The Neverending Fray: Hey, Groo is kind of a jerk

I've been considering doing this series for a long time, but here it finally is: an issue-by-issue reread of all the Groo comics in my collection. I should note that I do have Destroyer Duck #1, which contained the first appearance of Groo, somewhere, but I couldn't find it, so I'm starting with the first issue of the first series. Let's see how long I can keep this up...

Groo the Wanderer #1
By Sergio Aragones, Mark Evanier, Stan Sakai (lettering), and Gordon Kent (coloring)
Published by Pacific Comics, 1982



Sergio Aragones' Groo has long been one of my very favorite comics, but I've only read the work that was published by Marvel's Epic imprint, so going back to this first issue of his first published series is something of an eye-opener. At this point, the personality of the character and rhythms of the storytelling haven't yet been established, and the art is a bit less refined that what Sergio would be producing a few years down the line. Groo's appearance is a bit off, with legs thicker and arms a bit fatter than they would be later, and his personality is different too. He's still dumb, and he still thinks of himself as a great warrior, but he seems just a little bit more worldly, ready to carouse in bars, chase women, and provoke fights:



I tend to think of him as a clueless naif who barely notices the opposite sex and gets in fights either because he's being insulted or because he just likes to join battles. But maybe my memories have been polished with time; it should be interesting to see how they hold up as I keep reading these issues.

But one thing that is definitely different than the later Marvel-published work is the "adult" nature of some of what happens here. The battles are surprisingly bloody, partly due to the coloring:



Sergio and company may have decided later that it's funnier to keep the blood and gore to a minimum, with killings implied rather than demonstrated so nastily. But it does make this joke, in which Groo casually murders a guy, pretty brutally funny:



There's also more of an awareness of sex, whether it's Groo squeezing a guy's balls:



Somebody looking up a woman's dress:



Or a rather tasteless joke about rape that might have flown in 1982 but would definitely be frowned upon today:



Sergio's talent for visual gags was already quite apparent here, as was his proficiency at filling pages with crowd scenes and humorous details. I especially dig this page; check out how every character's sight line can be followed to the center of the second panel:



The plots would also be improved upon, as this one is fairly weak (although it's a great introduction to the character and the usual sort of antics he would get up to). Groo is being chased by an army that wants his head, and he tries to think of who would want him dead. He has a couple flashbacks to incidents that would make people angry, and then he stumbles upon the army that apparently wants to kill him, although the reason is never really given. There are plenty of great jokes in between though, and even in this first issue, he gets to search for a job, only finding one after hearing somebody say "[the last guy] was a real jerk...he was a real incompetent...a bumbler of the first order! Ever hear of him? His name was Groo." That one never gets old.

One other thing worth mentioning: on the opening page, which sees Sergio appear in his studio to introduce the comic, he mentions that he had been wanting to do a Groo comic for years, but couldn't find a publisher that would let him keep ownership of the character. I hadn't realized (or had forgotten) that Groo was one of the early leaders in the creator-owned comics movement, but it's an interesting and illuminating fact to discover, and also a reminder of how comics always seems to be behind the times when it comes to treating people like human beings.

Next: "The Missive"
-----

This issue's stats:
Recurring characters: Taranto, Groo's "friend" who usually manages to manipulate him to his own ends, and the Sage, who stars in his own backup story, both make their debuts (I think)
Hidden message(s): none that I noticed
Running jokes: Groo's love of cheese dip is established, as well as his sort-of catchphrase, "And now, Groo does what Groo does best!"
Mark Evanier's job(s): Interpreter, Decoding
Letter column jokes: Just an into from Mark Evanier here. I'm curious to see at what point the letter column evolved into its own collection of running jokes and silliness.
-----

Bonus! Other titles considered for this series:

Did I Err?
To Err is Groo-man
Mendicant Meanderings
Cheese Dip Diet
What Pirates?
Groomblr or Groo the Wanderblr (if this was on Tumblr)
Frayed Nerves
Groo Is So Dumb That...
Grooish Wanderings
Sage Advice
Secret Messages
Adventures of the Prince of Chichester
Sailing with Groo
Pieces of Groo
Groo-vy Times
Thin Grool
Groon Squad
Groo Fighters
In the Groop
Groo-ing Pains
A Grooling Journey

Kirby Kategory: "Other!"

