Welcome to Cool Comics in My Collection Episode 51, where we take a nostalgic look at seven cool comic books I currently own.

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 51…

Cool comics in my collection #330: Star Trek: The Early Voyages #1, February 1997.

Last week Star Trek turned 50, and this week I intend to keep the celebration going with my tribute to this great franchise that has continued to entertain us for five decades. After Star Trek went off the air following season three, fans wouldn’t let it die, and eventually there was even a Star Trek Saturday morning cartoon. Then came Star Trek: The Motion Picture, other movies, The Next Generation TV show, more shows, more movies, etc. Oh, and fan conventions, toys, magazines, and many, many books; some of which are excellent. And yes my friends, comics books, too. Next July will mark 50 years of history for Star Trek comic books, which may just surprise some people. So if you enjoy the shows, you may just like the comic books. This one, The Early Voyages, actually takes place during Captain Pike’s five-year mission, and there are a few other familiar faces. It’s fun, so you may want to search some of these issues out. The cover price of Star Trek: The Early Voyages #1 is $2.95, while the current value is $3.

Cool comics in my collection #331: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy #1, December 1996.

Besides comic books, Star Trek also had a comic strip in a British magazine from 1969 to 1973, and then in a Los Angeles daily and Sunday newspaper from 1979 to 1983. So if you love to collect all things Star Trek, good luck finding those! This series takes a look at future Starfleet officers in training, and features a cadet by the name of Matt Decker. Now if that name sounds familiar, there are a couple of reasons why. First, Commodore Matt Decker (played by William Windom) was the only survivor of the U.S.S. Constellation in The Original Series episode, “The Doomsday Machine.” Next up was Stephen Collins as Captain Will Decker in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. And now we have a Decker descendent featured in this comic. Part of the conflict is that a Ferengi is at Starfleet Academy, and Decker isn’t happy about it. This series also has some Gorns, so that makes it completely worth it. The cover price of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy #1 is $1.99, while the current value is $2.25.

Cool comics in my collection #332: Star Trek: Unlimited #7, January 1998.

This Star Trek Unlimited series covered a lot of variety in the Star Trek universe, and this particular issue reads like a who’s who of the universe. Get a load of some of the characters featured here: Captain Picard, Data, Geordi La Forge, Sulu, Scotty, Chekov, Spock, Riker, Deanna Troi, Gowron, Kirk, Dr. McCoy, Uhura, Kang, Q, Trelane, and Worf. Those of you who are Star Trek fans may be salivating while reading about this lineup, and I can’t blame you. But please finish reading the blog before you run out the door to your local comic shop in hopes that you can find this one in the back issue boxes. It’s hard to beat a comic that has both Q and Trelane together. The cover price of Star Trek Unlimited #7 is $2.99, while the current value is $3.

Cool comics in my collection #333: Star Trek #3, December 1989.

When it comes to bad guys, I love the Borg, I love the Gorn, I love Colonel Phillip Green (The Original Series episode “The Savage Curtain” may seem a little corny to today’s audience, but to a twelve-year-old boy watching the show in syndication, this was one of the best episodes ever, and Jim Kirk fought right alongside of Abraham Lincoln! Not only was he a vampire hunter, but he knew how to fight some of earth’s mightiest foes!), and I love Khan and his gang of Eugenics Thugs. But in The Original Series, before we saw a cute and cuddly Worf on Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Klingon empire was pure evil and represented The Iron Curtain during the Cold War. This was back in the day when Klingons didn’t have that ridge thing in their heads, but that’s another story altogether. So I put this cool comic issue here because as bad guys, the Klingons deserved a cover feature for this week’s blog. The cover price of Star Trek #3 is $1.50, while the current value is $4.

Cool comics in my collection #334: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #1, August 1993.

This first issue of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine from Malibu Comics came with both a picture cover and a drawn cover, and I bought both at the time. This was early in my third phase of comic book buying and collecting, and I thought it was really cool that a company I wasn’t familiar with was putting out a Star Trek comic book. But I didn’t get issue two, or three for that matter. I bought a few issues later on out of back issue boxes, because at the time, I still bought comics primarily for superheroes. Now I wish I would have bought more Star Trek comics when they first came out, but one of my long-term comic book goals is to fill in as many Star Trek comic gaps as I can. And I have to admit that I didn’t see many episodes of Deep Space Nine, but I’m going to be watching them eventually, as I’m going through each series. I’m about one third of the way through season two of The Original Series, and looking forward to The Animated Series! The cover price of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #1 is $2.50, while the current value is $3.

Cool comics in my collection #335: Star Trek: The Next Generation #55, December 1993.

While there are a number of androids that appear in the original series, we didn’t get one in the Federation until Star Trek: The Next Generation hit the scene with Data. Not unlike Pinocchio, the wooden toy who wanted to be a real boy, Data wants to know what it is to be human. His character added a new dimension to the Star Trek universe, and for anyone who loves robot stories but hasn’t watched this series, Data is reason enough to give The Next Generation a try. Brent Spiner continually gives a great performance throughout the series, and therefore is deserving of having a place in Cool Comics in My Collection with this issue featuring Data on the cover. The cover price of Star Trek: The Next Generation #55 is $1.75, while the current value is $3.

Cool comics in my collection #336: Star Trek Voyager #1, November 1996.

From what I’ve seen and read about Star Trek, many fans were lukewarm when it came to Voyager, but I really enjoyed the show. Obviously there are some episodes I don’t like as much, and some characters I could do without or would have liked seeing them behave differently, but for Star Trek fans, this piece of the action (a little play on words for TOS fans) takes place in the unexplored Delta Quadrant, giving the writers lots of leeway. And love her or hate her, Seven of Nine certainly added a different dimension to the series. I really enjoyed her interactions with both Tuvok (a Vulcan, like Mr. Spock, for those who may not have watched the show) and the Emergency Medical Hologram Doctor. With Data in The Next Generation, we have a character who is completely artificial and wonders what it is to be human, and with Seven of Nine, we have a human who is assimilated into the Borg collective, or hive mind, and is being re-introduced into what it means to be an individual. So much of what makes Star Trek great is the characters and their interactions with each other, and in my opinion, Voyager delivers. The cover price of Star Trek Voyager #1 is $1.99, while the current value is $2.25.