100 Pages of The Flash and Long Box Update!

Welcome to Cool Comics in My Collection Episode 67, 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 67…

Cool comics in my collection #382: Firestorm, the Nuclear Man #5, November 1978.

This was the last issue of the original Firestorm comic book series. At the time this came out, I don’t know if I even bought anymore comic books at all. I believe I’d bought my last earlier in the year, and didn’t make another purchase until early in 1982. When The Fury of Firestorm came on the scene in 1982, I gave it a try and liked it, buying each new issue for several months. Then my comic book collecting came to a halt for a decade. When I started collecting again in 1993, one of my goals was to own the entire 100 issue run of Firestorm. What I found out was that a short series, just 5 issues long, came out in 1978, so of course I had to buy them also. And this is the last one. I’ve now covered all five issues here in Cool Comics. But don’t worry, fellow Firestorm fanatics, because I still have 96 issues (plus five annuals) of the 1982 series to cover here, should Cool Comics be around long enough! The cover price of Firestorm, the Nuclear Man #5 is 35 cents, while the current value is $15.

Cool comics in my collection #383: Legion of Super-Heroes #287, May 1982.

During my second go-round of comic book reading and collecting, while I was in college, was a bit of an experiment. This issue was just my second Legion comic (I bought the one just before this), and I still didn’t know Lightning Lad from Colossal Boy, but I was trying my best to get immersed into this interesting new world of superheroes. Though I’m not really sure what drove me to give Legion a try, it may have been the colorful covers that contained heroes I’d never heard of before, but for whatever reason, I do remember that I really enjoyed reading them and learning all about Mon-El, Shadow Lass, Sun Boy, Timber Wolf, Saturn Girl, Shrinking Violet…you get the idea. When I think the Legion, it always transports me back to 1982 and the new friends I made at Ohio State. The cover price of Legion of Super-Heroes #287 is 60 cents, while the current value is $6.

Cool comics in my collection #384: The Flash #232, April 1975.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I absolutely love the 100-page issues that DC put out in the Seventies. Many great memories surround these comic books, and I can picture myself right now, sitting at the kitchen table of my childhood home, snaking on a bowl of Freakies cereal in the evening and reading the adventures of superheroes in one of these 100-page comic books. So one of my goals is to track down as many of these as I can find (and at reasonable secondary prices), and this issue of The Flash is portion of that goal being met. It seems like everyone loves The Flash these days, especially considering just how entertaining and well-done the TV show is on The CW, so I was excited to snag this issue at Kenmore Komics a few months back (with a sticker price of $8!!!). I haven’t read it yet, but no doubt in my mind it is Cool Comic worthy! Now if I can just get my hands on a box of Freakies. The cover price of The Flash #232 is 60 cents, while the current value is $65.

Recently Read

It’s obvious at this point that I’m hooked on digital comics. I’ve read them using comiXology, the Marvel app, the DC app, and now I’ve even explored digital comics via Kindle. Not my Paperwhite, but the Kindle app on my phone. I initially tried it with my “ancient” Asus tablet, but for some reason I couldn’t get them to open. But the other apps work great on the tablet. I’ve recently bought some great collections at low prices through Amazon, and when you link your Amazon account and your comiXology account, you can then read them through the latter, which is great. But if you are a Prime member, things changed back in October, and now magazines, comics, and more Kindle books are being offered as part of that service. I believe you have access to even more comics and graphic novels if you’re a member of Kindle Unlimited, but for now, I’m having fun exploring what I’m already paying for.

So what comics did I read on my Kindle app on my phone? Glad you asked. With the new Riverdale series on the horizon (starting January 20 on The CW – looks like a nice mix of Afterlife with Archie, Archies’s Weird Mysteries, and this newer Archie series I talk about here), I wanted to give the newer version of Archie a try. It’s written by comic veteran Mark Waid, and if you are an Archie fan, it’s worth your time to see what he’s doing with the series. Each issue is a continuation of the ongoing story, so don’t pick up somewhere in the middle, if you can help it. There are already a couple collections available covering the first 12 issues, and, as I mentioned, Amazon Prime members can borrow some of these. Currently the first 6 issues are included, and I’m hoping as time goes by they will continue adding additional issues as part of the service. ComiXology also has this series, and if you have an unlimited subscription they also have the first six issues available. Oh, and one more cool thing about the upgraded Prime Reading service: you can have up to 10 downloads of books/magazines/comics at a time. Happy reading!

The $20 Long Box

Last week I reported here about a long box I picked up at my local comic shop (Kenmore Komics) for just $20. It was jammed with all kinds of comic books, including Marvel, DC, Valiant, Dark Horse, Image, and more. I did a quick count that netted 421 comics, but after going through the box and tracking them on a spreadsheet by current value as indicated on www.comicbookrealm.com (see second paragraph from the top), it turns out I was two off, and there were ONLY 419 comic books. For the 419 total comics, the current listed value adds up to $1,218.70. Not too shabby! Of course, I did already own, or previously owned and read, 92 issues. So of the 327 new to my collection, the current value adds up to $943.45. These seem like big numbers, but the average price per comic book comes out to less than $3. The most expensive issue in the box was $7. Nothing earth-shattering. But the really cool part is what I paid per comic book, which comes out to just under a nickel apiece. Not to mention the hours of enjoyment I’ll have while reading them!