Welcome to Cool Comics in My Collection Episode 40, 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). 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 40…

Cool comics in my collection #260: Space Man #5, August 1963.

I decided to do a theme week on Space comics, with a mix of issues that come before and after the first moon landing. Speaking of which, if you were alive (and old enough to be aware of what was happening) on July 20, 1969, can you remember the moment Neil Armstrong took “One giant leap for mankind”? I remember going on my front porch that evening and looking up, wishing I could see those brave men. Needless to say, the adventures in Space Man comic are nothing like what our real astronauts have experienced. You may be able to compare some strange science fiction movies or books to the stories in this comic, though. The imaginations of the writers are fun to witness, back when we didn’t really know what to expect from our universe. As an aside, all of the comics from this week came from a recent visit to my friendly neighborhood comic book store, Kenmore Komics, in Akron, Ohio. This was definitely a fun and interesting week of comic book reading. The cover price of Space Man #5 is 12 cents, while the current value is $45.

Cool comics in my collection #261: Space Adventures #47, September 1962.

I picked up two issues of Space Adventures for my Space theme week, and the comic title proved to have some interesting stories. An anthology of shorts, you have to love the goofy cover of this issue, with The Beast of Bardo. The alien “monster” would probably have more people break out in laughter at its appearance rather than be frightened. But due to something in the soil, these poor space explorers find themselves helpless before The Beast of Bardo! The cover price of Space Adventures #47 is 12 cents, while the current value is $30.







Cool comics in my collection #262: Space Adventures #56, May 1964.

If you want to know all about the Fishermen of Jupiter, you’re going to have to splurge for Space Adventures #56. I love these old space comics and how it seems like anything is possible, such as intelligent life on Jupiter (if there is intelligent life on Jupiter, the joke’s on me!). These old anthologies may not have the most realistic space stories, and the character development is certainly lagging, but they are fun to read, giving you a look at the mindset of some writers back in the Sixties. The cover price of Space Adventures #56 is 12 cents, while the current value is $30.







Cool comics in my collection #263: Countdown #1, October 1967.

In considering a Space theme week, decisions had to be made. And I concluded that I wouldn’t do franchised comics. No Star Trek, no Star Wars, no Babylon 5, and no Battlestar Galactica. But Countdown found its way into my pile of comics when I recently visited Kenmore Komics. To be honest, I didn’t realize when I pulled it out of the box that it was based on a movie, but I think it fits in fine with this group (especially considering I veer a little to the left with the UFO comic that comes next). One of the reasons it works well is that it’s a much more realistic Space comic, a story that depicts the race to the moon against the Soviets. And there are no aliens between the pages. Have any of you readers ever seen the movie? It stars James Caan and Robert Duvall. I’d never even heard of it until recently, but with those two stars, I wouldn’t mind catching it sometime. I also want to mention that I never owned a Dell comic book until I started writing this blog, and I’m really glad that I’ve tried some of these companies and comics of the past. They really add a fun element to comic book collecting. The cover price of Countdown #1 is 12 cents, while the current value is $35.

Cool comics in my collection #264: UFO Flying Saucers #13, January 1977.

Another anthology, UFO Flying Saucers published by Gold Key was probably the most fun comic I read this week. Most of the shorts in this comic are based on incidents that people have claimed to be true, which gives it a little X-Files feeling, not to mention The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and Project U.F.O. (aka “Project Blue Book,” which aired in the late Seventies). It turns out that this particular issue, #13, was the last published. It may not have lasted long in the comic world, but I’ll more than likely search out the first 12 issues, because this took me back to my childhood. Back to a time when neighborhood kids talked about what happened to Barney and Betty Hill, to a time when we’d stare at the sky, wishing, hoping, to see bright lights fly past. To a time of wonder, when our imaginations could soar just as high. The cover price of UFO Flying Saucers #13 is 30 cents, while the current value is $15.

Cool comics in my collection #265: Mystery in Space #111, September 1980.

This issue of Mystery in Space, from DC Comics, was published in 1980, and after reading Space-themed comics starting back in the Sixties this week, you can certainly see a different level of storytelling. I was actually going to use the word “sophistication,” but I don’t think that’s a fair assessment, because it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. Not only has our knowledge of space and space travel changed over the decades, but the way writers and artists tell stories through comics continues to evolve. For example, one of the stories in this issue uses no words, while many of the older comics at times seem bloated with conversations. I wouldn’t say one era is necessarily better than the other – they are just different. The cover price of Mystery in Space #111 is 50 cents, while the current value is $7.

Cool comics in my collection #266: Space War #22, May 1963.

We finish up our trek to the far reaches of the universe with Space War #22, which takes us back to the pre-moon landing days. I wonder if this Charlton Comic anthology would have sold any better if it had a different name…perhaps like Star Wars? Nah, because the name on the cover doesn’t necessarily reflect the quality of the stories on the interior. I’ll admit that this one was the hardest for me to read of the seven this week. Some of the stories just didn’t keep my attention that well, but again, if I’d been reading this for the first time in 1963, maybe I’d be thinking differently. The cover price of Space War #22 is 12 cents, while the current value is $32.

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