Zap Zodiac

Zap Zodiac was a fictional character in a comic strip in the UK comic The Beano. Drawn by Steve Horrocks, it first appeared in issue 3259, dated 1 January 2005, as part of Comic Idol - a selection of three comic strips to be voted in by Beano readers (the other two being Hugh Dunnit and Christmas Carole). Appearing in the comic throughout January, Zap was revealed to be the winner in issue 3268, dated 5 March 2005.

Zap (real name Frrtohrhron), a miniature alien from Pluto, flew down to Earth in order to study our "strange ways" and then to fly back to his planet. However, hit by one of the peas from Dennis the Menace's pea shooter, he is forced to make a crash landing in Beanotown, specifically Dennis' home.

Soon after the strip started, Zap gained a robot sidekick called Zoink. In the final installment (issue 3280, dated 28 May 2005), set in the playground of Bash Street School, Zap and Zoink set up a catapult connected to a mechanical arm, with the intention of using it to throw their spaceship (with them inside) back out into space, and towards their home planet. To test it they use a tub of semolina, which works, so they get in their spaceship and are propelled into space by the contraption. However, on the way back to their home planet, they are hit by the semolina tub, and are propelled back to Earth.

Home Invasion
A strip with a similar premise, Home Invasion, drawn by David Sutherland, appeared in The Beano in June 2010. It was the adventures of three small aliens, and their interactions with a young boy in a suburban house.

One of three strips in another Comic Idol contest, alongside Uh Oh Si Co, a strip about a boy with a violent temper drawn by Nigel Parkinson, it lost out in a readers' vote to the eventual winner, Meebo & Zuky drawn by Laura Howell.