Here's an odd Jack Kirby-related couple of books that I found in discount bins:



These were apparently part of an attempt by Topps Comics to establish a "Kirbyverse" in 1993, featuring various oddball characters created by Kirby, and also planning to incorporate his Captain Victory and Silver Star characters, because why not? Unfortunately, judging by this sample anyway, they function about as well as most Kirby Koncepts do when other creators attempt to take them on. Bombast #1 is written by Roy Thomas and Gary Friedrich, doing more of an impression of Stan Lee than Kirby, and also throwing in Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon as a guest star. It starts with an earthquake in Chicago, which causes a fissure to open in "Grant's Park", and when a "young black junkie" falls in, he discovers what turns out to be a 15,000 year old guy just as he awakes from stasis, then stumbles around the city getting into awkward situations and random scuffles with people because he doesn't speak the language and can't understand the cold, lifeless machinery that everyone uses. Savage Dragon (who is a Chicago cop, I guess?) shows up to fight him for a while, but he runs away because he doesn't want to fight, even though he has super powers and his name is Bombast. He eventually meets up with some other refugees from the past, and maybe they team up to fight bad guys or something in future issues. Whatever.

The art is by Dick Ayers, but it's inked by John Severin, making for an interesting match, all gritty realism on top of Kirby-ish poses. It doesn't really work, but it does yield occasional bits of oddness, like the way images of which figures are floating in blank space are suddenly interrupted by a detailed panel of a guy lying in the street:



I do like this panel, which seems kind of Golden Age with its small figures:



But surely somebody must have realized how awkward this panel looks, as if Savage Dragon suddenly grew ten stories and grabbed Bombast by the ankles:

The art doesn't really matter when the writing is this embarrassing though. I would blame Roy Thomas for the ridiculous, silly dialogue, but Friedrich is credited for the script, so I guess he's responsible for terrible attempts at slang like: "Yo' momma! Who's that? Sure ain't no extra from a Spike Lee movie!", "Jump back, Jim! ...This dude's fast...and strong...and definitely baaad!", "We ain't exactly bro's, Moe! So I'm splittin', see?!",

It's really just a silly trifle though, with the cover being the best thing about it.

More interesting, however, is Satan's Six #1, probably just because it features eight pages of actual Kirby art (which were probably produced years earlier, maybe even back in the 70s), inked by a variety of comics people, including Kirby mainstay Mike Royer, Terry Austin, Steve Ditko, and, on the cover, Todd McFarlane. It seems like it was supposed to be a humorous series, about a team of souls from throughout history resurrected from limbo and sent to do Satan's bidding on earth, but they keep screwing up and accidentally doing good. That might have been the intent, anyway, but the comic that gets built around those pages is just horrible, with disgustingly ugly 90s art by John Cleary that looks like exaggerated Todd McFarlane proportions and expressions wedded to the elongated figures that Adam Kubert might use when depicting a psychedelic freakout:



It's also very obnoxiously written by Tony Isabella, with a "sexy" angel narrator speaking directly to the reader and making comments about the comic itself, along with lots of supposedly humorous dialogue screamed at each other by leering characters in every panel. Ugly, awful comics.

But the Kirby pages themselves are worth a look, especially to see the differences between the inkers' interpretations. Terry Austin, Mike Royer, and Joe Sinnott provide a classic Kirby look, and Steve Ditko works in some of his billowing clouds:



But most fascinating is this page by Frank Miller, which somehow meets Kirby halfway between their two styles, softening the edges of the lines and deepening the shadows:



I also like this Sinnott-inked page, but mostly because the "Hellicopter" depicted makes me think of a Kirby version of the Bullet Bills from Super Mario Bros.:



It might have been interesting to see where Kirby was planning on going with these characters, but being the 90s, it's even more awful than usual to see somebody else try to pick up where he left off. But was it worth 50 cents? Sure. You can't have too much Kirby art cluttering up the longboxes.

"This is Micro-Mark's hour! There's no need for intrigue or great strivings--the cosmos lies open to button-pushing babes!"

