After attending film school at USC, Aaron Lopresti broke into commercial art in 1990 with the Portland based art studio, Art Farm. Aaron's comic jobs were sporadic until 1993 when he did his break out work on the Malibu Ultraverse book, Sludge. Since that time, he has worked on a multitude of characters including the X-men, Deadpool, Gen 13, Xena, Spider-Man, Batman and Robin, Wetworks, Green Lantern, Plastic Man, The Flash, Takion, Star Trek, and the self-published CHIX and Atomic Toybox, among others. He started out - and remains - a collector, though.

I was born and raised in a suburb of Portland, OR called Beaverton. It is now about 78,000 people, so it is not as small as it sounds. There wasn't one particularly "first comic" I remember reading, there were actually two: Fantastic Four #112 and Amazing Adventures #7. Hulk vs. Thing and Neal Adams drawing Thor and Black Bolt.

My family was on vacation somewhere. I think we were going to the coast and we stopped at a small grocery store. They had all of these comics displayed with the magazines. My mom said I could get two, so I got what I thought were the two coolest looking ones. I was either six or seven.

I remember reading the FF issue and thinking the Thing had died at the end of the issue! It was very sad. I don't think I found out what happened to him until years later. I also have vivid memories of Neal Adams' artwork just freaking me out. It so realistic and the story involved kidnapping, race relations and political unrest. It was very disturbing and way over my head. But Thor was in it and that was cool.

I read those two to death. I also picked up an issue of Amazing Spider-Man #113, at our grade school rummage sale when I was in second grade. After that I don't think I started buying comics regularly until I was 10 or 11.

I started buying comics on my own in probably 5th grade. I was able to ride my bike to the local plaid pantry (7- Eleven type store) and I had some of my own money from lawn mowing and such. I always tried to take care of every comic I bought, the same with books. I'm just that way. I remember the comics were 25¢ when I first started buying them on my own. Four for a dollar, aw the good ol' days! Amazing Spider-Man #138, Ghost Rider #9 (couldn't show my mom because Satan was on the cover), Avengers and Captain America were my first four purchases. I was definitely a collector as well as reader from that point on.

I bought and tried just about everything Marvel was publishing. However, I never got into the Fantastic Four. Weird considering it was my first purchase. My early favorites would have to have been: Amazing Spider-Man, Werewolf by Night, Avengers, and Captain America. Those were the ones that I bought regularly. I also would occasionally buy Man-Thing and Frankenstein.

There were a group of us neighborhood kids and for awhile we all were buying comics. One day the kid across the street (Dan Erickson, for the record) calls me over to his house. He shows me this stack of old comics (Silver Age stuff) that he found at an old store in Portland, the Serendipity bookstore. Apparently he and his parents were just driving buy and stopped. Well, now the race was on! Luckily, my dad was a door weather stripper and the place he got supplies was one block away from this bookstore! Once a month, he would take me with him and I would buy old comics.

We later discovered several other used bookstores in Portland and as we got older we would ride the bus downtown and hit them all. We mostly all collected different titles so there wasn't a lot of fighting when he got to the stores. This was probably the first time I discovered the price guide and that comics had some monetary value attached to them.

When I started looking at The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide I started getting into older comics. I saw the first one in a book store in 1976. It had the Eisner patriotic Spirit cover and was full of color photos of old Golden Age books.

Obviously, now I have more money to spend (my wife probably doesn't like that too much!), but I am much more aware of the market now and I try to buy stuff that I think will appreciate. I only buy high grade key issue books now, VF+ or better, that I think will improve the overall value of my collection. I also am in the process of re-buying a lot of my childhood collection that I sold when I bought my first car.

I finally picked one up I have been searching for since I was a kid: National Comics #26 (1942). I am a big fan of the Quality books of the '40s because their stable of talent was so superior to everyone else at the time. I have several books that Reed Crandall did the cover art on that I am still looking for. Also, I would love to pick up a copy of Incredible Hulk #6 (I just can't afford it!) It was a cover I saw and loved when I was a kid. I have a huge Amazing Spider-Man collection all but issue #1 and Amazing Fantasy #15. Oh, and I can't forgot Wrightson's Swamp Thing.

The prizes of my comics collection are my Amazing Spider-Man run, National Comics #21, 25, 26, 31, 33 (all high grade), Mask of Fu Manchu #1 (Avon), Shock Suspense #13 (Frazetta), Ghost Rider #3 (Frazetta cover), Sgt. Fury #13 (Captain America appearance), Tales of Suspense #59, Tales of Suspense #14, Journey into Mystery #112, and Tales to Astonish #34 (great Jack Kirby monster cover), to name a few.

I don't read many comics these days because. I'm too busy drawing them. I do read New Avengers regularly, mainly because of Finch's artwork. I love the way he spots blacks. I will pick up his Moon Knight series too. I pick up comics that I like the art in.

I started drawing before I started kindergarten. I would draw all sorts of cartoons and make my own little books. My focus didn't change to superheroes and monsters until I started buying comics (again, about 5th grade). I did some work for Blackthorne comics in the late '80s, Solomon Kane 3-D. My first legit work was in Mavel Comics Presents #34, I think. Both are just awful. Embarrassingly awful. Sludge from Malibu Comics was the project on which I really established myself.

I just finished work on Sentinel Squad, a mini-series from Marvel. I am now working on a story for Giant-Size Hulk, I have done the first four covers to Marvel Adventures Avengers, and I will be starting a four-issue story arc for the Hulk which will appear as part of the "Planet Hulk" storyline. Also, I am writing and illustrating (many full color paintings) a book on monsters/creatures for Watson-Guptil publishing. It will finally get done this year. This is a regular book, not a comic book.

When I think about what got me into comics in the first place, not surprisingly it was the artwork. I just had a conversation with my mother (no, I don't still live at home) as to whether or not I would have even read comics if I wasn't in to art and cartooning as a child. I was an athlete in my younger days and I can tell you none of those guys read comics! I probably wouldn't have either if not for my interest in the medium. Now I think I continue to collect to recapture my fading youth.