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<DIV>
<DIV>Nice coverage report Tone! Thanks for sharing the
pix! That's a very cool tricked out bike picture too....very
Tim Burton-ish....kinda like the bike in the classic movie, "Pee
Wee's Big Adventure!" <IMG
src="http://cdn-cf.aol.com/se/smi/0201e05fa3/16"></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>btw, how come comic shops aren't having any special
midnight openings to release the Groo Special tonight???? Other
shops did that for Harry Potter!!! And who actually reads
Harry Potter anyway????</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The anticipation for tomorrow's latest Groo is
grueling!!!! </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The new Groo book is way more important than any other release out
there!!!!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT size=4>Less than 24 hours till
GROOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 9/11/2007 3:06:52 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
Tone@moon-shine.net writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>
Okay, I am finally rested and caught up on all the e-mail I had<BR>gotten. Now
it is time for me to start giving you guys that update I<BR>have been
promising.<BR><BR> It all pretty much started Friday night. After
gathering all my<BR>gear and prepping things I tried to go to bed by 9pm, but
even though I<BR>had attempted to get in the habit of going to bed on an
earlier basis, I<BR>was too excited. I think I must have not fallen asleep
until some time<BR>after 10pm, then I only slept until 2:45am. At that point I
stealthily<BR>got up, quietly got ready, and slipped into my gear. I was on my
bike<BR>and actually pedaling by 4am.<BR> About five miles from
my home is the start of Pennsylvania's<BR>Heritage Rail Trail, which use to be
a rail road. Along with Maryland's<BR>North Central Rail Trail it runs 41
miles south to the outskirts of<BR>Baltimore. Abraham Lincoln used it on his
way up to deliver the<BR>Gettysburg address, and the rail was also used by
escaped slaves to head<BR>north across the Mason-Dixon line in pursuit of
their freedom. In fact<BR>just over the border on the PA side is a town called
"New Freedom."<BR> Well, by the time I got to the Mason-Dixon
Line between PA and<BR>Maryland it was still completely dark. Remember the
moon is/was in its<BR>new-moon phase, which makes it especially dark. I was
definitely<BR>prepared though. Check out my light set up in this photo I took
at the<BR>PA/MD
border:<BR>http://www.moon-shine.net/groo/Baltimore-BikeInDark.jpg<BR>It
consisted of three white headlights on the handlebars, two small red<BR>lights
each screwed on the valves of my tire tubes, a small blinking red<BR>light on
the rear, a green glow stick on the right side toward the rear,<BR>and a
yellow glow stick on the left side behind the seat. If that was<BR>not enough,
I also wore a miner-style headlamp, which also had a<BR>blinking red light
clipped to its back. For the photo I sat the head<BR>gear on my bike seat.
Here is the same photo, but with a camera
flash:<BR>http://www.moon-shine.net/groo/Baltimore-BikeInFlash.jpg<BR>
You can see the Mason-Dixon Line posted on the map and
bulletin<BR>board in the background. The ride was certainly spooky at
times,<BR>especially when I would see pairs of yellow eyes in wooded areas.