Welp, it's time for the final edition of Fourth World Panels, taken from The Hunger Dogs, Jack Kirby's graphic novel (as DC called their thick pamphlet format back in the 80s) "ending" to his most personal work:

The circumstances of this story are interesting; apparently Kirby created a single-issue ending to the Fourth World saga, which would have originally been published as the final issue of the New Gods reprint series, but it didn't really work at that length, so he got to expand it to a graphic novel. The seams do show a bit, at least as they are presented here in this collection, but he did manage to bring everything to a fairly satisfying close, while updating the story to reflect the decade that had passed since its last installment. That means that the main conflict is less about totalitarianism and oppression and more about the fear of destruction that came with the atomic age. Darkseid is less focused on Anti-life, having replaced much of his forces with automated machines, and his newest threat is something called Micro-Mark, which turns out to be the brainchild of Esak, who was the kid Metron was taking on tours of the galaxy in one of the early issues of New Gods, now deformed by accidents that occurred with experiments he performed, an experience which caused him to defect to Darkseid. Interestingly, Darkseid seems to be struggling to retain control over his domain, becoming eclipsed by the new technology that is beginning to render him obsolete:



Micro-Mark seems to be all about the fear of atomic annihilation, the power behind bombs that bring about the end of New Genesis (in what was probably one of the last examples of the incredible collages of the kind that Kirby did so well), but also threaten Apokolips in their instability. As with nuclear bombs, the existence of Micro-Mark is enough to assure mutual destruction, and that causes the eponymous Hunger Dogs, the poor, starving denizens of Apokolips, to rise up against their oppressors, although Darkseid's eventual return to full control is all but inevitable.



It's a nicely open-ended finish to Kirby's grand saga, and while it's a shame he didn't get to do the Shakespearean showdown between Darkseid and Orion that he had wanted to do to end his story (by this time, DC had appropriated the characters, started using them in other books, in the Super Friends cartoon, and as action figures, and thus they couldn't be killed off), it works as well as one could probably hope at this point in Kirby's career. He gets in plenty of good action, crazy visuals, and excellent dialogue:

"Drooling infant--! A new age is precisely the time--to settle old scores--!"
"Dance, Himon! Phase in and out like a dancing flea! But, in this new era--look for the shadow of my descending fist!"
"Then, let it be said that we must be the bravest among all who came before us! Let it be said that our wisdom is wed to the most terrifying risk ever taken!!"

He gives Orion a love interest in Himon's daughter Bekka, and Lightray gets to show up for a few fun scenes. It might not be the finale that we would liked to have seen, but it works for what it is, and there are plenty of great moments. I like this panel, in which Lightray zooms down from the caption onto the surface of Apokolips:



This splash page of a prisoner being led into a lab to act as an experiment subject is pretty chilling, a good example of the Holocaust imagery that Kirby occasionally used:



And this scene of pestilential creatures devouring New Genesis on a microscopic scale is pretty awesome:



I'll take whatever Kirby I can get, even if it's not ideal.

Next? I'm not sure. Kamandi? The Demon? Something else? We'll see!

"In the context of destruction, Orion transcends the term! To oppose him is to die! To survive him is life lived in fragmented form!"

Coming close to the big finish, here's today's Fourth World Panel, from the story "Even Gods Must Die!", which was published as the last issue of a series reprinting New Gods in 1984:

That full-page, full-bleed image is a pretty good sample of what this story contains; it's 48 pages of nonstop action, starting with Orion arriving on Apokalips via Boom Tube, then wrecking his way across the planet in an attempt to confront Darkseid and free his mother, Tigra. As awesome as it is, the art is occasionally a bit awkward, as Kirby's work tended to be at that point in his career. Darkseid, for one, looks like a heavy-browed neanderthal with a bucket on his head rather than the stony-faced, cold-hearted force of pure evil that he was in the earlier Fourth World issues:



And this super-deformed version of Granny Goodness makes me laugh:



And there's at least one silly bit, in which Lightray, who shows up to help Orion, creates a "light mirage" of a pile of bones to distract the giant dogs a group of bad guys are riding. And when the two of them part, they give each other an extremely dorky thumbs-up. It's distractingly dumb.

But there's also a huge amount of awesomely bombastic action, Orion smashing his way through page after page of machinery and wreckage, completely devastating everyone that gets in his way:



Look at that guy's head exploding! That's as savage as anything Orion ever did in this series. Kirby also goes all out with the crazy designs here, coming up with bizarre panel layouts and filling pages with weird Kirbytech:



He adds some real horror to the story too, like when Darkseid decides to resurrect Desaad:

 


Or when Lightray just cold drowns a guy in molten metal:



Maybe it was the increased crudeness of Kirby's style at this point, but that gaping mouth screaming out from a pool of flowing death is hauntingly awful.

Kirby gets in a little bit of commentary as well, with Darkseid's minions (especially that guy with the goofy moustache in the image above) convincing him to allow them to reanimate his dead minions Desaad, Kalibak, Steppenwolf, and Mantis, but they're nothing but personality-free shells of their former selves. That's something Kirby knew all about: having his creations continuing to plod along like zombies long after the life has been drained out of them.

