Jeremy Michael Duncan is an intelligent, 17-year-old high school junior (earlier a 15-year-old freshman) who aspires to be a rock musician. Ĭharles Schulz liked the new strip, but added, ' Zits is the worst name for a comic strip since Peanuts.' Said quote would later be printed on the back of the compilation book Humongous Zits, along with a ripped-out piece of paper with multiple different names considered (such as Jeremy, Yo., and My So-Called Life and Stuff), with Zits circled last as the final choice.

King Features, already distributing Baby Blues and Borgman's editorial cartoons, began running the new comic strip in 1997 with Scott writing and Borgman drawing.

After Scott discussed the issue with his artist friend Jim Borgman, the two corresponded with one another over the next few months and eventually collaborated on the characters that would become the Duncans. Scott heeded the proposition but was unsatisfied with his character's sketches, finding them similar to those of his existing strip. A friend suggested he begin a strip about a teenager. He realized, however, that his profession as an independent cartoonist was limited to whatever joke he could conceive next. In 1996, Jerry Scott was drawing Baby Blues, a comic strip about raising children he co-wrote with Rick Kirkman.

Set in central Ohio suburbia, the strip centers on Jeremy as he tries to balance his family life, social life, the academic demands of high school and his plans for the future, often with a heavy dose of surrealism, making it stand out from being just a typical teenager cartoon strip. As of 2010, it continues to be syndicated by King Features and is now included in 'more than 1,700 newspapers worldwide in 45 countries and is translated into 15 different languages.' The comic debuted in July 1997 in over 200 newspapers and has since become popular worldwide and received multiple awards. Zits is a comic strip written by cartoonist Jerry Scott and illustrated by Jim Borgman about the life of Jeremy Duncan, a 17-year-old high school junior (he was 15 when the comic started). Jeremy Duncan and Hector Garcia-best friends

Zits by Jerry Scott