The Cleverly Dumb Humor of Sergio Aragonés' Groo
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- Опубліковано 4 вер 2024
- Sergio Aragonés and his team have been making hilarious Groo comic books since the early 80s. This video gives some of Sergio's history breaking into comics, the creation and evolution of Groo and the type of humor it uses.
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My favorite gag in Groo was when someone would call him slow of mind. First time it happened he walked away and then thought a second later "Wait...what does he mean slow of mind?" It became a running gag but every time they'd do the joke they'd leave a little longer between the line and Groo realizing. Before long it was a whole scene later before he realized. After awhile the joke would come at the beginning of the book and his realization at the end. Then one day they had the setup in one issue and the payoff in the next issue. That's when they admitted they had pushed that joke as far as it could go and they had to stop doing it. Luckily there were a hundred other good jokes to take it's place.
I love that there's a comic channel that understands and appreciates the full scope of the art form, not just endless blather about Marvel character's power levels or whatever. Subscribed!
My favorite Groo quote ever is, "Groo is not afraid of living in fear!"
Did I err?
On the first day of third grade we had to draw something on our folder that made us unique and share it with the class. I drew Groo because I didn't think anyone else would have ever read an issue of the comic. It turned out my teacher was a big fan of Goo.
oh hi. You've caught me watching my favourite comic book channel... Love Groo and Aragones slapstick gags. I couldn't tell you how many hours of my childhood were spent squinting at the Marginal cartoons in Mad. I consider it time well spent.
You had me at cookie
@TechnoSloth101 I asked but he won't tell me.
I totally love Groo. I remember the days when I waited eagerly for each issue. When it came out I'd buy one from the local grocery store and then sit on the curb out front to read it. Man, I'd forgotten all about Elfquest. Found it online to read. Thanks for this video
Great video... when I was 12 I travelled to NYC and stepped into a comic store, can't remember which one, but it was amazing. The one store we had in Puerto Rico was a toy shop that also sold comics but nothing like this. I excitedly talked with my mom about everything in the store in Spanish, when this fellow called me from the back, in Spanish... he asked me where I was from and introduced himself. I knew the margin illustrations in Mad Magazine of course! But knew nothing if this bumbling barbarian Groo. My mother got me all the issues he had out and he signed the comic and did a little drawing in the margin of the first page. Meeting Sergio Aragonés was one of the highlights of my life collecting comics. Thanks for the video! Live the channel. Discovered it about a week and a half ago and must have seen about half the episodes already. Keep up the good work.
@Happy 2BeHerehe was so friendly and helpful to a young comic fan.
You were 121?
Rufferto is highly underrated. Love that damn dog.
Every episode you make keeps getting better and better. Your show is invaluable!
Agreed! They have been good the whole time too. I just found the channel & I’ve been working my way through the older ones. I haven’t been disappointed yet.
Groo is an all-time favorite among old comic readers in Brazil. Fun fact: the tittle here is "Groo, O Errante", and in portuguese, "errante" means "wanderer" but may also mean "one who makes mistakes constantly"
Matheus Vale a
@rodolfo quesada guido Yes, Sergio being native in Spanish, of course he had that play on words in mind.
Chris has done what Chris does best! Groo is my favorite all-time comic!
And what did you mean, "Slow of mind?"
Good job, Groo's an underappreciated gem these days and deserves all the exposure it can get. My favorite issue remains the one where Groo has to fight his way past the hydra, which he proceeds to defeat by cutting off so many of its ever-multiplying heads that it eventually collapses under the weight of all of them. After which he confronts Death (who he doesn't recognize, of course), briefly steals his scythe, and recommends that he eat more warm pork so he'll be less skinny.
Your intros are always hilarious
i met sergio at comix con in 2009....what a friendly and approachable artist. we share a couple of stories about mad magazine and he drew a self portrait in my comix con guide book...it was nice to finally say thank you for all the smiles and laughs he has given me...
I never saw him personally, but, Sergio looks exactly how I imagined him.
Sergio and Jack Davis were always my favorite artists to see in MAD.
I had to drive from Ohio to Iowa for my littlest sister's wedding and I spent nearly 9 hours watching/listening to your channel. I have to say, this is an excellent, wholesome, great channel, and most especially I love it because now I finally know how to pronounce all those comic book creators and artists and writers names from the 80s and especially the 90s.
I can't upvote this hard enough. One of my favorite comic books, combined with an amazing youtube channel.
I gotta tell ya, that guy really Groo on us.
