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50-532: Groo was among the first widely successful creator-owned comics creations, one of the few successful humorous series in the United States (outside Archie Comics ), and is one of the longest-running collaborations in comic book history. In 2011 IGN ranked Groo 100th in the "Top 100 comic books heroes". Groo (the epithet "the Wanderer" is informal and rarely mentioned within the stories) first appeared as

100-505: A Groo / Conan crossover (both titles are published by Dark Horse). The project encountered a number of postponements; although two issues had been completed by the spring of 2011, the series was further delayed because of a backache suffered by Aragonés. The book finally saw print in July 2014, with Aragonés and writer Mark Evanier working with artist Thomas Yeates, who drew the Conan portions of

150-463: A legal battle over creator rights; a four-page story contributed by Aragonés featured Groo's first published appearance. A few months later, Groo appeared in a two-page preview ad and the back cover art in Starslayer #4, published by Pacific Comics . The second Groo story appearance was in a five-page backup story in Starslayer #5. In 1982, Pacific Comics began publishing Groo the Wanderer as

200-643: A parody of Ronia, the Robber's Daughter , the "gray dwarves" pestering Ronia had become "Groo dwarves". Sergio Aragonés received the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award for 1996 for his work on Groo and Mad magazine. In 2009, Groo: Hell on Earth was nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Limited Series . The comic protagonist of the same name has also received positive reviews. Wizard ranked him as

250-590: A parody of the brutal sword and sorcery heroes that were popular at the time of his creation in the 1970s, especially Conan the Barbarian as presented in Marvel Comics . Groo is a large-nosed buffoon of unsurpassed stupidity who constantly misunderstands his surroundings. Possessed of superlative skills in swordsmanship (the only task at which he is remotely competent, apart from his knack for creating musical instruments), he delights in combat but otherwise

300-859: A prominent example of creator-owned comics publishing. Propelled by star power and upset that they did not own the popular characters they created for Marvel, several illustrators, including the X-Men ' s Jim Lee , The New Mutants / X-Force ' s Rob Liefeld , and Spider-Man ' s Todd McFarlane formed Image, an umbrella label under which several autonomous, creator-owned companies existed. Image properties, such as WildC.A.T.s , Gen , Witchblade and especially McFarlane's Spawn provided brisk competition for long-standing superheroes. Many popular creators followed Image's lead and attempted to use their star power to launch their own series; ones for which they would have licensing rights and editorial control. Chris Claremont , famous for his long run as

350-516: A regular series. Pacific faced various financial difficulties and was only able to publish eight issues of the title. With Pacific unable to publish new material, a one-shot issue of material that was originally written for them (titled the Groo Special ) was instead published by Eclipse. When Groo was published by Pacific, he was not portrayed as a bumbling idiot. In fact, one issue had him use his brains to create sophisticated traps and his speech

400-425: Is a peaceable and honest fellow who tries to make his way through life as a mercenary or by working odd jobs. He is incredibly accident prone, and despite generally good intentions causes mass destruction wherever he goes. Most of his adventures end with him either oblivious to the mayhem he has wrought or fleeing an angry mob. His penchant for destruction has become so widely known that just the news of Groo approaching

450-552: Is dead. The following is a sample of the thousands of characters Groo has encountered: Groo's adventures take place in an environment that generally resembles Medieval Europe , although his travels have also taken him to places that resemble Africa , Indonesia , Japan , the Middle East , and elsewhere. In addition to regular flora and fauna, dragons and other legendary creatures occasionally appear, and several cultures use dinosaur -like creatures as beasts of burden. Over

500-478: Is sometimes enough to cause chaos among the population. Groo occasionally meets with respect and good fortune, but it does not last. Businesses, towns, civilizations, and cultures have all been unwittingly destroyed by Groo. Such is Groo's incompetence that so much as his stepping onto a ship can cause it to sink. Groo has slain entire armies with nothing more than his swords, which are a pair of katanas . Groo loves these frays, as he calls them, and often charges into

