MY FAVORITE COMICS - ROM #1-19

Alien cyborg fights shapeshifting witches from outer space! Only the 1980s could produce a comic with such a premise and somehow make it work. Silly as it may sound today, ROM had the coolest concept ever for a kid on that particular time of the late 20th century. Again, just as with Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema's run on the Hulk, I'll stick with initial issues mostly for the full-art chores by Buscema (as legendary an inker as Joe Sinnott may be, his work on the following issues, as well as that of subsequent inkers, brought an emaciation to Sal Buscema's artwork that diluted its power and iconicity, imho).

MY FAVORITE COMICS - Captain America #235-237

Everybody who dies in superhero comics eventually comes back to life... even Bucky. After all, Marvel and DC have got to keep those characters in print if they are to retain their rights. Nevertheless, when I was a kid, I didn't know better. Back then comics were still terra incognita to me and it would take me years to realize that the main driving force behind these worlds wasn't the imagination of the writers and artists behind them, but the profit generated from sensationalist cheap tricks done in order to increase revenues and please the board of shareholders. ANYWAY, back when I didn't know better, the death of Sharon Carter hit me in the gut - this was Cap's beautiful girlfriend and he had failed to save her! For an eight year old kid, this was heavy stuff... and I'm posting the cover of the original brazilian edition where I read it because I still find it awesome - it was THAT cover that convinced me to buy the magazine :-)

MY FAVORITE COMICS - The Mighty Thor #193-194

More than story, what attracted me to comics were the actual drawings and, later on, the visual storytelling. Looking back, no one gave a better balance between power and grace to drawn characters than  John Buscema. Sure, his craftsmanship was among the finest comic book professionals, but what conquered me was the beautiful people he drew. These were drop dead gorgeous figures - the way superheroes were supposed to be! There are quite a few gems on this couple of issues that still inspire me even after all these years...

MY FAVORITE COMICS - Captain America #169-176 "The Secret Empire Saga"

  When I was a kid, american comics reached me via brazilian translated editions. Usually these compiled two or three of the original editions in a single comic with somewhere between forty to eighty pages. Such was the format under which I got acquainted with Captain America and what later came to be known as "The Secret Empire Saga". Again, as when I first discovered Spider-Man comics, I was perplexed. Here was a story where apparently the hero kills a man and becomes wanted by the authorities! This was too much for my small child mind. I still remember that I couldn't quite understand what was going on but it certainly was disturbing enough to pick my curiosity and make me to want to learn more. And what can I say of Sal Buscema's electrifying art? Its energy, exaggeration and dynamism were the perfect complement for the paranoid feeling of these comics. To this day, his depiction of Steve Rogers - handsome, noble, strong - still is the default archetype male superhero.image I seen in my mind's eye.