Great video, I love Aragonés. I used to draw funny comics in my notebooks all through my teens, very much influenced by his technique. He --- and others like Don Martin, Bill Watterson and Gary Larson --- were very inspirational for me during my formative years. Thanks for this bit of nostalgia!
Oh, one thing - Groo does actually evolve as a character over time. The Sage taught him to read at one point and after that Groo was maybe a bit more thoughtful (and was very proud of his reading and would force people to let him read)
I think the Marvel Epic period is the series at its best. I think artwise it was probably more detailed, and I do feel the move to digital colouring later has made Sergio's artwork less rich and alive
Side note: Sadie ALWAYS perks up at the sound of your voice. 😸
Groo is my favorite comic book series ever, and it is my opinion that Sergio is the greatest living cartoonist, and is likely the greatest of all time. So: I'm a bit of a fan. I have met Sergio, at Boston Comic Con, along with Stan Sakai, and both are as great to talk with as you might hope. Also: Sergio showed me a picture of his dog that inspired the creation of Rufferto! Also Again: very jealous of that piece of Sergio art! Subscribed!
The most brilliant funny comic book ever created. I first came across Groo in the mid 80s and instantly became a fan. I only have a fraction of the entire work of Groo since back issues are hard to come by as well as later works. Would be nice if compilation books could be made.
This is awesome. Groo is super funny and incredibly illustrated. For being known as a funny cartoonist, Sergio is really an accomplished artist, drawing incredible pieces of art.
Groo, ah, one of my favorite titles that I've forgotten! I have a box of those marvel and eclipse issues that I haven't read in years, now, I shall! I'd also add that in a lot of ways, Groo and Rufferto are direct decedent's of Cervantes Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. His art is so simple and yet complex at the same time. Great overview!
Love Groo. I know this episode is about Sergio but a mention of Mark Evanier's poetic intro's and word play might have been nice... You touch on Luth's coloring - Groo is an excellent illustration of the 50's style coloring that was still in place in the 80's, later transforming into the digital age. The line art and style is so consistant, that the improvement in color is made very clear - Great episode!
What a great episode, man! Thank you for the mentioning. I just really admire your content, Chris. I’ve been tuned since the very first episode of comic tropes. It’s been a pleasure to be able to draw one of my favorite people here. Thank you and have a good one!
In computer adventure games, if the character I create is a fighter of some kind, he will usually be named Groo. Think I've done that all the way back to the Amiga days, old habits are hard to get rid of :) But it's a character I've always loved.
Btw, love the Dredd image in the background. When I first read that story, that very line just made me laugh. 'GAZE INTO THE FACE OF FEAR' - - - 'GAZE INTO THE FIST OF DREDD' . Such a classic :)
NEVER thought to even glimpse something like this BUT, it was SURPRISINGLY well done and INTERESTING! You have really got it together! Believe me, I am NOT any kind of fan but I definitely enjoyed this episode!
This one looks a lot like the French-Belgian comics I'm used to. Might actually check out one of the issues now
Thank you! This was fantastic! I came to Sergio's work via Mad (I have a large collection dating back to 1960) and been tracking down Groo now (better late than never!)
Groo fan here for almost 40 years! Just discovered your channel, really enjoying it! Thanks for this one. Groo doesn't get enough love!
Groo. One of the funniest 80s comics imo. My son also liked it. I used to read it to him when he was little and we laughed together while reading Aragones adventures of Groo. Also the Wise old man was fun to read, fitted nicely into the same timeline and Groo even made some apperances in his world.
"You're paying me for..." That kind of story goes way back.
For such a hilarious series, the times around Groo working at a library was absolutely touching.
Also, I AM The Prince of Chichester!
Thank you for this video! Groo and Sergio need MORE attention!
Yesss. Been patiently waiting for a new episode.
As a fellow spaniard I'm kind of ashamed I have yet to read any Groo (even though I've known about it since I was 11). Nitpicking, but it's pronounced Ser'-He-Oh A-ra-go-nes' (last syllable stressed). Great episode as always!
Sergio will always be one of my favorite MAD Artists. His silly artwork spoke to my dumb 8 year old brain back in 2013, and his marginals and a mad look at... will always be some of my favorite pieces of MAD
Pacific, Eclipse and Epic now those are my jams!! Sigh how I long for those days. Keep up the great work!!
Got my first epic Groo in 6th grade still reading..totally addicted.
I think Groo was the first comic I owned. Sergio Aragones has a special place in my heart.
