Welcome to Cool Comics in My Collection Episode 43, where we take a nostalgic look at seven cool comic books I currently own. This week we’re taking a look at some comics I’ve picked up at Free Comic Book Day events in the past.

For each of the comic books below, 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), as long as there are seven comics in your episode (you can still own all seven, or do it like me and include one you no longer own). 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 43…

Cool comics in my collection #274: Archie #1, July 2003.

Did you realize that Free Comic Book Day started way back in 2002? I went to Kenmore Komics in Akron, Ohio, on that very first Saturday in May and came away with a handful of some great titles. But. I don’t have them listed here, because I need to go through my boxes at some point and find out what I kept and what I may have sold at a garage sale a few years back. And this Archie comic is the only one I have listed from 2003, because I had it stuffed in a box I dug through recently. Then I have a ten-year gap. No more FCBD comics until 2013. I had reached a point in my collecting that saw me spending too much money and running out of storage space. So I went cold turkey. Finally, in 2011, I started reading some of my back issues I’d never read, and then in 2013 I set foot in a comic book store again. But I’ve somehow managed to stay away (for the most part) from monthly comics and focus on older comics with a nostalgic perspective. And when speaking of nostalgia, Archie certainly fits the bill. The eternal teenager has been a part of Americana since 1941 in comics, Saturday morning cartoons, merchandise, and now, this fall, The CW is premiering the TV series Riverdale! The FCBD issue was fun to read, and took me back to the Seventies when I’d read some Archie comics. The cover price of Archie #1 is free, while the current value is $3.

Cool comics in my collection #275: Infinity #1, May 2013.

Infinity features a short on Thanos, a reprint of the first solo story featuring Thanos, and a really short Avenger story that has Captain America and Carol Danvers, AKA Ms. Marvel. The world of comics is full of cool villains, and Thanos is one of the best. If any of you are trying to collect comics that feature the powerful alien from Titan, which is a moon of Saturn in the Marvel Universe, then you’ll definitely want to look for this FCBD issue. The reprint story originally appeared in Logan’s Run #6, which has a listed value of $50. You can probably find it at a better price if you’re willing to sacrifice on the condition. But if you are the type who just wants the stories and you’re not concerned whether your comics are reprints or not, then grab this FCBD issue and save yourself some money. The cover price of Infinity #1 is free, while the current value is $2.

Cool comics in my collection #276: Mass Effect / R.I.P.D. / Killjoys, May 2013.

When there’s a table full of free comics, and you are told you can pick out a certain amount, how do you decide what you really want? To be honest, this is a bit of a strange pick for me. I know Mass Effect is a video game, and there are books in that universe, but I had no idea what R.I.P.D or Killjoys were about. I can’t remember what other comics I might have taken instead, but sometimes you just want to experience something new, and this certainly covered that territory. I remember looking over selections of Marvel and DC comics at Slicks, a small store in Martins Ferry, Ohio, during the mid-Seventies, deciding if I wanted that newest issue of Captain America, or perhaps spend my quarter on something new and different, like Black Goliath. It seemed like we had lots of choices back then, but there are so many more titles and companies now. I loved those simple days of looking through new comics that came out and tossing some pocket change up on the counter to pay for several at a time. We probably appreciate those memories more now than we did at the moment we lived them. The cover price of Mass Effect / R.I.P.D / Killjoys is free, while the current value is $1.

Cool comics in my collection #277: Star Wars / Captain Midnight / Avatar: The Last Airbender, May 2013.

Picking this issue up on Free Comic Book Day was a no-brainer. Star Wars is always fun to read, and getting anything Star Wars for free is a bonus. I’m not a fanatic by any means, and I actually like Star Trek better, but like many of you I found myself mesmerized as I sat in a dark theater in 1977 and watched movie magic. But that’s not all that Dark Horse packed into this freebie. They also included Avatar: The Last Airbender, which my kids watched while growing up, and a character called Captain Midnight. Though I didn’t watch the Avatar cartoon, I did see the movie. And while many weren’t happy with the result, I had nothing to check it against, so I just sat back and enjoyed it. The cover price of Star Wars / Captain Midnight / Avatar: The Last Airbender is free, while the current value is $1.

Cool comics in my collection #278: Superman: Last Son of Krypton #1, May 2013.

I really enjoyed Superman: Last Son of Krypton #1, and reading it brought back a flood of memories. Back in 1992, when the Death of Superman made the news, my father, who grew up reading Superman comics from the beginning, got excited about the buzz and made sure to purchase a black-bagged copy of poor Clark’s death. That led to my third and longest phase of comic book buying and collecting, and regularly purchasing extra Superman titles for my father. In 1978 he and I went to the theater to watch the Superman movie together, and it holds a special place in my memory. Before that, I didn’t own any Superman titles from the seventies (although I did have some Justice League 100-page giants that he was in), but I was a regular watcher of the old Superman TV show, and it was a great bonding experience with my dad. Sometimes the memories that surface while reading a comic make it all worth it. The cover price of Superman: Last Son of Krypton #1 is free, while the current value is $2.

Cool comics in my collection #279: Grimm #0, May 2013.

My wife, two oldest kids, and I started watching Grimm when it premiered in 2011, but for some reason we fell behind, figured we’d catch up later, and then even bought season one on DVD, but haven’t watched it yet. And the story in this Free Comic Book Day comic was pretty good, making me wish I’d been keeping up with the series. Of course today it’s so easy to catch up on shows via Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu, but we’ll probably never watch it as a family like we did back then. My oldest is about to enter her senior year at Kent State (English major) and my middle child will be a sophomore at Shawnee State University (Game and Simulation Development Arts), so the family doesn’t watch TV as a family much these days. But someday my wife and I will probably start watching it, and I’ll reflect back on my kids, and wonder where time has gone. The cover price of Grimm is free, while the current value is $1.

Cool comics in my collection #280: Hulk / Avengers, May 2013.

Aside from the Archie comic, this is the most kid-friendly of the Free Comic Book Day issues for this week’s blog. Basically this is an advertisement for a couple cartoons for Disney XD, and since Disney purchased Marvel, you can’t blame them for this bit of marketing. I think many of us started reading comic books because of Saturday morning cartoons, and I remember watching The Justice League of America every week. Also I saw reruns of the older sixties Marvel cartoons after school, like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, and Namor. There was also an older Fantastic Four cartoon back then. I didn’t see many in the eighties, as I was going to college, then got married, but in the nineties some great cartoons came out, specifically The X-Men and Spider-Man, and there have been many superhero cartoons ever since. The cover price of Hulk / Avengers is free, while the current value is $1.35.

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