As for the final confrontation between Orion and Darkseid, it's as exciting as one would expect, and it ends in a horrifying and brutal manner, setting up the final chapter of his saga perfectly. I'm not sure what to expect, but I'm hoping it all goes out with a big bang. No matter what happens, I'm sure it will be awesome.

Next: The Hunger Dogs!

American Barbarian: That's what they should call Tom Scioli from now on

American Barbarian
By Tom Scioli
Published by AdHouse Books

It's hard to tell exactly how to take this book, given its straight-faced, unironic take on Jack Kirby-style action-adventure. On the surface, it's kind of dumb (if rather enjoyable), but the title itself begs for a symbolic interpretation. And yes, this is certainly possible, but it's not exactly overt. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic version of North America, which has splintered into several warring factions, all of which are now threatened by a monstrous enemy. The home kingdom of the eponymous character and his family, all of whom sport red-white-and-blue hair, takes an isolationist approach to their neighbors, leading to their downfall when attacked by a force intent on their destruction. In sorrow, the American Barbarian sets out for revenge, but his morals are compromised by his thirst for his enemy's blood, and he ends up inflicting a greater atrocity upon innocent victims than what he sought to avenge. Later, he rouses a complacent populace from the pointless worship of a mindless, life-consuming god to defeat the enemy that seeks to usurp his own power, and he wages a final battle that might require his own sacrifice to prevail. This could all be taken as symbolic of modern American conflicts both internal and external, and it's vague enough that people of any political stripe could probably map their opinions onto it. But while Tom Scioli might intend for some interpretation to be made, he leaves that work to others while he just has fun crafting a crazy world filled with over-the-top characters, monsters, weapons, names, and conflicts, then smashing them all together like a kid playing with action figures.

It makes for a pretty awesome book to read, and even though Scioli doesn't have Kirby's level of moral complexity, balls-out creativity, or crazy energy, he comes about as close as anybody has since the heyday of the King, and he puts enough of himself into it to make it unique, rather than being a slavish copy of past glories. He does stick with the chunky Kirby style, but he sexes it up a little bit (one of the few female characters gets captured, stripped to her goofy-looking skivvies, and put on display like Slave Leia), and he fills it with plenty of his own personality, adding spray-paint blood splatters and some weirdly cartoony faces (perhaps to demonstrate the unquestioning simplicity of the religious followers), throwing in plenty of swearing and vulgarity (giving the writing the feel of a teenager trying to add "maturity" to the silly comics they used to read), and amping up the design of everything from the villainous pharaoh Two-Tank Omen (who, yes, has tanks for feet) to the dinosaur-riding characters who wear armor that makes them appear to have miniature dinosaurs riding on their heads and shoulders. And on top of that, he adds more stylistic flourishes, like soft watercolors and ink washes:

Interesting versions of Kirby-style collage:



Splashes of psychedelic color:



And awesome red-white-and-blue trails that flow behind American Barbarian's Star Sword:



The art does become oddly stiff at times, making for a weird disconnect when a gorgeously dynamic spread of the main character in battle is followed by something like this:



But for the most part, the action flows beautifully and excitingly, so Scioli might be using this occasional awkwardness to emphasize that he is still only a shadow of Kirby's mastery.

Whatever the reasons Scioli has for making the comic the way he did (its original online serialization should also be taken into account; there is a bit of a "making it up as you go" feel, whether that was intended or not), the result is a pretty great example of awesome comics, highly entertaining and energetic action that hits the receptive reader right in the nostalgia center of the brain and then tweaks it just enough to make it feel different. For those of us who dig that sort of thing, it's a full, satisfying experience, making one ready to follow Scioli down whatever path he wishes to tread.

Same Difference: I always liked that phrase

Same Difference
By Derek Kirk Kim
Published by First Second

Reading this book a decade or so after it was first published, it's doesn't seem especially unique, being one of a number of slice-of-life stories about young people hanging out, having amusing conversations, coming to terms with their past, and confronting their futures. But it was probably something of a revelation when it first appeared, seeming like a less cynical version of Ghost World that was still full of swearing, scathing humor, and lovely art. Plus, it was originally serialized online, leading another revolution in an area of comics that has since become fairly commonplace.

