Groo Meets Tarzan is something I never knew I needed until I read it. I’ve read loads of Groo The Wanderer comics growing up but it’s been quite a while since I read any adventures of the cheese dip-loving idiot swordsman and his faithful dog, Rufferto. And by that same line, I’ve never read a Tarzan story. Never Ever.

Groo Meets Tarzan #1 opens at the 2021 San Diego Comic-Con. You know, the one that didn’t happen. Fans are rushing to meet Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragones, only it’s not for their creations but for being mistaken for other creations, which is really heating up Sergio. But the talk goes to the creation of a story, one where Tarzan and Groo meet each other. Sergio has booked this trip to a sketchy wildlife preserve to help gain some needed insight into the project. As nighttime takes Sergio to his dreams, the story is that of Tarzan, strong and reliable, chasing down slavers. The flipside is that of Groo and Rufferto, known to cause destruction wherever they go, being led to cheese dip where it won’t actually be. Both of these characters are well on their way to a meeting.

The writing on Groo Meets Tarzan blends fantasy action and comedy very well and maybe better than probably anyone would. Evanier has written Groo for many, many years but he got his work doing a lot of other, more serious work, and I think that even reading Groo as long as I have, I have more-or-less forgotten that he can do serious and do it well. All the comedy works (for me) as I was a long-time reader of Groo and I think the Groo reader probably has the easier time with this. It feels more like a Groo story.

Artistically speaking, this book blends the Thomas Yeates art nicely with Sergio Aragones’ work. This issue has all of Tarzan’s stuff by Yeates. There’s a good amount of back and forth between the art styles. Yeates opts for something a bit more refined than you’d normally see in a Groo book, lot more detail thrown into his linework. It wouldn’t be a Groo book if we didn’t have some epic two-page showcasing about too many people on a page with jokes all around and we get a good one near the beginning.

I don’t have a bad thing to say about Groo Meets Tarzan, other than they haven’t met yet. I’m not sure what will happen when they do. Fight? Eat cheese dip? Who knows until next month but Groo Meets Tarzan is not at all what I was expecting but I’m glad I read it. Mostly a funny story, but the Tarzan moments do throw some serious moments into the mix. It’s a very enjoyable comic showcasing that Sergio and Mark are the best at the comedy side of comics. I highly recommend it.

Story: Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier Art: Sergio Aragones and Thomas Yeates
Colors by: Tom Luth Letterers: Stan Sakai (Groo pages) and Adam Pruett (Tarzan pages)
Story: 9.0 Art: 7.0 Overall: 8.0 Recommendation: Buy

Dark Horse provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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Purchase: comiXology – Kindle – TFAW