[Groop] Tone's Baltimore Comic Con report - #3

[Mark Evanier]

On Sun, 16 Sep 2007 17:44:34 -0400, you wrote:

>	Sergio also shared with us the story of how he got to know Mark
>so well. I forget exactly how Sergio explained his first meeting with
>Mark, but Mark was only seventeen years old at the time and definitely a
>fan of Sergio's. Apparently Sergio was at some event where Mark was in
>attendance to see him, but due to meeting so many people Sergio did not
>remember him.
>	Later on however, Sergio was invited to attend a local club's
>meeting as a guest speaker. I forget exactly if it was specified as a
>comic book association of some sort. Either way their meeting was to be
>held at a library within walking distance from where Sergio lived in
>Santa Monica(?) at the time.
>	When Sergio arrived at the library he was directed to some
>little room, perhaps even in the basement. It turned out there were only
>three people there. I seem to remember Sergio saying all of them were
>teenagers, and one of them was Mark. Naturally, being the gracious
>gentleman Sergio is, he stuck around and had a good discussion with the
>lot of them and got to know Mark pretty well then. I seem to recall
>Sergio mentioning how he went out for coffee or drinks afterward with
>Mark, but I can not remember if it was right after or some other time.
>However it transpired later on, that is the story of how Mark and Sergio
>met, and they have been friends ever since.

ME: And it's a completely erroneous story.  He has it all wrong.

Next year at the San Diego Con, someone ask me and I'll tell the whole
story.  Or maybe I'll tell it at Wondercon if there are enough of you
there.

>	In terms of creating and developing Groo... well that is
>somewhat explained in the Groo Anniversary Special, so everyone should
>buy one if they have not done so already. Basically, Sergio had created
>Groo long before the first story or comic came out in print. It took (I
>think he said) about ten years before Groo made it to publication
>because Sergio did not want to give away the rights to his creation.
>Eventually though, there was the Destroyer Duck Eclipse, where the first
>story appeared. Following that Pacific offered to go 50/50 in printing a
>Groo comic book series. Later on Pacific went under, but as we all know
>Groo managed to be picked up by Epic, which was an off-shoot of Marvel.

ME: It was not a 50-50 deal...and we actually made the deal with
Marvel before Pacific went under.

>	According to Sergio apparently the rights for the Groo movie
>have been sold to a slightly smaller studio than the ones they had
>originally been approached by. However from what he was trying to
>explain, I got the impression the contract details have not been
>completely signed off. That is due to some artistic disagreements.
>Sergio mentioned something about "having the final say" in things, but I
>was not sure if he meant Sergio and Mark wanted the final say in
>decisions or if her personally did not need the very last say in things
>but still wanted a to be a major decision maker. Perhaps M

ME: Basically, we sold the rights to a film investment company.  It's
not exactly a studio.  It's a company (there are many like this) that
finances the development of a movie.  They pay for a script.  They
perhaps make deals with stars or a director.  They raise some of the
capital necessary to make a movie.  Then they approach big studios and
say, in effect, "We have this script and these elements and 25% of the
budget.  Would you like to put up the other 75% and we'll be
partners?"  Or something like that.

Sergio and I have the right to veto any deal with a big studio.  We
had one that wanted to do it but we weren't happy with a number of the
terms.  So now we're looking for another big studio.  That's basically
it.