explains that he now understands that he can’t destroy reality. But he can create order. He sees humanity as the best chance to help bring order to the universe. But to do so, they need to be improved—by, for instance, having eternal robotic life.

Zot points out that they may not all want this gift, but Dekko is sure they will come to like it.

Zot wakes up and explains the dream to Max and Butch.

Jenny goes back home. They are moving to a new house nearby and are getting ready to leave the old house. Jenny, Nanna, Horton, and Barbara have a good breakfast together. Then dad and Nanna leave. She hangs out with her mom for a bit, then Zot comes to get her. Jenny promises to bring Butch back.

Jenny, Butch, Zot, Max, and Peabody fly to find Dekko.

They find him and Zot demands to have his body back. They show Dekko a video call where the hostages all want their bodies too. Dekko is shocked that they are turning down his gift.

Dekko blasts them, then runs off. Meanwhile, a horde of Devoes invades the beach. The robots and Devoes fight.

Zot tracks the hostages on infrared. When they arrive, Dekko flips a switch and says death is all that’s left. Zot assumes that means he did something to kill them, but in reality Dekko just let them go without his robotic gift of life.

Zot, Butch, and the others believe that Dekko is destroyed in the fight with the Devoes but he actually escapes.

Jenny and Butch go home to see their mom. Butch promises Max that he’ll come back to work later.

Alternate Versions

Within the world of "Dimension 10 1/2," the stick-figure alternate universe created by Matt Feazell and running in the back of the black-and-white issues of Zot!, Butch joins Jenny and others in an attempt to stop Antisocialman. They go to Zot’s dimension and Butch once again turns into a monkey. Butch manages to recruit some more of Zot’s friends to help. They end up back at Max’s house, where Butch once again doesn’t like Max’s music, in this case Lunar Polkas. But he ends up seeming to enjoy dancing to it. When many villains attack, Butch lends Peabody with a banana so Bellows trips on it. They eventually manage to defeat the villains as well as Dr. Pweent and Antisocialman.

Pweent later gets revenge by using a computer virus that spreads to people, making them stupid. Butch is the first victim. Professor Quidley ends up saving everyone, including Butch, by giving them a placebo.

Butch hangs out with Zot’s friends in his dimension. They talk about Jenny is taking away their time with Zot. Butch gets the idea of fixing Jenny up to date Cynicalman as a joke. They decide to really do it. Cynicalman makes Jenny cynical herself but they finally manage to get him happy (even if only briefly), which makes her happy too.

When a movie is made about Zot’s life, everyone goes to attend. Through various machinations, the actor playing Zot, River Phoenix, turns into Dark River Phoenix. Butch helps defeat him. Later, he makes a joke about how many characters have been in Max’s band—in this case, Zy Dekko, brother of Dekko. Interestingly, in this final cartoon, almost every character from the entire series appears, with their name listed in the gutter when they first show up. Butch is perhaps the only character whose name is not listed in the gutter.

Powers and Abilities

For a time, Butch has a special technological belt created by Uncle Max. It has three abilities.

• A heat ray. As Max says, it is not very powerful.

• A force field. The strength of the force field is unknown.

• A signal that alerts Zot if he is in trouble.

Butch also carries a de-evolutionary raygun, which can turn a human into a chimpanzee, during the time when he is leading the Church of the Blue Monkey.