By Jack Larsen

Mike Grell is most well known for his long run as writer and artist on DC's Green Arrow, The Long Bow Hunters. This lead to Mr. Grell creating a Green Arrow monthly for DC that he continued working on for many years. Prior to his run on Green Arrow, Mr. Grell created the comic book Warlord which was DC's best selling monthly title for a time. Mr. Grell is also the creator of John Sable Freelance who has appeared in many comics and prose novels written by Mr. Grell.

I asked Mr. Grell the Frivolous 5 questions during his panel discussion held on March 8th, 2003 at the Chicago Comicfest in Rosemont, Illinois. The attendance at this convention was low compared to previous years and there were very few people going to any of the panel discussions. There was a small group of us in the panel with Mr. Grell. I was sitting off to the side jotting down some notes as Mr. Grell conducted the panel. When it came time for the question and answer portion, Mr. Grell looked right at me with my notebook and said, "I know that you've got some questions!". I proceeded to tell him and the room that I in fact had 5 questions that I would like to ask for the Collector's Edge Comics website and if no one minded I would ask them. No one objected and we all had fun listening to Mr. Grell's responses.

Friv5: What is the greatest movie of all time?
Mike Grell: Oh boy, the greatest movie of all time is pretty much acknowledged to be "Citizen Kane". If you ask me what my favorite movie is, it's different than that. My favorite movie to watch, I think, is probably "Singing in the Rain" followed real close by "Raiders of the Lost Ark".

Friv5: Cool. Second question: are you a little bit country or a little bit rock and roll? Please explain
Mike Grell: I'm a little bit rock and roll. I never cared for that "oh, my dog died" kind of twangy country music. I glad that somebody invented rap so that there's a form of music that I hate worse. On the other hand, country music right now is a lot like rock and roll used to be. Rockabilly, whatever you want to call it. The songs that you hear right now are not as "country" and having gone out on that limb, my musical tastes are everything from classic to jazz to blues. I love swing.

Friv5: Next question: what is your favorite soup?
Mike Grell: [laughs] Chili. Damn near God's perfect food. If God had figured out a way to take out the farts.

Friv5: Who is your favorite Muppet and why?
Mike Grell: [laughs again] My favorite Muppet has got to be Miss Piggy. I mean, this is a strong female role model, right? She gets what she wants and there's no two ways about it. Or, she'll kick you in the chops and that's the end of it. My father's favorite Muppet is the Swedish Chef. I don't know why since Dad is true blooded Italian, but there you are.

Friv5: And the final question, is it better to give or receive?
Mike Grell: It's better to have enough that you can give. 

Friv5: Thank you very much.
Mike Grell: [continuing and laughs] …Sort of implies that it's better to receive first. But, it's way better to give. At Christmas time, my biggest joy is watching other people open presents. I get stuff, yeah, but, it doesn't matter what it is. One year, I drove my wife nuts because she asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I told her I wanted a kazoo. She found this handmade silver and gold, jewel encrusted kazoo. But, it was seven thousand dollars and she wasn't going to spend that much. And I said, "Well, I'm really glad because what I really wanted was a plastic kazoo." And she said, "You're in luck, because here you go." That was one of my best Christmas presents. And Tinker Toys…excuse me, Lincoln Logs…Lincoln Logs that I got when I was 20.I never had them.