550-553: The DC Universe . In 1994, Dark Horse Comics founded the Legend imprint in part to provide star creators like Frank Miller and John Byrne an avenue for creator-owned projects. Destroyer Duck Destroyer Duck was an anthology comic book published by Eclipse Comics in 1982, as well as the title of its primary story, written by Steve Gerber and featuring artwork by Jack Kirby and Alfredo Alcala . The book

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600-591: The Herald owned the Buster Brown name and title and the copyright on the strips it published, but the characters themselves were too intangible to qualify for copyright or trademark. This freed Outcault to continue the strip in the American as long as he did not use the Buster Brown name. Creator-owned titles began to appear during the late-1960s underground comix movement; these themes were exemplified in

650-440: The comic book creator retains full ownership of the material, regardless of whether the work is self-published or published by a corporate publisher. In some fields of publishing , such as fiction writing , creator ownership has historically been standard. In other fields—such as comics, recorded music , or motion pictures —creator ownership has traditionally been uncommon, with either work for hire or publisher purchase of

700-619: The "Local 2 — Milwaukee" branch of the UCWA, and the UCWA brand appeared on a number of comix from that era. Cartoonists' Co-Op Press was a 1973–1974 self-publishing venture by cartoonists Griffith, Spiegelman, Kim Deitch , Jerry Lane, Jay Lynch , Willy Murphy , and Diane Noomin . Like Rip Off Press, it was founded as an alternative to the existing underground publishers, which were perceived as not being honest with their accounting practices. The short-lived genre publisher Atlas/Seaboard Comics , which operated from 1974 to 1975, offered some of

750-475: The 135th-greatest comic book character of all time, while IGN ranked Groo as the 100th-greatest comic book hero of all time stating that "while he may not be the brightest bulb on the battlefield, Groo is an earnest and kind-hearted adventurer whose travels are never short on laughs and adventure". Creator ownership In the United States , creator ownership in comics is an arrangement in which

800-532: The Bill included giving creators proper credit for their characters and stories, profit-sharing, distribution, fair contracts, licensing, and return of original artwork. Through a series of meetings, a document was finalized at the "Northampton Summit" held in Northampton, Massachusetts , and signed by all in attendance. Scott McCloud was the principal author of the Bill; other artists and writers participating in

850-545: The Bill's creation included Dave Sim , Steve Bissette , Larry Marder , Rick Veitch , Peter Laird , and Kevin Eastman . In the end, however, many prominent comic book professionals, including some involved in its drafting, hold that the Creator's Bill of Rights itself had little or no impact on the industry. In 1990, Creator's Bill of Rights signatory Kevin Eastman founded the creator-friendly Tundra Publishing to embody

900-629: The Duck writer Steve Gerber clashed over issues of creative control, and Gerber was abruptly removed from the series. This was the first highly publicized creator's rights case in American comics, and attracted support from major industry figures. Gerber subsequently launched a lengthy legal battle for control of Howard the Duck, culminating in a 1981 lawsuit. In 1980 , Marvel created the mature readers anthology Epic Illustrated , offering its writers and artists ownership rights and royalties in place of

950-534: The Marvel/Epic run, was usually a polysyllabic title that changed every issue (examples from the first eight issues of volume 2: Interpreter, Interlocutor, Cryptographer, Amanuensis, Construer, Verbalizer, Articulator, Scholiast). His actual function, as revealed at the end of issue #6 of volume 2, was to interpret Aragones's broken English storytelling to write the dialog. Caricatures of Aragonés, Evanier, Sakai, and Luth often appear as background characters within

1000-498: The artist, who can earn additional income from art sales to collectors. Beginning in the 1980s, several new publishers and imprints went into business, offering comics writers and artists the opportunity to have their work published while retaining the copyrights to the characters and the stories. Publishers like Pacific Comics and Eclipse Comics were strong promoters of creator-owned superhero properties; their enticement of popular creators (such as Kirby) to their pages helped push

