[Groop] Not OT.

[Tone at moon-shine.net]

I personally really like it when the Groo stories delve into  
important/serious issues. Sergio has a great way of presenting complex  
subject matters in a simple yet clear way. Some of my favorite issues  
from the past involved complex issues. For instance, I really liked  
the Garbage issue (though I forget the exact title right now). Another  
issue I found intriguing was the one with the puppet theaters, which I  
considered a delightful way of bringing up the implications of mass  
media as well as violence being depicted on it. Yet at the end of that  
same issue when one of the competing puppet theaters leaves town, it  
was not really because he was driven out, but rather he was leaving to  
avoid the local competition in order to expand into other markets.  
That also demonstrates business strategy... though it might have been  
interesting to read a follow-up issue where the franchised theaters  
expand like a StarBucks corporation and kill all the local  
entertainment competition.

So, I do not feel like the heavy subject matter brings Groo appeal  
down. I find the discovery of the world from the perspective of a  
naive mind, and one prone to violence at that, quite refreshing. If  
anything, when I was a kid it taught me that violence was hardly ever  
the answer to the worlds problems, and one would be a fool not to at  
least try to understand the reasons behind things. However, Groo  
comics did NOT prevent me from breaking up an aluminum picture frame  
and pounding it down into a flatter blade-like object, which I  
sharpened with a big grinding wheel, then slipped some old socks and  
wrapped masking tape around on one end for a handle. If anything, Groo  
encouraged me to do that when I was still a little boy. Oh the  
memories... I think the only things I "slayed" were overgrown bushes  
and some low-hanging tree branches.

In any case one reason I would attribute the "deeper" and longer story  
lines Sergio & Mark are producing these days is time. By that I mean  
in the past they probably felt pressure to put out a comic every  
month. Now Sergio probably felt an urgency to do Hell on Earth and  
such because current events inspired him to make a story he felt was  
important to tell. Perhaps after so many years of not producing Groo  
then getting back to making something, the Groo spark came back to him  
along with so much positive response from the long awaiting community.  
Since Sergio is not pushed by monthly deadlines he can focus on what  
he feels is more important or at least more interesting, rather than  
just the classic Groo humor.