Half<BR>of the time I could eventually tell they were just cats, but other
times<BR>I could not tell what the heck they were when I directed my head lamp
at<BR>them. One time I know I saw a fawn sitting completely still beneath
a<BR>big shrub. I kept picturing those Groo panels where Groo was in the
dark<BR>and surrounded by eyes looking at him, and I wondered what a
great<BR>imagine Sergio could sketch up of me riding my foolish butt down
to<BR>Baltimore in the middle of the night.<BR> Even though the
glowing eyes were creepy, what was probably more<BR>dangerous, were posts set
up at cross roads so vehicles could not drive<BR>onto the trail. Usually these
would all have reflectors on them, which I<BR>could easily pick out, but
occasionally I got within a couple of yards<BR>before I realized I had to stop
or redirect myself. The worst part<BR>though was on the way back at dusk. In
Maryland the trail runs along a<BR>stream in the Gun Powder Fall State Park,
and I found myself wishing I<BR>had goggles because of all the gnats
spattering into me. As I biked<BR>along the consistency of them colliding into
my face and arms was almost<BR>exactly the same as riding through drizzling
rain. I found myself<BR>clenching my lips together and squinting my eyes as I
cycled forward.<BR><BR> Okay, so I am sure you guys are probably
sick of the cycling<BR>stuff, so I will wrap it up. Basically I was off the 41
mile trail by<BR>about 8am, and I completely the additional 16 miles to the
Convention<BR>Center by 9:45, which gave me 15 minutes before the Comic Con
opened. I<BR>quickly freshened up in the bathroom, changed in my Groo shirt,
and<BR>snatched up a program booklet. While flipping through it to figure
out<BR>where Sergio's table was I slowly followed the meandering
ULTRA-LONG<BR>line, which eventually curved back onto itself two times. I
finally got<BR>my place at the end of the line and after about ten minutes
only then<BR>realized, even though I already had my Ticket-Master bought
ticket in<BR>hand, I still had to have it verified by getting a wrist band at
one of<BR>the front desks. I naturally did so, but I ended up loosing my place
in<BR>line because by then it had already started moving and I could not
find<BR>where I had been.<BR> It must have been some time after
11am when I finally got onto<BR>the actually Con floor. That was not my only
problem though. Earlier on<BR>I mentioned to the Groop Sergio's name was no
longer listed on the guest<BR>page of the Baltimore Comic Con web site and
wondered if this was a<BR>problem. Well, it turned out in the program booklet
there was also no<BR>indication where Sergio's table was located! His name was
only listed as<BR>one of the autographing artists and as a spotlight panel in
an upstairs<BR>conference room later in the day.<BR> I have never
been to a Comic Con as large as this one, so I<BR>found myself starting from
scratch and simply following my own search<BR>pattern. Eventually I found the
Dark Horse booth, which was in booth<BR>1305, but not listed in the convention
map either. I asked if they<BR>happened to know where Sergio was, and they
said they did not even<BR>realize he was at the Con, which got me a bit
worried. I told them<BR>Sergio was in fact listed in the program, had a panel
later on, and Mark<BR>had said he would be in attendance. Being the good
natured individual I<BR>am, I even offered to return with information to
Sergio's whereabouts if<BR>I was ever able to find him.<BR>
Eventually of course I did find Sergio and his table. At that<BR>point I knew
meetings him was really going to happen. I did not expect<BR>his line to be so
long. It seem to consistently have one to two dozen<BR>people lined up, and
even later in the day I counted no less than six at<BR>any given time. Here is
a photo of the
line:<BR>http://www.moon-shine.net/groo/Baltimore-SergioLine.jpg<BR>
It is a bit hard to make out in the photo, but Sergio's table
is<BR>beneath his white banner, which is just above that bald guy in the
white<BR>T-shirt. I was behind "Mr. Red-shirt" and there were still two or
three<BR>people behind me at the time.<BR> Growing up all the
other kids collected "cooler" comics like<BR>X-Men and stuff, but Sergio
definitely had one of the longer lines,<BR>which made me feel sad for some of
the other artists at booths around<BR>him. I did not mind much. Waiting in
