This July, it’s two swords, one book as Sergio Aragonés’ silly wanderer meets Robert E. Howard’s cunning barbarian in Groo vs. Conan #1.
The first in a three-part miniseries from Dark Horse Comics, the book is a collaboration between Mark Evanier and Aragonés. Evanier is a comics industry veteran with credits on “silly” books like Marvel’s late-70s Flintstones comics and, believe it or not, an issue of Welcome Back, Kotter back in 1977 (don’t ever stop being weird, licensed comics).
From the publisher:
“It had to happen: The most heroic warrior in history meets the stupidest as Robert E. Howard’s immortal Conan the Barbarian crosses swords with Sergio Aragonés’s Groo the Wanderer in Groo vs. Conan #1. This four-issue miniseries was concocted by Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragonés, aided by illustrator Thomas Yeates and colorist Tom Luth. Will Conan annihilate Groo? Will Groo turn out to be the man who can defeat Conan? We’ll see.”
This isn’t the first collaboration between Evanier and Aragonés: the writer and artist teamed up several times in the 80s Groo miniseries and specials as the book made its way from from publisher Pacific, to Epic, and later Eclipse. The character made his way to Dark Horse in the late ’90s after a mild tangle of rights issues saw Image Comics having to divest itself of the rights to the book. Groo vs. Conan has been in discussion for years now (since 2012, actually), and almost seemed like one of those projects that just was doomed to not happen.
Luckily for us, the first issue of Groo vs. Conan is on sale July 23.