Great video! I love GROO! I only collected it briefly but I've thought about comics I enjoyed when I was deep in collecting over two decades ago and now I want to try to get some of them again. I met Sergio at one of the cons I attended in the late 90s. Awesome and humble guy. He even drew a sketch for me.
I'm from Brazil and I'm a huge fan of your work, and a huge fan of Mr. Aragonés' work... Best episode ever! Keep up the good work, man.
I can't tell you how many hours I spent looking for the "hidden messages" in Groo. It was so fun when you found it.. but also frustrating when you spent hours looking at all the artwork just to discover they didn't do a hidden message that issue.. uggh.. lol
When I was a little kid my best friend had a dresser drawer *full* of MAD magazines. I vaguely remember, or may be imagining, a lot of advertisements for Groo at that time. We never saw the actual comics though, at least not for a few years into its existence.
I love GROO and your wonderful content, thanks for making such great stuff!
This and Bone are my all-time favorite comics
Sergio is my hero - I loved loved loved Groo growing up, and was over the moon when I got to meet him at Comicon several years ago. Thanks for a great video
We met? And you survived?
You should have included something about the secret messages hidden in the early issues
I grew up with Groo comics and even met Argones at a local comics shop once. Very cool to see this video; really takes me back!
Thanks for covering this. Groo the wanderer was my favourite book when I was growing up, even when all my friends were into the Spider-Man chronicles or something.
Hey, thanks for this! Big Groo fan! I have every issue from before 1990 including a #1 that Sergio signed for me.
I've been a fan of Groo and Aragones since way back in the 80s, but I didn't know they actually published anything after the 2000s. So now I"m gonna have to rediscover our favorite sword-wielding mendicant and his more recent adventures!
So refreshing, no he said she said, no politics. So Happy I found this channel.
Great show. I've seen Groo before but never collected his books, I didn't even know he was still around. I'm going to link this show to my show on Conan, which just came out last week. (as soon as I learn how to do that, lol)
A few years ago, I bought Marvel's Groo the Wanderer #1. I was immediately hooked and have been a huge fan ever since.
I think people should be talking more about Sergio....This is officially one of my favorite videos you have done!
Thanks for this Grooview. Have issues 1-30 and still following his misploits!
Great channel! You hooked me with the Death of Kraven episode. This is my favorite comic series ever. Great art powerful writing. Keep up the great work! PS can you recognize Gmail profile picture?
About the cheese dip and "mendicant". Sergio talked about those as running jokes. His definition of a running joke was to take something inherent unfunny and repeat it until by shear repetition it becomes funny...watch David Letterman to see how this works.
i just finished bingewatching all your episodes and im so glad i found your channel , i really needed in my life videos that talked about comics but in a more analytic way that broke down its essentials ,and i couldnt find something like that anywhere else until now , your got a great sense of humor and i like how you dont shy away either of pointing out problematic aspects of a comic , which is fundamental to enjoy it with full critical thinking , as an aspiring comic artist myself this also has been a great resource tool for me to take notes about writing and drawing techniques, so , thank you very much ! keep up the great content !!!
I love, love, love Groo, so thank you for this episode!
Groo is like a finely aged cheese dip.
Your intros are so fucking unpredictable I don't know how you do it
Wow this deserves a thumbs up. I really enjoyed watching. Your in-depth knowledge on Sergio Argones and Groo is invaluable.
I was a huge fan of Gru when he first came out! I bought the first few issues, and probably have them in storage somewhere...
Props for the "Mad World" [sic] footage.
Great video. Loved Sergio in Mad growing up as I always looked forward to find his cool little hidden gems. The Jodorowsky link blew me away. This also made me realize the similarities between Spanish artists and their infatuation and influence of The Ingenious Nobleman Sir Quixote of La Mancha. Great insight and cheers!
I remember getting the first issue of epic comics Groo, it was so different from anything I was reading at the time. Great memories.
I've witnessed Sergio interact with fans a couple of times. He's a true gentleman.
Haven't read any Groo since I was a kid, always was a fan. Another great informative comic tropes video. Keep us the good work Chris and thanks as always
I loved Groo SO much! It definitely helped shepherd me through junior high with my sense of humor intact.
I remember GROO! Thanks for the background, Chris. 😃
Groo remembers you. You were tasty cheese dip, right?
I have been collecting GROO since the first issue of his own title at Pacific (missed his first appearances in DESTROYER DUCK and STARSLAYER). I met Sergio Aragones at a very small convention in Montreal in the 1980's and he actually signed by and drew cartoons in several books for free! I had a couple of Mad pocket book collections of his stuff, a Groo comic book or two and an album (TPB) published in Europe about a fireman character (can't remember the name and can't find it at the moment (must be in storage). He was very friendly, and so very fast at drawing! It was amazing to watch him draw cartoons directly in ink without hesitation as if he was tracing over an invisible sketch.
