Tom Luth

Groo the Wanderer is a Fantasy/comedy comic book character created by Sergio Aragonés.

His stories are written and drawn by Aragonés, dialogued and edited by Mark Evanier, lettered by Stan Sakai and colored by Tom Luth.

Over the years, Groo has been published by Pacific Comics, Eclipse Comics (one special issue), Marvel Comics (under its Epic imprint), Image Comics and Dark Horse Comics.

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.

Groo (the epithet "the Wanderer" is informal and rarely mentioned within the stories) first appeared as a parody of the brutal sword and sorcery heroes who 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), he delights in combat but otherwise 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 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 appear to be a pair of katanas.

Groo loves these frays, as he calls them, and often charges into 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

In 2011 IGN ranked Groo 100th in the "Top 100 comic books heroes".