Sergio's queue just meant my feet<BR>would hurt from standing around a little
longer, and after biking for<BR>over five hours that was
nothing.<BR><BR> By process of elimination I finally got to
Sergio's
table.<BR>http://www.moon-shine.net/groo/Baltimore-SergioSketching.jpg<BR>
I was practically at a loss for words, but Sergio was
extremely<BR>welcoming. Even while being so busy greeting his fans,
signing<BR>autographs, and doodling the occasional sketch, he had already
noticed<BR>my Groo shirt and my Groop membership cards proudly hanging around
my<BR>neck. In his experience he smoothly eased my nervousness with a
warm<BR>hand shake and kind words.<BR> Most of my Groo collection
is stored back in New York City, but<BR>I did bring along my copy of the first
printing of "MAD's Sergio On<BR>Parade," which I bought MANY years ago when it
was new on the shelf. I<BR>was originally a fan of Sergio's marginals in the
MAD magazines my<BR>friends had, and initially picked out Groo only because I
recognized<BR>Sergio's name on a Groo cover while thumbing through random
comics when<BR>waiting for a friend looking for his monthly comic
fix.<BR> Here is a photo of the cover from my copy of "Sergio on
Parade":<BR>http://www.moon-shine.net/groo/Baltimore-MADCover.jpg<BR>
...and here is what Sergio sketched
inside:<BR>http://www.moon-shine.net/groo/Baltimore-MADSignature.jpg<BR><BR>
While Sergio was making quick work of his sketch in my book,
I<BR>managed to get some sense about me. I spoke up and was able to bring
up<BR>the pre-paid Groo hats Gary had arranged for me, and before I
even<BR>finished my sentence Sergio verbally confirmed my order, had the hats
in<BR>front of him, and asked if I wanted them autographed. That was an
easy<BR>enough question for me to say yes to. :)<BR> Here are
some photos of one of the hats I
got:<BR>http://www.moon-shine.net/groo/Baltimore-Hat.jpg<BR>http://www.moon-shine.net/groo/Baltimore-HatBill.jpg<BR>http://www.moon-shine.net/groo/Baltimore-HatInside.jpg<BR><BR>
I had also noticed the Groo magnets on the table at Sergio's<BR>side.
Our Gary G. was gracious enough to score me two of the magnets,<BR>but it had
seemed Sergio's inventory of the Rufferto magnets was over<BR>with because of
Sergio's generosity in giving them away to the little<BR>kids. Well, it turned
out Sergio DID have some Rufferto magnets left,<BR>and I personally witnessed
Sergio freely distributing them to the young<BR>ones several times on
Saturday. Needless to say I was able to speak up<BR>enough to ask for a couple
of magnets. Now I have all
three:<BR>http://www.moon-shine.net/groo/Baltimore-Magnets.jpg<BR>
If you take a look at the "Groo & Friends" magnet, you
will<BR>notice Rufferto is missing an eye spot. Sergio is always willing to
draw<BR>an eye spot on the magnets in person, but I wanted to keep
them<BR>original.<BR> After getting the magnets and the hats,
Sergio did not have<BR>anything else on his table Groo-related I did not have,
except for the<BR>Spanish versions of the trade paper backs. I had already
told myself I<BR>would not start up an international collection because that
could<BR>potentially be infinite and I can not read other languages except
poor<BR>Portuguese anyway. I was really hoping Sergio would have copies of
the<BR>Anniversary Special, but he did not. Though he did seem convinced
some<BR>dealer at the convention must have copies, but I and other fans
proved<BR>him wrong by the time of Sergio's' spotlight panel.<BR><BR>
Before ending my awestruck meeting with Sergio, there was still<BR>at
least one thing left for me to do at Sergio's table. I noticed he had<BR>at
least one folder of pre-made sketches, and since I biked 58 miles to<BR>meet
Sergio for the first time ever on Groo's 25th anniversary... I was<BR>psyched
to have a look in his portfolio and definitely financially<BR>prepared to buy
something original.<BR> When I mentioned I was interested in
Sergio's original art he<BR>immediately suggested I come around the table
inside his booth. Not only<BR>that, but he said I should hang out and have a
seat. Sergio actually<BR>interrupted the artist in the next booth to snag one
of his extra seats,<BR>and he unfolded it and set it down for me before also
pulling out his<BR>larger portfolio of artwork. I felt like I was getting VIP
