Welcome to Cool Comics in My Collection Episode 61, 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 61…

Happy Thanksgiving, folks! To celebrate this festive day of appreciating what we have, I’ve listed some of my favorite comic book titles, which I’m very thankful for having and reading through the years. And you know what? I’m a big fan of coffee and pumpkin pie, so grab a cup, cut a slice (and really, any kind of pie will do!), sit back, and enjoy my little walk down comic book memory lane.

Cool comics in my collection #366: The Amazing Spider-Man #143, April 1975.

This issue of The Amazing Spider-Man brings back some good memories. I didn’t buy it when it initially released (somehow I missed picking it up at the local little shop, Slicks, in my hometown of Martins Ferry, Ohio), but I remember reading it in my best friend’s basement. We both loved Spider-Man, and this issue features the first kiss between Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. Of course, we were a little confused by it all, because over in Marvel Tales, Peter was dating Gwen Stacy, but in Amazing she was dead…and Peter thought he was seeing her alive again. Little did we know about reprints, and that Marvel Tales was giving us older Spider-Man stories. But we were only twelve, so that’s excuse enough. Spider-Man always takes me back to those golden days of the Seventies, so he holds a special place in my heart. When I found this issue in a back issue box, I knew I had to buy it. The cover price of The Amazing Spider-Man #143 is 25 cents, while the current value is $55.

Cool comics in my collection #367: Justice League of America #113, October 1974.

I wonder just how many of my comics have a cover date of October 1974. Seems like many of them I’ve listed here do. What a fantastic month for comic books! Again, this isn’t a comic I bought when it came out. I always found these 100 page comics at the drug store where my father was a pharmacist. For this particular issue, I don’t remember if I saw it there or not, but I didn’t own it, until recently. One of my collecting goals is buying up all the 100 pagers DC put out in the Seventies, so I bought this one a few months back at Kenmore Komics, in Akron, Ohio, for $5. It’s the way I time travel. When I think back to my comic book reading as a kid, I have a vivid memory of reading one of my other 100 page issues of the JLA, sitting at the kitchen table in the evening, eating Freakies cereal out of my Planet of the Apes bowl. Man, those were the days, and I’m thankful for them. The cover price of Justice League of America #113 is 60 cents, while the current value is $75.

Cool comics in my collection #368: Captain America #196, April 1976.

Captain America was an icon of my childhood, and what better way to present him here than in an issue from our Bicentennial. Not to mention an issue that took a Hollywood idea and put it into old Caps comic. Do you remember Rollerball? And no, I don’t mean the remake from 2002, but the original from 1975 featuring James Caan (you know, Elf’s dad…and if you’re older like me, what we really remember him for is playing Brian Piccolo, the movie that had all of America crying). I can remember kids in my neighborhood talking about Rollerball the day after it had been on TV, and we all wanted to play that strange, futuristic sport. And look at this comic book cover, where we see Captain America on a skateboard playing Kill-Derby! No doubt this was influenced by the movie. There were some strange events going on in Captain America back in the Seventies, but it kept us reading the comic each month. The cover price of Captain America #196 is 25 cents, while the current value is $18.