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Title: Pescatel (The Hatchery)
Series: Groo the Wanderer #17
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 24
Words: 2K

From Bookstooge.blog

Groo is lost, starving and drowning. He eventually makes it to land, finds a village surrounded by a lake filled with man eating fish and gets a job at the village being their war chief. He is sent out to destroy the villagers’ enemies. Only, being Groo, he attacks their allies and makes them their enemies. When a second ally village is called to make peace, Groo attacks them as well thinking they are the enemies. Now everybody is an enemy of the village.

But thanks to the man eating fish, the village is safe. Until Groo releases the only fish that eats the man eating fish. The villagers finally kick Groo out and he runs into the villagers enemies. And proceeds to tell them everything.

---

When I read the previous Groo comic, Wakizashi mentioned that #17 was the first comic he had bought with his own money and was very nostalgic about it. So I figured I’d give him a shout out because things like that are important. Why you ask? Because I said so, that’s why! And if you disagree, you can go sit in the corner without dinner and think about what a miserable wretch you are to even contemplate disagreeing with me. Wakizashi knows better and that’s why he is eating a delicious fish dinner, just like Groo.

Groo is a walking disaster. I mean, if he “could” do something the wrong way, invariably he does it the wrong way. And yet he always walks away from the situation alive, even if he should have died. Aragones knows this is the formula and as such doesn’t try to put pat endings on the comics. For example, in this issue the last page is of Groo walking into an ambush by the original villagers who hired him. Aragones doesn’t show the battle but we know we’re going to see Groo next issue, even if he’s hurt and bleeding, hahahaa.

The other thing is just how ridiculous Groo continually is. I’m going to include a page from the comic to illustrate this. I laughed hard enough when I read that Mrs B had to ask what was going on. When I said “I’m reading a Groo comic”, she just rolled her eyes and understood.

This whole page just sums up Groo to perfection.

★★★✬☆

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Title: Groo and the Shipyard
Series: Groo the Wanderer #16
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 24
Words: 2K

From Bookstooge.blog

Groo tries to find work as a guard at a flying ship yard. They need no guards as they have a whole pack of savage dogs. So Groo joins as a common laborer and pegs and caulks a ship. To the usual Groo standards.

He runs across Taranto and his crew who have been pillaging and plundering. They steal an airship only to find out it is the one Groo work on. So it falls apart and they all go crashing to the ground.

---

Ahhhh, appropriately silly and asinine. Just what every Groo comic should be.

What was interesting was the Checklist ad though. It has the latest GI Joe comic and it’s the introduction for Sgt Slaughter:

I remember Sgt Slaughter because he was also a World Wrestling Federation actor at the time and boy did Hasbro make a big deal about promoting his character to sell all the toys. His picture, real or as the animated version, was yelling at everyone to do everything, all at once. And he did it all first so he could yell at you for not doing it fast enough.

★★★✬☆

• All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot, by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Groo and the Monks
Series: Groo the Wanderer #15
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 23
Words: 2K

From Bookstooge.blog

Groo meets a battle taking place. He finally joins a side after they’ve won. But the winners are all going to commit ritual suicide for having killed their master and fellow brethren. Groo doesn’t want to die and so the last warrior tells him he can join a monastery to atone.

Groo finds the monastery and with predictable results. Chaos ensues. Silence is broken. Groo is kicked out to go earn money for them. He threatens the town until they give a lot of money. Groo then uses the money to carve a staircase into the mountain to the Monastery, hire belly dancers, buy wine and fine foods. Considering his duty done, he then leaves. Hahahahaa.

---

I think the following panel pretty much sums up this particular issue of Groo:

He doesn’t know what he is doing, or why, or even how, but because he’s Groo, he’s going to do it no matter what. Of course, apparently he can’t read any of the rules, or he’s just so dense that he doesn’t think they apply to him. It just goes to show that Groo causes chaos no matter where he goes or what he tries to do.