But while this comic might not stand out as especially unique in 2012, it's still a really nice read, demonstrating Derek Kirk Kim's skill at quickly defining interesting characters, crafting funny and enjoyable dialogue, and illustrating what could be mundane scenes rather beautifully. In fact, what could end up being something of a "talking head" book is never visually dull, from the opening scene in a Vietnamese restaurant that is framed through an aquarium full of colorful fish (this is captured in the design of this edition, which has a clear plastic jacket with the fish printed on it, making them seem to swim in front of the characters on the cover below), to scenes that take place in a supermarket and on a beach, regularly spotlighting nicely detailed scenery that grounds the cartoony depictions of the characters in a very real setting. And those characters themselves are marvelously expressive, pared down to only the most necessary details but still able to convey a multitude of emotions through their faces and gestures.

From a plot standpoint, this is one of those stories about twentysomething hipsters reflecting on their pasts, learning lessons, and trying not to be assholes. This may or may not appeal to everyone, but for those open to this sort of thing, Kim nails the structure and character beats, making those moments of realization that come from chance meetings or eye-opening personal interactions realistic and heartfelt. He captures the way we realize that people change and grow, and that even if we're ashamed of something we've done, it's our future actions that count, and as obvious as this should be, it still seems like a life-changing epiphany, at least for the characters. What could be a cliched series of maudlin speeches ends up being a warm, beautiful depiction of humanity, something relatable and recognizable in ourselves and the world around us. That's a pretty great achievement, and it's the kind of thing that gets one excited for more work from the creator, even ten years on.

"Thus, we turn a death trap into a life journey!"

It's all about love in the eighteenth and final issue of Mister Miracle, which gives us the obvious choice for this Fourth World Panel:

This issue has all the signs of a rushed finale, gathering a bunch of guest stars (just about the whole Fourth World cast that hasn't been exiled to some remote planet, with Granny Goodness, Virman Vundabar, Kanto, and Doctor Bedlam representing the bad guys, and Orion, Lightray, Highfather, and Metron saving the day from New Genesis, plus everyone fearing the eventual arrival of Darkseid) for the sudden wedding of Mister Miracle and Big Barda, then sending them off to keep fighting their eternal battle. It's all a bit rushed, as if Kirby's bringing back the gang for one last spin and jumping to the one plot point he wanted to get to, but there's some nice action and dialogue while it lasts. I especially like this image of Scott crushed into the ground by Granny Goodness's gravity weapon:



And Orion's sudden appearance in an explosion of destruction is a great reintroduction:




I also dig the way Darkseid arrives like a force of nature, his own followers fleeing in terror:




And his response to the wedding he failed to stop is classic:



That's a nice Kirby moment, a response to the cancellation of his magnum opus, yet an acknowledgement that he'll never give up. It took ten years, but he eventually came back to finish things. We'll see how that turned out.

Next: "Even gods must die!"

A Bride's Story: It's best when it's all about her

A Bride's Story, volume 2
By Kaoru Mori
Published by Yen Press

The centerpiece of this second volume of Kaoru Mori's excellent manga series features an exciting battle between main character Amir's blood relatives, who want to reclaim back from the family she married into, and all the villagers in the town where her in-laws live, who refuse to allow her to be taken away by force. But as high stakes as the drama is, it's the least interesting part of the volume, probably because Amir herself is sidelined during the action, left hiding in her house while the menfolk do the fighting for her. It's a necessary arrangement, due to the social mores of the nineteenth century Central Asian setting, but it strips away the best part of the series, which is seeing the day-to-day interaction of the rich characters and the details of their lives.

No, the real best parts of this volume are the scenes in which Mori just shows Amir and those around her going about their daily routine, with occasional focus on one aspect of their culture or a certain relationship. A particular highlight in this volume is a chapter about the embroidery that the women in the family do, with Mori marching panel after panel of intricately designed fabrics across the pages, letting the reader react along with the characters to the beauty of the painstaking work:

Mori is great at drawing readers in to these sorts of scenes, filling them with energy and life and making them seem like enveloping environments teeming with sights, sounds, and smells:



She'll even often drop out sound effects and dialogue to let moments play out completely visually, and the results are often enrapturing, especially when detailing Amir's relationship with her young husband, Karluk. Their love and affection really comes through in moments like the two of them sharing a cold night on the road:

Or, in a scene where Mori walks up to the edge of being downright erotic, a night of horsing around at home:




Mori is such a talented cartoonist, this all comes off as effortless, but it's an impressively enveloping achievement, one that captures readers' imaginations, making them want to stay in this recreated past indefinitely. That's something that few creators can accomplish in any medium.