Groo the Wanderer #6 - Video Review by 80s Comics

Welcome back to 80s Comics for the review of Groo the Wanderer issue number six. Love the cover. Groo the Wanderer from August of 1985. A thrilling issue filled with action, adventure, violence, cross‑dressing, and nudity. All of that for 75 cents. Unless you lived in Canada, then it was a dollar. Love the way Sergio Aragonés draws water in a wave effect. That’s actually really cool. Look at the crabs. Look at the crabs. And the starfish.

So Groo crash‑lands and wanders into this city. A city without any cheese dip. Incredible amounts of detail in the artwork here. This is a great issue to admire. Hey, Oreos. Look at that. Look at the Oreos. Someone has stolen the Eye of Kabula and the town has suffered disasters ever since. Plagues, pestilence, poverty. They must end. Return the ruby and you shall be well rewarded. And of course Groo’s pretty excited about this. A quest.

So Groo travels to the next village looking for this Eye of Kabula, which is a ruby. He has to remind himself on the way: brains before swords, brains before swords, brains before swords, swords before brains, swords before brains.

All the kids are making fun of him, calling him names. Eventually Groo locates the ruby. The ruby is in the possession of King Ogite. Groo tries to fight his way in to see the king, but the king has a lot of guards and drives Groo back. So Groo comes up with another plan — actually, these people come up with a plan for Groo — to dress him up as a woman and offer him for sale to the king. It’s 1985.

Groo’s upset when they don’t pick him. Eventually, though, he does get selected and joins the king’s harem. He’s pretty excited about this. Admire that panel. That one just slipped right through the sensors. Naturally the king picks him because he’s the feisty one.

But before we continue the story, check this out: Spider‑Man Puffy Stickers. Remember Puffy Stickers They were awesome. They were like regular stickers except puffy. That just made them somewhat more exciting. And sometimes you’d try to peel them off things and you’d rip the top part of the sticker off but the bottom part would still remain stuck to whatever it was sticking to.

We get what I assume must be another Life of Brian reference — really one of the greatest movies ever made. Eventually Groo escapes with the ruby and brings death, disaster, and destruction back to the town that lost the ruby in the first place. But what’s really good about this issue, in addition to the fact that it’s hilarious, is the intricate detail in every panel. This one has a lot of really nice artwork.

The Monty Python influence is strong in this. “Groo, danger lurks most often when you have an eye out for it.” Look, there’s even an ad where you can win an Apple IIe computer system with 128K memory.

On the back cover, it’s Groo the Wanderer issue number six — another hilarious, inappropriate, and thoroughly entertaining issue of Groo, one of the best 1980s comic book series. Highly recommended here on 80sComics.com.