1050-499: The artists to retain their original artwork, giving creators the option to gain extra income by selling the pages to collectors. Nonetheless, Warren Publishing retained all creator's rights. As James Warren once told artist Bernie Wrightson : . . . I don't own the originals but I do own the rights. That means everything. Every printing right imaginable. Do what you want with the originals—put 'em in your closet, hang 'em on your wall, give 'em away, sell 'em, but, if you sell your work and

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1100-703: The book. The character of the Groosalugg in the TV series Angel is generally called "Groo" by other characters, and is a somewhat naïve wandering barbarian hero who is a highly skilled swordsman. In Norway, the magazine Pyton once parodied the comic by placing the Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland in the role of Groo, as a pun on her name. Also in Norway, when the local version of Mad magazine ran

1150-428: The company's mistreatment of him. Best-selling creators like Alan Moore , Frank Miller , and many other stars became vocal advocates for Kirby. Neal Adams also petitioned to have his Marvel originals returned, and the pair won their battle in 1987, when Marvel returned original artwork to him and Kirby, among others. This decision helped lead to the modern industry's standard practice of returning original artwork to

1200-472: The cover of the final issue. The seven issues of the comic were published very sporadically. Issue #1 of the original Destroyer Duck series, labeled the "Special Lawsuit Benefit Edition", is notable for containing the first appearance of Sergio Aragonés ’s Groo the Wanderer and also featuring additional stories by Mark Evanier , Dan Spiegle , Shary Flenniken , Martin Pasko , and Joe Staton . The rest of

1250-448: The first issue Groo remarks "the marvels of the world are but images before me". When Image in turn faced legal problems after publishing twelve issues, the title switched to Dark Horse Comics in 1998. Dark Horse did not publish the title as a regular series, but periodically released new material and reprints as miniseries and collections. At the 2007 WonderCon , the creators revealed that since 2005 they had been trying to produce

1300-576: The formation of Rip Off Press , the United Cartoon Workers of America (UCWA), and Cartoonists' Co-Op Press . Rip Off Press was founded in 1969 by four men—two of whom were cartoonists Gilbert Shelton and Jack Jackson —as a sort of cartoonists' cooperative , an alternative publishing venue to burgeoning Bay Area publishers like the Print Mint , Apex Novelties , and Company & Sons . The United Cartoon Workers of America

1350-530: The ground. In addition, Adams, along with the Joker creator Jerry Robinson , notably and vocally helped lead the lobbying efforts that resulted in Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster receiving decades-overdue credit and some financial remuneration from Superman publisher DC Comics . Marvel Comics had a mixed history of responding to the issue of creator's rights. In 1978, Marvel and Howard

1400-407: The guy you sell it to sells it to the next guy and he sells it to the next guy and he sells it to the next guy—all the way down the line—and if the 17th guy who buys it, prints it somewhere without my permission, I'm going to hold you responsible. By 1975 or 1976, both DC and Marvel also began returning artists' original pages to them. During the 1970s, artist Neal Adams was politically active in

1450-440: The highest rates in the industry, plus return of artwork to artists and author rights to original character creations. Up to the mid-1970s, most comic book publishers kept all original pages, in some cases destroying them in lieu of storing them safely. By 1974, James Warren 's Warren Publishing began changing the industry's work-for-hire dynamic by offering higher page-rates than DC Comics or Marvel Comics , and allowing

1500-451: The ideals of the Bill from a publishers' standpoint. As part of the initial group who "got together to form the" Bill, Eastman felt obligated to expand it beyond theory and into practice, providing a creator-friendly forum for comics creators to work for a publisher while maintaining ownership of their work. Tundra went bankrupt in 1993. In 1992, a number of popular Marvel artists formed their own company, Image Comics , which would serve as

