Welcome to Cool Comics in My Collection Episode 65, where we take a nostalgic look at comic books I currently own, and in some sad cases, ones that I let get away.

For each of the comic books I include in this blog, I list the current secondary market value. This is according to the listings at the website www.comicbookrealm.com. They list out the near mint prices, which are on the comic book grading scale of 9.4. If you go to the website to look up any in your collection, you can click on the price and see the value at different grades. Not all of my comics are 9.4. Some are probably better, and some are worse. But to simplify it, that’s the grading price I use here. And remember, a comic book is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

Have you considered being a guest host for Cool Comics? You can do a theme or just pick any of your comics for inclusion (this blog is for all ages, so please keep that in mind), with a maximum of seven issues. Repeat guest hosts are permitted and encouraged. Send your completed blog to edgosney62@gmail.com.

If you have any questions or comments, please scroll to the bottom of the page to where it says, “Leave a reply.” I hope you enjoy seeing these as much as I do writing about them. And now, Episode 65…

Cool Comics would like to wish you a Merry Christmas, and may your comic book “want” lists come true this holiday season!

Cool comics in my collection #376: Archie’s Classic Christmas Stories Volume I, January 2002.

I bought this back during my third phase of comic book collecting (1993-2003), and never got around to reading it until now. If you appreciate the simplicity and nostalgia of reading Archie comics, you can’t go wrong with this seasonal collection of holiday hijinks with Archie and his friends. Keep in mind that these are all reprints, from 1955 through 1964, but most of us probably weren’t buying comic books back then, so for me there were no reruns in my reading. It’s a very nice and sturdy trade paperback, with thicker pages than most comics you’ll come across, which makes it much easier reading when relaxing in bed after a hard day’s work. When the wind is bitter, the snow in your driveway piles up, and all you want to do is stay inside your nice warm home, grab a hot cup of your favorite beverage and celebrate the season, Riverdale style. The cover price of Archie’s Classic Christmas Stories is $10.95, while the current value is $12.

Cool comics in my collection #377: DCU Holiday Bash #1, January 1997.

‘Tis the season, right? This is my last blog before Christmas, so of course I’m giving you a lot of Yuletide cheer. DC comics has given us lots of Christmas stories over the years, and what is merrier than spending the holidays with such a colorful bunch of costumed heroes? This anthology features Batman, Catwoman, Superman, Etrigan, Green Lantern, Flash, Orion, and Highfather, to name a few. If you’re looking to build your collection of Christmas themed comic books, I’m betting that your local comic book store (mine is Kenmore Komics in Akron, Ohio) probably has a number of them in back issue boxes. The cover price of DCU Holiday Bash #1 is $3.95, while the current value is $5.

Cool comics in my collection #378: Marvel Holiday Special 1992, January 1993.

Yes, Marvel also puts out holiday specials! This one has lots of characters in it, as you can probably surmise from the cover. Wolverine, the New Warriors, Spider-Man, the Punisher, Doc Sampson, Thanos, Iron Man, and Daredevil are the featured stories, but we also are joined in holiday festive spirit with appearances of Dazzler, Captain America, the Thing, Venom, War Machine, and Hank Pym, just to name a few. If you want to know if the Punisher and Thanos made the nice or naughty list, consider browsing through your local comic book shop’s back issues. It’s the holiday season, and it’s a great way to show support to small, local businesses. The cover price of Marvel Holiday Special 1992 is $2.95, while the current price is $3.

Recently Read

I seem to be on a real digital comic kick now. In the comments section of episode 63, Rob McClellan discussed his appreciation of going digital, and how today we can buy Kindle and Nook tablets at low cost to use for comic reading. This got me to seriously consider buying a cheap tablet for just this purpose, because reading on my phone isn’t the best scenario. Sunday night a friend mentioned he’d removed the Facebook app from his Asus Eee Pad Transformer tablet and it worked much faster now. I have the same tablet but hadn’t touched it in months, since getting my new smartphone. So on Monday I decided to charge it up and start striping away as many apps as it would allow me, with the exception of comiXology, Marvel, DC, and a few other comic book apps. It took most of the day, because it kept rebooting over and over after I’d remove a few apps. But it was worth it! Comics look great on this larger screen and it works very well since I deleted several gigs of apps.

Now up to this point, I’d only read digital comics I’d gotten for free. A Kindle email enticed me with some Doctor Strange collections for just $2.99, so I decided to purchase a few, and the first one I read was Doctor Strange Vol. 1: The Way of the Weird, which contains issues 1-5 of a new series that started last December (the physical copies would have cost a little over $20, with tax). This digital volume came out April 27, 2016. Of course, the storyline didn’t end at issue 5, so I had to purchase the next collection, and very much look forward to reading it. I’ve bought a few other digital collections, and will tell more about them in this Recently Read section in the weeks to come.

I still love physical comic books, and have a nice collection, but it started getting pretty big again, so digital comics are a great alternative when it comes to storage space and ease of reading in bed with the lights out. And the cost savings is fantastic!