This was my E.T.: a boy and his special childhood friend...now reunited 20+ years later! This was my first kiss, my first steady relationship and my first love all in one age ravaged, water stained package.It's not just finding this long since buried gem from my childhood intact that has me so giddy and giggly, but rather the entire process of pouring over each panel and harkening back to how much I cherished each free moment that year, both during and after school and throughout the summer, to put this thing together. It's grimacing at the site of my poor seventh grade spelling and grammar (which at the time I thought was fairly superior to everyone else's) and my glaring inability to draw straight lines - and yet my outright stubborn refusal to succumb to the pressure of using a ruler and a pencil instead of my own eyes and a pen to craft this epic. No, once I got it off the ground this little baby was going to be uniquely me - beautifully flawed for all the world to see, and frankly all for the enjoyment and edification of just one person...ME!
Not to toot my own horn here but this was groundbreaking stuff for me! I melded two fantasy worlds, entrenched deep within in my thirteen-year-old heart, inexorably together in one four-part mini series that I developed out of nothing except my own imagination and a few strokes of my pen. I inserted Groo co-creators Sergio Aragones' and Mark Evanier's patented hidden messages into each issue. I even gave myself and a dozen of my former classmates smaller cameo roles throughout and even wrote my all-time super hero role model, Wolverine, a guest spot in the story's finale.
Sure I've done better work since then. In the same portfolio I found some of my more recent samples of journalistic cartooning which most would probably agree are far superior to my early work. Still, while the drawings are a tad more polished and the humor a lot more thoughtful and mature (in a mostly immature way), I'm still most proud of G vs. TT.
And even though my cartooning hand has become fairly silent over the last decade due to the early onset of jaded, crusty old fart syndrome, looking at my old work gives me renewed confidence and desire to bust out the drawing pad and pencils (yes, I did eventually listen to myself and retired the four-chamber, multi-colored ballpoint pen).
In fact, I also found the series' even more ambitious and priceless attempted sequel, Groo the Wanderer vs. Everyone (with the subtitle Secret Wars III - building off of another popular Marvel Comics mini-series of the time) including the tip-of-the-cap cover salute to my favorite comic book cover of all time, Giant Size X-Men #1. This one only made it about 10 pages and two weeks into the start of eighth grade before I put it to bed for good. Perhaps I might pick up where I left off. Who knows? Think I can remember a 20-year-old storyline?
I can't tell you how happy I am to have unearthed this lifetime treasure. If nothing else, this reaffirms for me what many people have tried repeatedly to tell me for my entire life (and I usually ignore out of some sense of modesty): I'm pretty damn talented.
Despite its cliched script, hackneyed illustrations and sometimes illegible print (e
ven before suffering all the water damage from hitching a ride in my school backpack on a daily basis), Groo vs. The Transformers really is me at my quintessential best. Not only was this one of the few projects of this scope in my life I have ever taken on and seen through from fruition to completion, this was also probably the last notable thing I ever did just for myself...but that's going to change, I promise!
And I'm not promising you this...I'm promising me.
And even though my cartooning hand has become fairly silent over the last decade due to the early onset of jaded, crusty old fart syndrome, looking at my old work gives me renewed confidence and desire to bust out the drawing pad and pencils (yes, I did eventually listen to myself and retired the four-chamber, multi-colored ballpoint pen).In fact, I also found the series' even more ambitious and priceless attempted sequel, Groo the Wanderer vs. Everyone (with the subtitle Secret Wars III - building off of another popular Marvel Comics mini-series of the time) including the tip-of-the-cap cover salute to my favorite comic book cover of all time, Giant Size X-Men #1. This one only made it about 10 pages and two weeks into the start of eighth grade before I put it to bed for good. Perhaps I might pick up where I left off. Who knows? Think I can remember a 20-year-old storyline?
I can't tell you how happy I am to have unearthed this lifetime treasure. If nothing else, this reaffirms for me what many people have tried repeatedly to tell me for my entire life (and I usually ignore out of some sense of modesty): I'm pretty damn talented.Despite its cliched script, hackneyed illustrations and sometimes illegible print (e
ven before suffering all the water damage from hitching a ride in my school backpack on a daily basis), Groo vs. The Transformers really is me at my quintessential best. Not only was this one of the few projects of this scope in my life I have ever taken on and seen through from fruition to completion, this was also probably the last notable thing I ever did just for myself...but that's going to change, I promise!And I'm not promising you this...I'm promising me.
I knew you in 1986-87 at Orange Park Middle (and again 1988-89 at OPHS). I remember your comics including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You introduced me to George Carlin's 7 Words. Thanks for the memory by reviving your old work. Jonathan Williamson
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