1550-582: The industry, and attempted to unionize its creative community. Adams attempted to form the Comics Creators Guild , with a contentious meeting in May 1978 attended by Cary Bates , Howard Chaykin , Chris Claremont , Steve Ditko , Michael Golden , Archie Goodwin , Paul Levitz , Bob McLeod , Frank Miller , Carl Potts , Marshall Rogers , Jim Shooter , Walt Simonson , Jim Starlin , Len Wein , and Marv Wolfman . The effort failed to get off

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1600-528: The industry-standard work for hire contracts. The success of Epic Illustrated led to the 1982 formation of the long-running imprint Epic Comics , which specialized in creator-owned titles. Around this same period, however, industry legend Jack Kirby , co-creator of many of Marvel's most popular characters, came into dispute with the company over the disappearance of original pages of artwork from some of his most famous and popular titles. Kirby had quit working for Marvel in 1979, angry over what he perceived as

1650-399: The issue to the fore and put pressure on industry giants Marvel and DC. The alternative and independent publishers Fantagraphics and Dark Horse Comics entered the field during this period as well. Creator-owned properties allowed series to continue with multiple publishers as circumstances required; Usagi Yojimbo for instance has been published by four succeeding publishing houses. In

1700-523: The lack of creator's rights in British comics. In 1985, he noted that he had stopped working for all British publishers except IPC , publishers of 2000 AD , "purely for the reason that IPC so far have avoided lying to me, cheating me or generally treating me like crap". He joined other creators in decrying the wholesale relinquishing of all rights, and in 1986 stopped writing for 2000 AD as well. Moore's outspoken opinions and principles, particularly on

1750-439: The lettering, after which Aragonés does the final artwork, including the word balloons. Finally, Luth does the coloring. Evanier also answers the letters page, something he takes special pride in, since the practice in mainstream comics is to pass this task off to low-level assistants, something he did not know when his own letters as a teenage fan were published. He claims that no one knows what he does. His official credit, during

1800-572: The material being standard practice. This article traces the changing standards of the comic book industry. In 1906, Richard F. Outcault took his creation Buster Brown from the New York Herald to the New York American . Outcault had not applied for a copyright to Buster Brown, but asserted a "common-law title"—what comics historian Don Markstein asserted is one of the earliest claims to creators' rights. The court decided

1850-472: The melee with a cry of "Now Groo does what Groo does best!" He is indiscriminate in the use of his battle skills, usually leaping into the bloodshed before attempting to ascertain the reasons for the fight, or even who is on what side. Even when Groo does join battle intending to fight for a particular side, he is prone to forget which side he is on or be tricked into fighting his unfortunate allies, often causing him to utter "Did I err?" in confusion once everybody

1900-468: The mid-to-late 1980s, creator ownership became a cause célèbre among many comics creators, including those working in the dominant genre of superheroes . Creators' repeated clashes with DC Comics , First Comics , and other publishers led to an industry-wide debate about the issue; and in the fall of 1988, DC revised the company's work-for-hire agreements to give more power to individual creators. Writer Alan Moore became increasingly concerned at

1950-439: The series contained the back-up feature The Starling , written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel , with art by Val Mayerik . In 1994, while Gerber was working at Image for Top Cow Studio on Codename: Strykeforce , Gerber planned for issue #14 to include Destroyer Duck. At the last minute, Marc Silvestri declined, forcing Gerber and his editor, David Wohl , to revise the story. Destroyer Duck does not appear as such in

2000-414: The star of the backup story. In all, 93 of these Rufferto one page stories were printed. Aragonés created the character of Groo in the late 1970s. At that time no comic book company would allow creators to retain the rights to their characters, and Aragonés did not wish to surrender those rights. In 1981, a comic book, Destroyer Duck #1, was published by Eclipse Comics as a benefit to raise money for

2050-521: The start, Vertigo founding editor Karen Berger was committed to creator-owned projects, working on several "[her]self with new writers and artists" as well as established names, with the express intention of "trying to bring new people into the industry, as well as use some of the best creators in comics". In addition to creator-owned series set in their own continuity , such as Enigma and Fallen Angel , DC published several creator-owned series, such as Sovereign Seven and Xero , that were set within