I'm glad my late father left me with Groo the Wanderer comic book, with all the collection I think but might missed some of it.
I was a huge groo fan as a kid... sergio’s my hero haha, thanks for the video, Groo’s definitely an under-appreciated gem!
Love your show, Chris! Great episode!
I love Aragonés's stuff so much, ever since I started buying Mad mags down here in Brazil, and I saw his marginals, they're so much fun. He's one of those comic book artists whose work is just so solid and wholesome. When I was a kid I would look forward to reading those tiny little edge of the page comics more than anything else inside of those magazines. He's really one of the greatests.
Perhaps, to me, the best illustration of cleverly dumb humour was "Pigs and Apples". `I read this at around 14, and I am now almost 50 and I still think about it on a regular basis, as it is a great reflection on the world today. Aragones was a very insightful man.
I love Groo! I wish they would finally put a complete library edition together, I only own a few single issues and TPBs. There's so much Groo out there! I prefer the single-issue-stories though. They are perfect stand-alone comic books, which is still my favorite format for my favorite storytelling medium :) Maybe because I grew up with Carl Barks and classic european albums. Groo fits perfectly in there, I didn't know that Aragonés got the idea by looking at european stuff- makes a lotta sense!
Groo fits perfectly. I accept your compliment.
The wonderful thing about Groo is you can pick up any issue and get right into it and not have to read the previous 5 to 10 issues to understand what is going on. Even the 2-4 issue multi-parter and only read one issue, you get your money's worth.
Great video! Sergio is my favourite artist and it's great to see his work appreciated by others.
Thanks for talking about Sergio and the epic of GROO! Special note, Monkey Punch(creator of Lupin the Third) was influenced by Serio's art ! Take a look at his early works and you'll see!
hey! Sheena was my great aunt Irish McCalla. didnt expect to see her in a video about Groo
I know you don't do a lot of manga, but I'd love to see an episode on either Hirohiko Araki and how his art has changed over the years, or Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira and what it did for science fiction manga.
Awesome recommendation and video !!! Come on peeps, if you're not already doing so, join the Comic Tropes Patreon! Worth every penny
:-)
Thanks for this, I especially enjoy the extra nuggets that I wasn't expecting when I decided to watch, the history lesson on Pacific Comics and Epic Comics as an example. Alien Legion was one of my favorite titles in the late 80's....I just learned through Dan Ekis and Gregery Miller that Carl Potts is still working on Alien Legion and teaches comic art in NY.
i have a large groo collection groo is one of the things my son used to learn how to read. at the young age of 64 i still read groo
Actually, the original guy who did the coloring was Gordon Kent. But he couldn't cope with the amount Sergio drew. Small details, but still noteworthy.
Thanks for the video. Great information on Sergio. 👍👍👍
When I was a kid, I’d never branched into any humour comics. There was a joke on Futurama about Fry showing his awful comic to Sergio Aragones and I decided to learn about his work. He is now one of my favourite people working in comics.
So many fond memories of Groo...
My fav is the "Garbage" issue.
Well, that and "Pigs and Apples"
Despite decades of hard-won progress, we continually find ourselves fighting the same battles: artists are still overworked, underpaid, and they still have to fight tooth and nail just for the smallest slice of the pie despite the fact that without them there would be no pie
thanks for another great video; Sergio have here, in Argentina, a huge amount of fans, since the days of the local edition of Mad ( an interesting history itself, as it was in 1977, when the military dictatorship was just at the beginning! they had to deal with censorship from them and the church, due to one satiric page they didn't like... well, something common in those days!)
Among the local cartoonists he and Groo are living legends!
So many good artists all meeting with this man, its just awesome! Alejandro jodorowsky, Prohias
Kinda reminds me of Larry Gonick's work with the cartoon history series. It's tremendously funny.
Damn, I'm from Valencia just like Sergio Aragonés and I never heard of him. Thank you so much for this!
¡Hola! Aquí otro seguidor español de Comic Tropes 🤘
@@TheDecatonkeil El mejor canal
the running gags in the reader letters pages
I liked Groo as a kid, but honestly only had limited exposure to the comic. I learned a LOT from this video.
I love Groo, but anytime I buy an issue, I immediately flip to the back for the Rufferto strip!