Pigs and Apples (Groo the Wanderer #9) ★★★✬☆

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Pigs and Apples
Series: Groo the Wanderer #9
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 23
Words: 2K

Synopsis:

The Sage narrates an adventure he and Groo had. There were 2 villages. One held that apples were sacred and not to be eaten and the other held that pigs were sacred and not to be eaten. Groo goes hungry but the Sage tells him a way to get all the food he eats, ie, to incite war between the villages. Groo plays both sides off the other and eats all the apples and pigs he wants. Only to find out that the ban on them both was because they were all poisonous. Everyone gets really sick.

The Sage is lauhing his head off while telling the tale at an inn and has just finished an apple and pork dumpling. The mistress of the inn asks the name of the Sage’s companion in the story and tells them it was “Groo”. She screams “but Groo just sold us all these pigs and apples”. Upon hearing this, everyone in the inn promptly gets sick.

My Thoughts:

Close to the best Groo story so far. I was worried when it started out with the Sage narrating as I don’t like his character, but the story was all about Groo so that was ok.

Of course, I should have seen the ending coming a mile away but since I didn’t it was a hilarious and yet entirely “Groo” ending.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

• All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews

The Treasure of Kantor (Groo the Wanderer #8) ★★★✬☆

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Treasure of Kantor
Series: Groo the Wanderer #8
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 24
Words: 2K

Synopsis:

Groo runs into an old “friend” at the ruins of Kantor. Said friend has betrayed Groo 20 times before but swears he won’t do it again. He wants Groo to guard him and his crew as they loot the burial ground of the Kantors, who are giant ape warriors.

Groo fights the Kantors and runs a patrol off. He also finds the treasure but his “friend” tricks him and runs off with the whole treasure. They run into the rest of the Kantors who enslave them. Groo returns with the king who hired the “friend” and the issue ends with them about to run into the Kantors as well.

The moral of this issue is “When you double cross a friend, you triple-cross yourself”.

My Thoughts:

Ahhhh, good stuff! Groo beats the stuffing out of giant warrior apes and yet is fooled for the 21^st time by a supposed “friend”. Groo might be mighty but by gum, is he stupid!

That brawn and simplicity is what makes this so amusing though. Also, the badguys always get what is coming to them in one way or another. I love that!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

• All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews

The Ivory Graveyard (Groo the Wanderer #7) ★★★✬☆

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Ivory Graveyard
Series: Groo the Wanderer #7
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 24
Words: 2K

Synopsis:

This has two stories, one about Groo and one about a character named the Sage.

The Groo story has Groo first defending a group of poachers and then trying to kill them all. They sail away on a boat and Groo’s luck with boats is known so nobody will help him. He hears the legend about the elephant graveyard and seeks it out to sell the ivory to buy cheese dip. He finds it and the story ends with a dying elephant falling onto his head.

The Sage gives a child a candy and makes him feel better and some city guards see it and think he is a great physician. They take him to the palace and the queen tells the Sage to heal the King, who is very sick, or she will torture him to death. The Sage finds the king dead in bed. Instead of panicking, he locks the door, starts hollering about how he’s healed the king and then throws the body out of the window. Thus ensuring that the death of the king wouldn’t fall on his head.

My Thoughts:

This was once again a little amusing interlude to break up the day. The most amusing parts to me were when Groo was trying to hire a boat to chase the poachers and ended up sinking one boat in 4 seconds and another instance of a guy chopping up his own boat “to save time”, hahahahaa. Of course, the final panel is just priceless. How can you not laugh at that irony?

The Sage story wasn’t as funny but the twisted thinking of the Sage (throwing the dead king out the window to fake the king’s death) really aligned with me and brought a smile to my face. I have no idea if he’ll start sharing page time with Groo or if this was just a one-off that Aragones needed to get off of his chest. Personally, while I like Groo better, having 2 stories for the price of 1 is nice and adds just enough variety to keep things interesting. Of course, if the Sage keeps showing up and keeps thinking empty-headed aphorisms all the time, I reserve the right to change my head and want to behead him with a wakizashi 😉

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

• All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews