[Groop] What made you love Groo?

[Tone]

            I have been waiting until I had a decent enough time in my
schedule to write a proper response to the question of how I learned of
Groo. When I was 8-10 years old during the summers I was sent to a day
camp from 1983-1985. On the bus trip to and from the camp every day two
friends and I got into reading issues of Mad Magazine. Luckily one of my
friends had a dad, who had been collecting Mad for years before, so we
never really ran out of material to look through together. Apparently
like many people on this Groop list this is when I first became aware of
Sergio's artwork, particularly his margin art. I loved it. As a kid I
even specifically bothered to look up the artist's name in the
magazine's credit. I am not trying to be offensive to Sergio. It is just
sometimes kids don't bother with some of those types of things unless
they are really interested, and I clearly was interested.
            That is just the back story though because not too long
afterward in about 1985-1987 my parents managed to invest in a
summer/weekend house by buying one in Long Beach, Long Island. They
rented out the top two floors of the house to cover the mortgage costs,
etc., but kept the basement and garage, etc. so we could actually use it
ourselves on the weekends and parts of the summer. We lived in Manhattan
at the time, so it was suppose to be a get-away of sorts since it had a
nice big yard around the whole house and was three blocks or so from the
beach. Unfortunately it did not turn out that way for me and my sister.
Every weekend I went, my dad expected me to mow the lawn, which was not
exactly so easy for a 10-12 year old kid since the lawn was rather
large. He did pay me $20 for the task each week, but that just did not
feel like enough. I knew he was trying to instill a good work ethic in
me, but I really started to dislike going out to Long Beach because of
it. He always managed to pressure me into it though.
            My dad had clearly noticed I was not enjoying myself much
out there because there was not much for me to do. He did try to cheer
up the place by building a tree house/platform, and even set up a
zip-line from the front yard to the backyard. Then a few times he also
allowed me to invite a friend or two over the weekend. After slaving
over my weekly chore I would explore the neighborhood a bit just to have
something to do, but when I had a friend over I was braver about
wandering around further. I think it probably also helped that my
parents let me go further when I had a friend with me. On the first day
my friend David was over, we quickly found there was a comic book shop
only two or three blocks away. That was really the beginning of it all.
            I was not into comics at all, but David was somewhat
familiar with them and it was something relatively interesting to do to
pass the time. While David was looking for Spider Man, X-men, and G.I.
Joe I decided to look through the comedy section, which only made
natural sense to me since we were in a "comic" shop after all. I was in
fact actually trying to be a bit of a smart ass since it was mostly
Dave's idea to go in the shop anyway. Soon enough I came upon a comic
from the Spider Man spoof series called "Peter Porker" or something like
that. This urged me on in my smart ass search since Dave liked Spider
Man. I then found a cheesy comic about the Star Wars Ewoks. As you all
know Star Wars was major back then, so finding a crappy Ewok comic
rather than the true Star Wars comic series was just another jab at
Dave's serious comic hunting. I kept on in my sarcastic search and soon
enough I came across Groo <Hallelujah>!
            I honestly can not remember what issue of Groo it was, but I
automatically recognized Sergio's name and his artwork style. I also
immediately realized it was some sort of spoof on Conan, and loved the
idea of that. My search that day ended there, but I still bought the
Groo comic and the other two comics as a joke against Dave. After
reading the Groo comic I quickly enjoyed going to Long Beach every
weekend to earn the $20 for mowing the lawn, which I would quickly use
up to buy Groo comics at that comic shop. Eventually I got every back
issue that comic shop had, and was getting a small allowance from my
mom, so I did not bother going much to Long Beach once I found a few
comic shops in Manhattan. Did I mention my Dad really started to hate me
reading comic books? I think he was just pissed I was no longer doing
child slave labor for him anymore. I seriously did have to collect my
Groo collection in secret from him though.
            Soon enough I had the Destroyer Duck, the Starslayers, the
Special #1, the Pacifics, all 120 Epic/Marvel (?), The Life and Death of
Groo graphic novels, the original T-shirt and poster, the full
collector's card set (minus the insert chase cards), the 6-7 trade
paperbacks (?), bookmark, card game w/ expansion, lunch box w/ promo
car, 7 pins, PVC figures, 3 lead miniature sets, signed mini promo
playing card, and and. AND. there's got to be something else I can not
remember. I can not be ultra sure right now because it is all pretty
much stored in a big comic box under my bed in my old room at my mom's.
I am 31 now and living with my girlfriend. I still get a chance to visit
my Groo collection on occasion though. :-) I should log it all for the
simple reason of satisfying Gary in the knowledge there is someone out
there who just about has everything he has of Groo.. minus the towel of
course. :-)
 
'NUFF SAID
Bed time now,
_TONE_
 
 
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