[Groop] Hot off-topic

[Tone]

Adam,
	As some people already pointed out, the first in this series of happy
birthday sentiments was directed at Mark Evanier. You may recognize his
name if you ever opened up a Groo comic to the splash page with the
production credits or read any of the Groo-Gram letters to the “editor”.
In fact, you may even recognize Mark’s appearance from some of the
caricatures of him created by Sergio if you ever read a Groo storyline
with “Weaver” in it. If you have not, then you might want to check this
out:
http://groo.org/char/wea_scr.html

	Regarding birthday sentiments sent between Groop members, technically
under normal forum off-topic protocols you might be justified in
criticizing the activity. However, this is the Groop, or a group for Groo
fans. If you ever read any issue of Groo, then you may have found the
humor itself a bit “off-topic.” I rarely respond to Groop threads myself.
However, I read every posting. I may not personally contribute to the
cheery and sometimes seemingly-senseless banter bouncing between Groop
members, but I either enjoy it, appreciate it, or at the least tolerate
it.
	As for your reference to Facebook, some Groop members, including myself,
do not use Facebook. How do you suggest us non-Facebook users otherwise
keep track of the birthdays from all these strangers on the Groop? Before
you criticize us non-Facebook Groop members, think twice about what you
are about to say. I say this because maybe you have not thought that some
Groopies might not want to publicly announce to the world that they are
Groo fans. That could be a socially damning piece of information, so they
prefer to remain closet-Groopies. Even more importantly, maybe some
Groopies do not want their employers to know they are Groo fans because
they had a very difficult time trying to prove they had some semblance of
intelligence during their application and interviewing process. These
days many human resource departments screen their potential employees by
also checking possible Facebook pages. Any connection to being a Groo fan
could result in a friendly guided tour of the grounds surrounding the
work premises with an immediate door slamming behind them and a swat team
around the corner on stand-by.
	The Groop is not one of those anally-retentive rule-following collection
of geeky comic collectors. Admittedly, most of us might admit to being
geeky comic collectors, but we definitely should not be considered
anally-retentive. If anything, we just let it all out. Heck, one of our
most esteemed long-running jokes involves mulch! How can anyone take
anything any Groo fan says as being serious?

	Speaking of jokes, I am not sure what “inside jokes” you might be
referring to. Of course, I am presuming you have at least read most of
the Groo stories. If not, then perhaps the “inside jokes” you are
referring to are simply the on-going over-played gags running through out
the Groo series. Some of them involve:
1) Mulch
2) Cheese Dip
3) Pirates
4) Mendicants
5) Anyone, not intelligent enough to know what a “mendicant” is, and
therefore probably as smart as any Groo fan.
6) Sinking boats or anything that floats without Rufferto or at least a
likeness of Rufferto.

	There are most likely other ongoing jokes, which I am forgetting at the
moment, but I am a Groo fan, so you should not have expected much from my
mental capacity. In all seriousness though, Adam please lighten up a bit.
I have only been to the Baltimore Comic Con once to see Sergio in person
for the first time, but I also happened to meet up with several members
of the Groop during that trip. Interacting with them was a pleasant
experience, or at least as pleasant as such an experience can be when
encountering someone with an equally geeky hobby/interest as oneself.
Many of the Groop members have known each other for many years with many
of them socializing with each other only once a year at Comic Con in San
Diego. Instead of perceiving the Groop as a Groo-only forum or mailing
list, you should probably consider it as more of a community of people
with an interest in the same comic(s) and same off-humor.
	Personally, I have no interest in Usagi Yojimbo (no offense to some of my
fellow Groopies), but I do not go around complaining that people should
stop discussing Stan’s creation so we can all stay on only the topic of
Groo. That is because Sergio, Mark, Tom, and Stan have been a
long-standing solid comic production team, almost like a family, and that
same sense extends to all their fans.

	By the way ADAM
 now you ruined my posting record! In case you have no
idea what I am talking about

7) Separate from Groo, but inherent to the Groop are jokes about numbers
of posts per year by Groop members. Whether a member has the most post or
the least posts per year, it does not seem to matter.
	Here I thought I would be able to go a year without posting, but you made
me feel like I had to post a response. I was hoping that by not posting
it would be like quitting Groo cold-turkey and I would no longer have to
be labeled as one of those geeky Groo fans. Now it looks like I will have
to open up my old Groo comics to get a fix of that newsprint comic paper
and ink. <Sigh> I guess I should be thankful John T. lost his posting
info, which would mean there may not be any proof I posted anything. Oh
wait
 does that mean he will not record this post?
8) A very obscure inside joke, but you may have noticed the length of my
post. Well, I may not post much, but when I do I tend to write quite a
bit, so some Groopies have teased me about beating the annual record for
word/character counts if adding every post from each member and comparing
them as a whole. I do not believe there is even a Groop member on the
list, who would take posting-counts to the extreme of including
character/word counting
 at least I think (or hope) there is no one like
that.

	I will side with you about one thing. This whole ridiculousness about
people being dragons is absurd and way off-topic. I do not know about
everyone else, but I am a human. I can handle my fellow Groopies being
pirates, since technically they would probably most likely be human or at
least humanoid. However, I am not sure how I feel about being on a
mailing list where many of the members are dragons. I guess I am missing
out on a lot by not traveling all the way to San Diego Comic Con. No
wonder you guys need Rufferto totems, the sheer weight of your massive
reptilian bodies is most likely sinking any boats you might go on. Stop
acting lazy like the stereotypical comic-collector and use your wings for
a change!
9) Another inside joke separate from Groo, but also inherent to the Groop
is people posting messages about specifically NOT traveling to the San
Diego comic con (or pretty much any comic con). Personally I think this
probably just started to make the people, who are not willing to deal with
the crowds at Comic Con (especially crowds consisting of other Groo fans),
feel like they are not alone while still maintaining their status as
devoted Groo fans. Heck
 I am surprised Sergio even shows up to the comic
cons!

	Anyway, Adam you can choose to not eat the apple and stay in blissful
ignorance with the Groop, or you can eat the apple to gain knowledge and
original sin as the bible describes. Alternatively, apparently you can
also eat the apple to not go hungry, but you will probably become sick as
Groo issue #9, entitled “Pigs & Apples,” teaches us. Either way enjoy

but do not eat the pork either, especially if you are Kosher, Muslim, or
Vegan!
	Oh yeah
 my point
 you can also choose to stay in the Groop with us and
tolerate all of our idiosyncrasies and bizarre sense of humor or you can
get lost, like Groo the Wanderer or any lone mendicant.
_TONE_