As much as I am really enjoying these, I think one a month is a great way to keep on liking Groo. Too much more and I’d probably get sick of his stupidity. Very funny in small doses, not so much in larger doses.

★★★✬☆

• All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot, by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Quarry
Series: Groo the Wanderer #14
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 23
Words: 2K

Groo gets lost in the desert, passes by an oasis of comely babes and ends up working in a quarry. Where he does everything wrong, everything. He pushes when he’s supposed to be pulling. He threatens the slaves with his sword. He gets crushed by a massive stone block. He ties up the ship wrong so it floats away and crashes and sinks. Eventually, he destroys a massive edifice to the local king and runs away. Of course, the destruction revealed a cave of jewels that was enough for the local folks to all buy their freedom.

Despite Groo’s inability to do anything correctly, Aragones has the knack of giving us that twist right at the end. It is almost always there and it is impossible to predict. I love that! It’s like a tragic comedy version of the Twilight Zone, except Groo is the butt every time, hahahahaa.

This comic is keeping me entertained, every time. Unlike certain Mutant Turtles, I haven’t had a bad experience yet. They’re not all top notch, but not a one where I question if I should continue or not. I guess Aragones and I have a shared sense of the ridiculous 😀

★★★✬☆

• All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot, by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Groo and the Tale of King Sage
Series: Groo the Wanderer #13
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 24
Words: 2K

The Sage, introduced in Groo #7, becomes the King of a small but prosperous country. Groo stumbles across said country and asks to be made a general of the armies. For some reason, the Sage can’t say no to Groo and thus makes him a general. To mitigate Groo’s “groo’ness”, he sends him off to guard the northernmost pass of the country. Along the way, Groo makes everyone become a farmer and thus brings discontent to the whole country. The Sage is deposed and beats Groo about the head to show his displeasure.

This was an amusing little story. AND IT ONLY COST 75¢. In comparison, Bone #16 cost $3, four times as much. And Aragones gives us not only an amusing story with a start, a middle and an end, but it is also in color. Now maybe the paper material itself was pulp and Bone was high quality paper? But let me tell you, if I had $3 in 1986, well, really, I’d probably spent it at the dollar bin at Bradley’s (a now bankrupt and defunct department store) buying star wars figurines, BUT if I were to spend it on comics, I’d choose 4 months of Groo over one month of Bone every single time. Even right now, I would choose the same exact thing, ie, star wars figures, then if you forced me, Groo comics, hahahaha 😀

I am also finding the ads just as fun as the stories. In this comic, there is an ad for Captain America: The Broadway Musical. I kid you not. And here’s the proof:

Now, that is even better than the ad for the Jetson’s I saw in the previous Groo comic! I did a google search and sure enough, Marvel did try to get Captain American onto the stage and they failed. I hope you all join me in thanks for that failure. Nobody needs to see Cap tippity tappitying around. It did make me wonder though, what kind of parent would just send in their kids info to some complete stranger they saw in a comic book? And what kind of little girl is reading Groo? Probably not one who sings and dances is my guess 🙂

★★★✬☆

• All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot, by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Groo Meets the Thespians
Series: Groo the Wanderer #12
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 23
Words: 2K

Groo ends up with a group of actors without realizing they are actors and saves the evil king in the play. This sends the audiences into stitches and Groo becomes famous. After many, many, many attempts, the actors finally get across to Groo that it is all fake and he’s just supposed to stand there as a guard and not do anything.

So what happens next?

They go to a kingdom ruled by an evil king, where two of the actors have been hired to kill the king. Groo thinks it is all acting and even when the evil king says he’ll give Groo one third of his kingdom, he just stands by. So the actors kill the king, the two noblemen who hired them then turn on the actors to cover up their part in the plan and Groo turns on everybody when he realizes it was real and he could have been rich, rich, rich. I had to laugh even while wondering how someone this dumb could survive on his own 😀

There was also an ad for some cartoons. Maaaaan, that brought back some memories.

