Groo the Wanderer

 

Groo the Wanderer

 

 

 
GROO THE WANDERER is the story of a barbarian who is as dangerous as a stampede of cattle...and almost as smart. It was created in 1981 by was created by Sergio Aragonés. Groo wanders the world with his friend, the dog Rufferto who he found/rescued about 30 issues into the series. Groo is not a very bright person, but he has a good heart, and is the best swordsman ever. However he is also a bit accident prone, and usually causes massive destruction to all those around him. As a result, he has a reputation that scares everyone nearly to death when they meet him. Usually they also die right after that, or their village burns down, the castle gets destroyed, etc.

There have been more than 150 issues of Groo the Wanderer. The first four comic book publishers were Pacific Comics, Eclipse Comics, Marvel/Epic Comics and Image Comics. Of those, three have declared bankruptcy (though Marvel has somehow managed to linger on) and the fourth has internal legal problems. Groo is presently published by the obviously courageous Dark Horse Comics www.dhorse.com

Every so often the staff that produces Groo will release a four-issue mini-series of his exploits. Dark Horse also puts out a paperback collecting all the issues, and they also issue paperbacks that reprint earlier Groo tales.

I started reading Groo when I was in High School, and there was something about his good heart, restless nature, interesting adventures and his skill with swords that touched a common thread in me.
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