It’s been nearly four years since Dark Horse Comics published the last issue of Sergio Aragonés‘s Groo ongoing series. What monumental event could bring the iconic character back to readers? Only a crossover with another literary legend. Dark Horse Comics has announced Groo Meets Tarzan, a new four-issue miniseries that will see Aragonés’s most famous creation meet Edgar Rice Burroughs‘s lord of the jungle. The series is written by Aragonés and Mark Evanier, with art by Thomas Yeates and Tom Luth and letters by Stan Sakai.

Here’s how Dark Horse describes Groo Meets Tarzan:

The team behind the hit Groo the Wanderer become characters in their own creation while attending Comic-Con. Soon the comic versions of themselves find inspiration not only in their enthusiastic fans but in their fellow creators, too—especially those working on Tarzan comics. Sergio Aragonés finds a way to introduce the two characters to each other.

Tarzan, the Lord of the Jungle, is set on a path that will lead him to Groo, the master of cheese dip, and the world of comics will never be the same! In addition to the fantastical main story, the Rufferto backup strips return! For comic fans new and returning, Groo Meets Tarzan is not a miniseries to miss.

In a statement announcing the series, both Aragonés and Evanier discussed their excitement over the project, and the delight of inserting themselves into the story.

“From the late 40’s and early 50’s my imagination was filled with Verne, Salgari, Dumas and Burroughs, [and] working with Tarzan was one of my dreams; Mark, Thomas, thank you!”—Sergio Aragonés

“I think it says something that in a story that involves Groo the Wanderer, Tarzan of the Apes, pirates, dinosaurs, wild animals, Sergio Aragones and me, the two least believable characters are Sergio and me.”—Mark Evanier

Groo Meets Tarzan is not the first time Aragonés’s signature character has met a literary titan. In 2015 Dark Horse published a four-issue Groo vs. Conan miniseries, from the same creative team as the new series.

This series sounds like a lot of fun, and hopefully it portends the arrival of more new Groo stories in the near future. The first issue of the four-issue Groo Meets Tarzan miniseries is set to arrive in stores and digitally on Wednesday, July 1st.

4/22 4:00 PM – Updated with final cover art w/logo & credits

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3 COMMENTS

  1. That sounds like fun. I haven’t read a Groo comic for a while, and Tom Yeates on Tarzan should be excellent.

  2. It looks like they licensed TARZAN a public domain character from the conmen at ERB INC. Very Groo like move.

  3. “Tarzan of the Apes” and several other Tarzan books are in the public domain, but Tarzan himself is a character trademarked by the very litigious Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.

    So, you could probably get away with publishing the Tarzan books that are in the PD, but releasing new material that uses Tarzan as a character without a license is a virtual guarantee to get sued.

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