Monday, December 4, 2006

Mendicant ahoy!

I felt like I had to note this excellent news, from Rich Johnston's Lying in the Gutters this week:

THE YEAR OF GROO

Forget, whatever record it is that Marvel Comics say Brian Bendis and Mark Bagley set on "Ultimate Spider-Man," "Groo The Wanderer" by Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier, published 120 consecutive issues from Marvel comics, as well as a few spin off graphic novels along the way, before continuing publication at Image and Dark Horse. Well, twenty-five years after the first appearance from Pacific Comics, 2007 will see:

A Groo The Wanderer/Conan The Barbarian crossover mini-series.

A 25th Anniversary Special.

And a revamping of the entire Groo TPB line, starting with the Marvel run, from Dark Horse. And production continues on a Groo The Wanderer animated movie.

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Sweet! Groo is one of my all-time favorite series. I'm working on completing my collection of the Marvel/Epic run. I probably have 90 or maybe even 100 of the 120 issues. So it's great to see a celebration of the series. It's weird to see a Groo/Conan crossover though. If you read the letter columns in older issues, readers were always writing in asking for a crossover with Conan, but they were always dismissed (in an amusing manner) by Mark Evanier. I guess they figured the character has been around for 25 years, why not go for it? A Groo cartoon could be good, but like any adaptation, it also has the potential to be bad. Voice casting is crucial, as is the writing. Hopefully they'll have Evanier and Aragones consulting, at the very very least. Wow, 2007 will have revivals of Groo AND Madman! What's next, Joe Kelly and Chris Bachalo going back and finishing Steampunk?

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