[Groop] Tabloid Cartooning: The Search for Back Issues

[GARY GROSSMANN]

Hi Folks!

So far finding the back issues of the Weekly World News from May 2 through
July 11th has proved an unexpectedly difficult task.  (!?!)

First I called the WWN customer service line and after several transfers was
told that they did not have any back issues for those weeks!!

So I figured I'll start from the other end.  So I go to my Grocery Store and
get the name of the distributor and call them up. They tell me their
contract with the publisher required them to shred all the copies returned.
Horrors!!!

OK, so now it's time to get serious.  What to do?  I hopped on the web to
see what I could find.  Nothing on ebay, nothing anywhere really.  This rag
is the most disposable publication in history!  However, a little more
indepth search revealed that the WWN art director is a Cartoonist named Dave
Kulpa who also owns the MAD Magazine competitor, Cracked.  I tracked down
his e-mail address and sent him a plea for back issues.  It came back saying
"mail box full", but I found another e-mail for him and resent the plea.

So far no reply.  But I am undaunted!!  I will find those back issues!  The
frustrating thing is I KNOW that within 10 miles of my house, there is a
stack of those puppies in at least 5 or 6 garages.  All I have to do is find
some guy who goes to sleep with tin foil on his head to keep out the secret
government radio waves that control all of our brains (or is it Alien radio
waves.  I can never keep that straight)  I'm also on the lookout for UFO and
Sasquatch conventions.  Gotta be back issues there.

If I'd been doing what should be required reading, i.e., Scott Shaw!'s
Oddball Comics page, I would have known about this back at the beginning and
not have this problem.  Oh, well...*

Anywho, I gotta go.  Marilyn Monroe is calling from Mars and Elvis, who
lives in my basement, gets pissed if I don't pick up her calls.

Bye for now.  -Gary G.

* "Oh, well..." were the first words to appear in a Groo comic-the last
panel of the Destroyer Duck appearance and were the ONLY words not lettered
by Stan Sakai.