While we didn’t watch tv on Saturday (that was part of how we kept the Sabbath) and our tv during the week was strictly limited, the times I’d go over to a friends house (usually my friend Jimmy) I’d binge. Or, binge as much a kid could who had too much energy and needed to get outside and moving 😀 I do remember the Jetsons though. Poor George getting yelled at all the time by his boss and I can remember even having a crush on Judy, the teenage daughter. Ahhh, those were the days. The halcyon golden age of childrens television. Then Barney and the Teletubbies came along and ruined everything.

★★★✬☆

• All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot, by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: A Hero’s Task
Series: Groo the Wanderer #11
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 26
Words: 2K

This was a direct sequel to the previous issue where Groo hooks up with a handsome hero, does all the work and hero gets the credit. This is another quest where Groo does all the work and the reward is the king’s daughter, a third of the kingdom and all the cheese dip you can eat. Only the kingdom is under a curse to make everyone super ugly and the cheesedip rancid. Groo runs off without realizing there is a curse and so the Hero gets the beautiful girl and all the riches.

I was wondering how Groo was going to get screwed in this issue and I laughed my head off when he seemed to get away only for us the readers to realize he’d run away from everything he’d really wanted. Aragones really knows how to set Groo up like a bowling pin only to knock him right down. It’s perfect and amusing.

Now, this is a Marvel comic and man, the ads inside were not taken out. There is one for a spiderman backpack and then a 3 page spread about Spiderman trying to find the missing Captain Crunch (the breakfast cereal). It was jarring! I’ve gotten spoiled reading these digital scans, as whoever the scanner was took the time to remove most of that junk in the other comics I read. But it shows what age group this was aimed at, middle and highschool kids. And I don’t see them being appreciative enough of Groo to keep the comic going. But what do I know?

★★★✬☆

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Title: Groo Meets the Hero
Series: Groo the Wanderer #10
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 26
Words: 2K

★★★✬☆

• All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews

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Title: Pigs and Apples
Series: Groo the Wanderer #9
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 23
Words: 2K

Synopsis:

The Sage narrates an adventure he and Groo had. There were 2 villages. One held that apples were sacred and not to be eaten and the other held that pigs were sacred and not to be eaten. Groo goes hungry but the Sage tells him a way to get all the food he eats, ie, to incite war between the villages. Groo plays both sides off the other and eats all the apples and pigs he wants. Only to find out that the ban on them both was because they were all poisonous. Everyone gets really sick.

The Sage is lauhing his head off while telling the tale at an inn and has just finished an apple and pork dumpling. The mistress of the inn asks the name of the Sage’s companion in the story and tells them it was “Groo”. She screams “but Groo just sold us all these pigs and apples”. Upon hearing this, everyone in the inn promptly gets sick.

My Thoughts:

Close to the best Groo story so far. I was worried when it started out with the Sage narrating as I don’t like his character, but the story was all about Groo so that was ok.

Of course, I should have seen the ending coming a mile away but since I didn’t it was a hilarious and yet entirely “Groo” ending.

• All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Treasure of Kantor
Series: Groo the Wanderer #8
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 24
Words: 2K

Synopsis:

Groo runs into an old “friend” at the ruins of Kantor. Said friend has betrayed Groo 20 times before but swears he won’t do it again. He wants Groo to guard him and his crew as they loot the burial ground of the Kantors, who are giant ape warriors.

Groo fights the Kantors and runs a patrol off. He also finds the treasure but his “friend” tricks him and runs off with the whole treasure. They run into the rest of the Kantors who enslave them. Groo returns with the king who hired the “friend” and the issue ends with them about to run into the Kantors as well.

The moral of this issue is “When you double cross a friend, you triple-cross yourself”.

My Thoughts:

Ahhhh, good stuff! Groo beats the stuffing out of giant warrior apes and yet is fooled for the 21^st time by a supposed “friend”. Groo might be mighty but by gum, is he stupid!

That brawn and simplicity is what makes this so amusing though. Also, the badguys always get what is coming to them in one way or another. I love that!

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