As was fairly common for Groo, he was lost, which implies he was heading somewhere with purpose. Although he's too slow to catch any lizards for supper, his trusty companion Rufferto catches several; and they meet some fellow travelers, who have their own dog, Oso. What kind of dog Rufferto was supposed to be, I don't recall; but Oso is obviously a pit bull-ish type, and seems a bit quick-tempered.
Dinner is interrupted by a fray, as a posse has caught up with the travelers, who were a band of bandits. Groo restrains himself from hurting the posse, since he was no criminal, and then captures the bandits. Rufferto and Oso had been hunting lizards, and are separated from their masters, and have to track them down.
In the usual roundabout fashion, Groo ends up with a new job, taking the bandits to another town's jail. That jail was full up though, so Groo was going to have to take them back. Eventually realizing Groo was somehow too stupid to be talked into letting them go, and so dumb tricking him would only backfire, the bandits lament their life of crime. Which gives Groo a surprisingly decent idea!
Groo eventually is found by Rufferto and Oso, the latter of whom would stick around for another issue or two.
I don't always buy Groo new off the racks, but picked up the last few issues: it's damning with faint praise, but it's consistent as all get out. I don't think I've ever read a really off one, and they're up to what Marvel legacy numbering would ballpark as #196! Man, I hope they've got another couple hundred in them.
2 comments:
That's going to be an ever-growing issue with certain characters from that era; any negative stereotype in a story will automatically have said story either removed or outright banned from ever being reprinted, thus making the secondary market very profitable for those who have copies of those now banned works.
Looks like even Scrooge McDuck isn't immune to progress.
I only owned one random issue of Groo from the 80's. I don't remember the title, but Groo thought Raffino was dead and likewise until their tearful reunion at the very end.
I know animation isn't a priority for either owners of Marvel & DC respectively, but the Groo character & art style does tend to make him an ideal choice for an animated series. I'm sure the 90's would've been a more ideal time for that one to happen, as Groo would certainly NOT be out of place amongst the Ticks or Sam & Max's of the cartoon world.
The weird part is the whole point of one of the stories was how wrong it was of Scrooge to cheat the natives like he did and how the original story was a sort of old shame for Disney. That doesn't stop them from releasing Floyd Gottfredson Mickey stories with similar problems though. Sorta reminds me of those people who try to ban Huck Finn every once in a while.
Also, they did a version of the Bombie story in the recent Ducktales series- wonder what changed since then?
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