Welcome to Cool Comics in My Collection Episode 59, 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 59…

Cool comics in my collection #360: Legion of Super-Heroes #286, April 1982.

If I can be accused of anything on this blog, it’s that I may be too sentimentally attached to Seventies era comics. Especially when they’re Marvel. Yet I’ve done theme weeks on here from Saturday Morning cartoons to TV shows to Westerns, but Marvel comics from the Seventies seem to be my go-to nostalgic blogs. So, this week (and this certainly isn’t the first time) I’m going all DC, and not a one of them is from the Seventies. This issue is my very first Legion of Super-Heroes comic. During my freshman year at Ohio State, a friend got me back into reading and collecting for a short time, and introduced me to this team that has so many members I couldn’t begin to remember them from month to month, but they certainly made an impression on me. From my perspective at the time, they were new, fresh, and had powers I’d never seen in comics before. And during the ten months I kept coming back to this team, I had a blast. In many ways I wish it would have gone on for longer, but I have a feeling I’ll be reading more of these comics someday in the future. The cover price of Legion of Super-Heroes #286 is 60 cents, while the current value is $6.

Cool comics in my collection #361: Valor #6, April 1993.

My longest comic book collecting period ran from 1993 to 2003, and it was during this stretch that I came to know Valor. Lar Gand is a Daxamite, who came to be known as Mon El. If you aren’t familiar with the character but that name sounds vaguely familiar, perhaps you watch Supergirl on The CW. Yes, this is THAT guy. The one with powers but no costume yet. You could say he’s sort of a Superman knockoff, and you wouldn’t be all that wrong, considering the Daxamites are related to the Kryptonians, and I have no problem with that. Oh, and Snapper Carr is in this issue. Again, he’s now on Supergirl. The Valor comic, short-lived as it was, provided fun entertainment and again helped me learn more about the DC universe. And that’s what a large part of collecting comics in the early Nineties was for me, a learning process. I’d been out of the hobby for over a decade, and didn’t know much of what was going on. So instead of just sticking with typical iconic characters like Spider-Man and Batman, I stretched myself and tried a lot of different things on for size to see what I liked. I had a lot of fun doing it, and the memories of those times will always be there for me. The cover price of Valor #6 is $1.25, while the current value is $2.25.

Cool comics in my collection #362: The Legacy of Superman #1, March 1993.

This special issue tied in to the whole “Death of Superman/Funeral for a Friend” story running through DC comics, and was a nice addition to the bunch, helping me learn more about the current state of DC Comics and especially characters I’d never seen before. One of my favorites was a creation of Project Cadmus, Dubbilex, a clone with telepathic powers. Other cool guests in this comic include Rip Hunter (yes, the Rip Hunter from the television show Legends of Tomorrow), Guardian, Doomsday, Thorn, and Waverider. Wait a minute…Waverider? Isn’t that the ship that Rip Hunter uses in Legends of Tomorrow? Yes it is, but Waverider is a time traveler in the DC Comic universe. At least he was back in the Nineties. Since I stopped buying new comics in 2003, I really don’t know the current state of the universe. And I don’t mind not knowing the new stuff. I love the old. And that’s why I love doing this blog on comic book nostalgia. Because it allows me to travel back in time to some of my best memories. The cover price of The Legacy of Superman is $2.50, while the current value is $4.

Comic Book Nostalgia: Reflections on Our Collections

This Saturday, November 12, from 11 a.m. to noon, I’ll be doing my comic book nostalgia presentation for the fourth time this year. It’s a lot of fun to talk about our comic collections in a setting of like-minded people, which you’ll find at Con on the Cob! I have free comic books to give away, so hope to see you there.