[Groop] Just what I suspected ...

[Eric Chun]

>From the Groop archives (July 10, 2000), "Gary Grossmann" wrote:

>OK OK.  The time has finally come.  It's time to admit it.  It's true.  I
>don't really exist.  I mean, yeah, I am a person who pounds away at his
>computer sending ridicules messages to you all; and Ruben and Shane and 
>Eric
>have actually seen a flesh and blood person answering to the name of 
>"Gary";
>But the whole concept of Gary Grossmann, the Most Obsessed Groo Fan in the
>Universe (and beyoooonnnnnnd!) is nothing more than an elaborate hoax
>thought up by Sergio & Mark!
>
>Think about it.  A 45 year old man with an otherwise Ward Cleaver existance
>spending almost all his spare time hunting the world over for every scrap 
>of
>paper on which Groo has been printed?  And this guy JUST HAPPENS to have 
>one
>son in a tiny, academically exclusive college where the creator of the Groo
>mailing list also goes/went and another son who JUST HAPPENS to go to
>college 15 minutes away from the headquarters of the current Groo 
>Publisher?
>It's all a little too much to swallow if you ask me!
>
>Here's what happenned.  Mark created "Gary Grossmann" as joke to amuse the
>mailing list.  When Sergio was going to Vancouver BC, in Ruben's backyard,
>he decided to have the mythical Gary G. appear.  I was (and still am) an
>airport janitor when Sergio came across me in the Men's room and asked if
>I'd like to make a few bucks.  Having been asked that question many times
>before during the course of my employment, I was just about to level him
>with my mop and call Security, when he sort of was able to explain in that
>goofy accent of his (which I didn't buy for a minute!) what he wanted me to
>do. So I showed up on que at the Vancouver Con and things have sort of
>snowballed from there.
>
>Incidently, I'm not sure if "Ruben" actually exists either.  For all I 
>know,
>the guy I saw in Vancouver and Seattle calling himself Ruben was hired just
>like I was.  The Sergiography & Groo List concepts are a little too similar
>if you ask me.
>
>So what about all the stuff on the Groo List, you ask?  Beats the heck out
>of me!  I don't even know if half of it exists!  I just add stuff that you
>folks tell me about and then I add whatever Mark tells me to.  I mean come
>on folks, how the heck is anyone gonna find a Turkish comic book?
>
>And what about all the stuff I've written in the last few years?  Well, 
>some
>of it I wrote-which is not bad for an airport janitor-and some of it Mark
>wrote.  Let me put it this way.  If you thought it was funny, I wrote it.
>If it wasn't funny, Mark wrote it.
>
>And finally, you may ask, what does one get paid for assisting in this 
>great
>charade?  Well, once again I must say, beats the heck out of me? Sergio 
>told
>me to see Mark about getting paid, something about his green card doesn't
>allow him to have employees.  Mark keeps referring me to people who owe HIM
>money, which seems to be everyone who ever sold a comic or put on a
>convention.
>
>So there you have it.  The whole sordid story.  I feel so much better now.
>
>Take care all -Gary G. (real name Marvin Ribostat)