treatment,<BR>and when I began to question him if he was sure about it, Sergio
shot me<BR>down like a family member, who would not take no for an answer
when<BR>giving a gift.<BR> I enthusiastically flipped through his
pages appreciating every<BR>piece of art and the privilege of seeing it all
first hand. There were<BR>some really sweet pieces, which stood out at me. One
was a large-format<BR>sword fight seen of Groo slicing a bunch of lizard-like
men surrounding<BR>him. Unfortunately, that work was tagged at $600, which was
just a bit<BR>beyond my price range. Apart from that though, there was a
really<BR>tasteful image of Rufferto with Groo's swords, which I
particularly<BR>liked. It had one of the lower price tags at $100, so I went
for
it:<BR>http://www.moon-shine.net/groo/Baltimore-RuffertoSketch.jpg<BR>
After deciding on the piece, I patiently waited, watched,
and<BR>appreciated Sergio's interactions with his other fans. Eventually
Sergio<BR>turned to me to say some amusing comment about how the line never
ends.<BR>At that point he noticed I was finished and he actually apologized to
me<BR>as if he had been ignoring me. I told him he was ridiculous, and if
he<BR>needed a break or anything else I could offer him assistance since
I<BR>primarily came to the Con for him. I could see the look of
appreciation<BR>in his smile, but he said he had things under control and we
completed<BR>the transaction. As usual, Sergio had a canister for CBLDF
donations and<BR>was asking for donations for sketches or for more than three
signatures.<BR>I had not reached any of the limits, but I gladly donated $50
in<BR>appreciation to his efforts. Come to think of it, Sergio did not
even<BR>ask me for the money for the magnets and I was too scatter-brained
to<BR>think of it, so technically I owe him money! :)<BR> Before
departing I asked Sergio about some old bike messenger<BR>related artwork he
had made for MAD long ago because I was possibly<BR>interested in purchasing
it if he still had it. He barely remembered the<BR>piece, but told me even if
he did not have it he could easily re-sketch<BR>and send it to me, so he gave
me his contact info. I was shocked at<BR>that, but apparently he trusted me
enough with it and I am honored by<BR>it. Afterward I told Sergio I would be
walking around the Con a bit, but<BR>would return to see if he needed any
assistance. I know our Gary helps<BR>Sergio out in San Diego, but there was no
visual Groopie presence in<BR>Baltimore, so I had no problem stepping up if
needed. Sergio told me<BR>that would be really terrific of me.<BR><BR>
After that I headed back to the Dark Horse booth just to let<BR>them
know where Sergio was located. They were actually only about five<BR>booths
away, yet they still had no clue Sergio was there. :)<BR> With my
primary mission complete the only thing left to do was<BR>do a more thorough
inspection of the place because earlier while<BR>wandering around I was ONLY
seeking out Sergio's booth. Now I had some<BR>time to relax and stroll around
to see if I could locate any rare Groo<BR>items I did not have. Perhaps I am
inexperienced in the ways of Comic<BR>Cons, but I ended up not finding
anything I wanted. I did see a few<BR>random Groo comic books and some of the
first issues, but nothing I did<BR>not already have. I did have my collection
list too, but as you can see<BR>I have A LOT of Groo stuff
already:<BR>http://www.moon-shine.net/groo/Tone'sGrooCollection.rtf<BR>
This list might be good for those wanting to learn what they<BR>might
be missing in their own collections. Viewers might have to fiddle<BR>with the
font sizing and paper margins to get the lines to fit as I<BR>intended them
to. After the Sergio panel I showed Eric and Dominick my<BR>printed copy, and
they both seemed interested in seeing my listings<BR>later on, so I figured it
might be useful to others as well.<BR><BR> Well, I think this has
been quite a bit of reading for ANYONE to<BR>digest in one sitting, so I will
leave you guys with that for now and<BR>follow up later on. I just hope I have
not put you guys to sleep or left<BR>anyone hanging. More
later,<BR>_TONE_<BR><BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>Groop
mailing
list<BR>Groop@groo.com<BR>http://mailman.newdream.net/mailman/listinfo.cgi/groop<BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
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