Welcome to Cool Comics in My Collection Episode 57, 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 57…

Cool comics in my collection #354: Frankenstein #17, July 1975.

So here we are, just a few days away from the most “Spooktacular” day of the year, and I wrap up my monstrous month of October with my favorite classic horror icons. I suppose that because I’m on the other side of 50, I tend to hold a special place in my heart for these creatures rather than many of the more popular frights of the last several decades, but I know I’m not alone. As a lover of both comic books and novels, I truly appreciate these creations, and especially so when they have traceable literary origins, such as the Frankenstein Monster does. Today, young Mary Shelley would be financially stable if her creation were just as big of a hit as it has been since Boris Karloff starred in Frankenstein on the big screen. If you’ve never watched the old Universal Monster movies, maybe this is the time to give them a try. And if you like to see the different monsters mixing it up, some of the sequels do a fun job with that, such as “Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman” and its follow-up, “House of Frankenstein.” Oh, and the comics are smartly written and I strongly recommend them. The cover price of Frankenstein #17 is 25 cents, while the current value is $14.

Cool comics in my collection #355: Werewolf by Night #8, August 1973.

Though we don’t get Lon Chaney’s cursed character of Larry Talbot, Jack Russell fills the fur nicely. Werewolf by Night is a comic I truly regret not buying monthly during my childhood (for that matter, I wish I’d bought all three of these titles monthly!), but I’ve been fortunate to pick up some issues here and there for reasonable prices. When I was a kid, the Wolf Man (and werewolves in general) was my favorite monster. I remember one Halloween when I used a special monster make-up kit to affix “hair” to my face, using spirit gum to make it stick. I also put some on the back of my hands, and attached false claws, along with plastic fangs for my mouth. It took a while to get myself ready, but at the time, I could hear Hollywood calling for my services as a make-up artist for monster movies. That idea faded, so instead I blog about my childhood memories and write my own stories about monsters and heroes. I hope you have some awesome Halloween memories too, and maybe reading this brought some to mind. The cover price of Werewolf by Night #8 is 20 cents, while the current value is $60.

Cool comics in my collection #356: Tomb of Dracula #40, January 1976.

The granddaddy of classic monsters is, no doubt, the vampire. When I started getting old enough to watch monster movies in the Seventies, movies with these vicious bloodsuckers always terrified me more than any other monsters. My sisters and I would watch Chiller Theater on Saturday nights with host Bill “Chilly Billy” Cardille, and when he had movies like “Dracula Has Risen From the Grave,” I’d get a little extra ball of fear in the pit of my stomach. Christopher Lee could almost make you believe vampires were real! And then came “Kolchak: The Night Stalker,” with a vampire in the first made-for-TV movie, and then a vampire once again in the ongoing series. For some reason these fanged undead gave me the biggest frights. As a kid, I much preferred werewolf movies like Oliver Reed in “The Curse of the Werewolf,” or the ones in which radiation makes giant insects…or even giant mutant rabbits, like “Night of the Lepus.” DeForest Kelley is actually in that one. But even with my fear of vampires, I loved monster movies and magazines, but I never got into monster comic books as a kid. Too bad, because reading them now as an adult shows me just what I missed out on during my youth. Yet when I read them today, I’m transported to another time and place, so there are advantages. The cover price of Tomb of Dracula #40 is 25 cents, while the current value is $35.