Roman Odysseys

Roman Odysseys (in portuguese: Odisseias Romanas) is a series of comic book albums created by the Brazilian cartoonist and history teacher Bráulio Romão Serqueira, who wrote under the pen name Groselho. The series is considered the most popular Brazilian production in the world, having notable fandoms in the United States, Italy, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, the Arabian Peninsula and also in various parts of the African continent. The series and its derivatives (cartoons and toys), for cultural reasons, were censored until early 90s in Northern Europe, which saw as an "unfavorable image" how the Vikings and other Nordic peoples were portrayed in the albums as well as in the cartoon based on these albums produced between 1982-1987, over time, Nordic countries also joined countries with a strong Roman Odysseys fandom.

The series accompanies 6 protagonists: Gnaeus, Octavia, Marcus, Pompeia, Festinia and Floria who go on adventures through the Roman Empire and through other localities and groups of ancient peoples, such as African, Nordic, Asian, Celtic-speaking peoples, and even Tribal groups of American continent.

The series first appeared in Paulistinha, a youth supplement of the São Paulo-based Brazilian newspaper O Paulista. The series success led, in 1933, to Paulistinha becoming a monthly magazine and ceasing to be a supplement, where Roman Odysseys remained the magazine's flagship until 1945, at the same time Groselho became editor-in-chief.

In 1945, Groselho resigned from Paulistinha magazine and a year later created his own individual company, Groselho Quadrinhos, which was responsible for publishing all editions of Roman Odysseys until 1995, when Hasbro, company which Groselho Quadrinhos was a subsidiary of since 1976, declared the company completely closed.

Since 1995, the Roman Odysseys comic books were produced by three publishing companies, the first was Star Comics (between 1995-2004), then by Platinum Studios (between 2004-2018) and since 2018, the series comic books are produced by IDW Publishing.

Paulistinha (1927-1945)
History teacher Bráulio Romão Serqueira, known by his pen name Groselho, was 28 years old when, after 9 years working as a teacher, he decided to resign from the school where he worked, to spend more time doing something he loved as much as teaching, drawing and search. During this period when he was unemployed, in 1927, he made a trip through Europe, among the countries he would pass through on that trip, was Italy, specifically Rome, Groselho loved researching and reading books about the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, and while was visiting the ruins of ancient Rome, he decided to take a small notebook and pencil that he had carried in his luggage and began to draw. While drawing, he remembered the famous myth of Romulus and Remus, and consequently, the she-wolf that nursed them when they were babies, he then began to draw a she-wolf dressed as Roman commoners, this would later become the inspiration for the creation of one of the 6 protagonists: the she-wolf Floria.

When he returned to Brazil, he continued improving his techniques of drawing anthropomorphic animals, since he was a great appreciator and enthusiast of Anthropomorphism, when one day while sitting in one of the several parks in São Paulo, he let slip one of the drawings he was making, this drawing was a completely realistic anthropomorphic wolf, the drawing ended up being found by Augusto Domingos e Silva, who "by coincidence or fate" (the words of Groselho himself years later) was one of the editors-in-chief of the newspaper O Paulista, Augusto was visibly surprised by the boy's scribble, and offered Groselho a small note with the address of Paulistinha's headquarters, Paulistinha was the youth supplement of the newspaper O Paulista, and at that time it was looking for new illustrators by auditioning, Groselho then decided to compete for one of the vacancies, and ended up coming out first in the test, surprising the auditors, the others who passed these auditions would subsequently join Groselho and form the team of illustrators for Roman Odysseys, among these were the 17-year-old Jair de Barreto and 19-year-old Cícero Plinta de Arruda. Jair and Cícero would be creators of many characters in Roman Odysseys, such as Octavia, Festinia, Marcus and the antagonist Dama Gazelle.