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2100-619: The stories, sometimes with family members. Evanier and Sakai are also the role models for the characters Weaver and Scribe. Rufferto was based on Aragonés's own dog named Rufferto, who is actually more mottled than spotted. Starting with issue #87 of Marvel's ongoing Groo series, issues of Groo ended with a wordless one page gag involving Groo's dog Rufferto. When the Groo comic went to Image and Dark Horse comics, these one-page Rufferto stories continued. In one instance (Groo issue #9 from Image Comics) Rufferto's brother Arfetto replaced Rufferto as

2150-457: The subject of creator's rights and ownership, would see him burn bridges with a number of other publishers over the course of his career. In November 1988 , a number of independent comic book artists and writers drafted the Creator's Bill of Rights , a document designed to protect their rights as creators and aid against their exploitation by corporate work for hire practices. Issues covered by

2200-539: The tale of how he was exploited and destroyed by a thoughtless conglomeration, "Godcorp." Swearing revenge, Duke vowed to take down Godcorp no matter what the cost. Subsequent Destroyer Duck tales would reveal that the Little Guy who died at Duke's feet was in fact a clone, and the original was still held captive by Godcorp; eventually, Gerber (by that point on better terms with Marvel, the lawsuit having long since been settled) revealed that The Little Guy's real name

2250-485: The writer of Uncanny X-Men , created Sovereign Seven for DC ; Joe Madureira , also made popular by Uncanny X-Men , launched Battle Chasers for WildStorm Productions ; and Kurt Busiek , Alex Ross , and Brent Anderson created Astro City for Image. DC's Vertigo imprint, launched in 1993, was the company's first successful attempt to routinely publish creator-owned series (right from its launch with Peter Milligan and Duncan Fegredo 's Enigma ). From

2300-627: The years, Groo has also encountered several "non-human" cultures such as the Kalelis and the Drazil. The currency in Groo's world is usually the Kopin. Although many technologies and peoples in Groo appear ancient, more modern innovations such as the printing press can be found as well. Groo is initially plotted and drawn by Sergio Aragonés , and Mark Evanier then writes the dialog. Sakai then does

2350-465: Was actually "Leonard" - a new duck character that, for all intents and purposes, was identical in every way (except in name and character ownership) to Howard. The stories introduced sentient scented dolls and Wobblina Strangelegs, who nearly got her own one-shot . After five issues, Gerber gave up writing the title, but remained its editor . Buzz Dixon wrote the last two issues, about a STD -infected parody of Gilligan’s Island . Frank Miller drew

2400-604: Was an informal union organized in 1970 by cartoonists Robert Crumb , Justin Green , Bill Griffith , Nancy Griffith, Art Spiegelman , Spain Rodriguez , Roger Brand , and Michele Brand . Members of the UCWA agreed that all cartoonists would demand the same rate per page of comics, whether they were stars like Crumb or being published for the first time. They also agreed to not work for any publisher who had "cheated" other cartoonists. Dennis Kitchen 's Kitchen Sink Press formed

2450-574: Was published as a way to help Gerber raise funds for a lawsuit he was embroiled in at the time, in which he was battling industry giant Marvel Comics over the ownership of the character Howard the Duck , which Gerber created for the company in 1973. The main story of the comic told of Louis "Duke" Duck, a resident of a typical anthropomorphic comic-book world, who had witnessed his best friend, identified only as "The Little Guy" or "TLG", vanish into thin air before his eyes. Some years later, TLG reappeared only to die at Duke's feet—but not before telling

2500-406: Was similar to Conan the Barbarian 's. Aragonés and Evanier eventually negotiated a deal with Epic Comics, an imprint of Marvel Comics, for that company to take care of publication while preserving creator rights. This resulted in the longest run of Groo the Wanderer with 120 issues. In 1994, with Marvel facing financial difficulties, the title switched to Image Comics and was retitled Groo . In

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