[Groop] Saturday GrooFest report (Belated)

Tue Jul 19 17:25:28 PDT 2005

It was a dark and stormy night

Sorry, that’s Sunday, we’re still on Saturday, aren’t we?

Mark’s Cartoon Voices panel (one of 14 panels ME was moderating!!!) was
as always quite a blast. We heard from E.G Dailey, Bob Bergen, Bill
Farmer, Rob Paulson, The Great Gary Owens (that’s his full name, ya
know) and Wally Winger. In addition to doing examples of their favorite
voices, ranging from Tommy Pickles, Porky Pig, Goofy, Pinky (sans
partner in crime, the Brain) and many many more, we got to hear the
Superb Six do a cold reading on an old Superman Radio script! Man that
was amazing! Each took multiple characters with multiple voices and
really got silly with it! 

Gary Owens was a bit late to the panel because his car was stolen! See
what happens when you associate with members of the Groo Crew? 

That was followed by the infamous, hysterical and perhaps even illegal
Quick Draw, with Sergio, Scott Shaw, Kyle Baker and Jeff Smith. Let me
tell you, these guys have been practicing because they are keeping up
with Sergio quite nicely! They were all hysterical drawing whatever
scenes Mark yelled out for them to produce. 

One of my favorite moments was when mark announced they were going to
be drawing a scene with Space Ghost, so they needed a volunteer to take
a crack at doing Space Ghost’s voice. First person could barely speak
ad didn’t come close to Da Ghost wit da most, the second at least got a
wee bit of bass rumble going but was also passed up. The third was of
course perfect because Gary Owens had stuck around for the panel, so it
was a set-up all along. (I figured it out before the first person did
the voice only because this panel had immediately followed Cartoon
Voices, so I was expecting Gary Owens to be called upon anyway). 

Another great bit was that now classic bit where Mark tells Sergio to
draw something, in this case Alfred E. Newman, and then keeps adding
more and more wacky elements for Sergio to crowd into the scene. First
he said “Now draw King Kong not causing Alfred to worry.” This
direction really confused Sergio, until Mark explained that Alfred’s
“what, me worry.” Motto should be taken to mean that all kinds of
horrible things shold be happening for Alfred to be oblivious to. 

“Ohhh!’ Said Sergio, and we could all visualize the light bulb hanging
over his head switch on! So he drew King Kong’s face underneath A.E.N
so that he was in fact standing on Kong’s head! Then Aliens attack, so
he drew a flying saucer with aliens climbing down a rope ladder; and
gangsters are attacking
pirates attacking
stampede of elephants
a
ninja
 another ninja
 yet another ninja (Sergio then got mock-huffy and
started drawing dozens of stick-figure ninjas lining up behind the
other three)
Scott Shaw! (he expertly changed one gangster to SS!)
and
more! 

After Quick Draw all sketches were offered for sale, with proceeds
going to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. 

I had a pretty bizarre interaction on Friday that I forgot to mention.
While walking around wearing my orange “Did I Err?” shirt, I had
someone approach me and ask if I was Sergio’s son!!!? WHAT!!!???

Now, this time  around I didn’t spend any time hanging around BEHIND
Sergio’s booth, the only thing I can figure is maybe this guy
remembered me from the Big Aple Comic Con, where I had spent enough
time sittin gbehind Sergio’s table to get asked that question quite a
number of times. Too bizarre!

Well, considering that I was not just covering GrooFest for the Groop,
but also covering Comic Kong for www.kongisking.net (check out my
kong-orientated con reports there as well), my Grooish side asserted
itself when I discovered the line into Hall H was * gasp * tremendous!
Shades of missing the Groo Panel two years earlier, I was a half-hour
late getting in to the Universal King Kong panel because of the roughly
8,000 fans (not an exaggeration) on line ahead of me! Thankfully a
couple other KIKN fans did get in and gave their own reports as well! 

Well, on to Sunday! It was a dark and storm night
 ya know, you’d have
thought I’d have removed my Groo Card Game before boarding the plane,
but to add foolishness to stupidity, not only was the game still in my
carry on, this time I actually boarded the plane wearing a Groo Shirt!

Did I err?

Well, let’s see, this time when I gopt to Dallas/Fort Worth my plane
made it in plenty of time for the connection. That is, it would have
been had the flight not been cancelled on me, because in New York,
well, it was a dark and storm night so all flights were cancelled!
After much bellyaching I managed to get myself booked onto the last
remaining flight, however it was to take me to Newark Airport instead
of LaGuardia. OK, I cold handle that, I’d just go home and the next
morning head to La Guardia to get my car. Sound good? Yeah, I knew you
wouldn’t fall for that as easy as I did.

I got to Newark Airport around 4:00 am; my luggage, however, refused to
fly with someone wearing a Groo Shirt and carryng a Groo Card Game AND
now also carrying a Groop Membership Card in his wallet, so it took a
safer flight. For good measure, it refused to divulge which flight or
even which destination airport it was heading. Oh how my luggage must
have laughed when it realized I had Grooishly left my keys in my
luggage!

Did I err?

As I couldn’t even go home to sleep, I sort of halfway slept an hour
and a half on the cold floor of Newark Airport, then gambled that my
luggage might have tried to trick me by going to LaGuardia after all!
The first flight of the morning came in around 11:00, no luggage! The
second flight arrived around noon, and there it was! Ha! That luggage
is quite stupid, and I am it’s equal! 

I got home around 2pm after being awake over 24 hours. I had to miss a
day of work, which is a shame because I could otherwise have stayed for
the final day of GrooFest!

Did I err?

-Larry "Mr. Grooism" Steller, Mendicant Second Class 

Favorite Links:
NEWS FROM ME: http://www.newsfromme.com/ 
POVONLINE: http://www.povonline.com/ ; 
FORGOTTEN NEW YORK: http://www.forgotten-ny.com/
ODDBALL COMICS: http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/oddball/
PENGUIN PERSPECTIVES: http://janetharriett.blogspot.com/
DEFECTIVE YETI: http://www.defectiveyeti.com/

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