Sword & Sorcery Invades Cool Comics!

Welcome to Cool Comics in My Collection Episode 131, where we take a look at comic books I own (and in some cases ones that I let get away), both new and old, often with a nostalgic leaning for those feelings of yesteryear.

For each of the comic books I include in this blog (except for digital issues), 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 131…

Cool Comics News!

All three comics are Cool Comics Classics this week!

In February, I had to change website hosts, and while most of my blogs transitioned well, I’m still working on some cleanup issues. So if you happen to peruse some of my older stuff and click on an image that doesn’t work, that’s why. I’ll have them all corrected in a few months, but it’s going to take some time, and I appreciate your patience. By the way, if you like the blog, tell someone about it this week! Thanks for your continued readership.

Cool Comics Battle of the Week!

Your Cool Comics Battle of the Week is Conan the Barbarian versus Arak, Son of Thunder! What do you think would happen if they faced each other in a titanic tussle, and how do you see the winner achieving victory? Let us know in the comments section below.

Cool Comics Classics

#620 — Conan the Barbarian #118, Marvel Comics, January 1981.

This week Cool Comics is looking at some characters from a different time and age, who fought life and death battles with swords, or whatever might be within their grasp. It was a brutal time, not for the weakhearted. And while I’m pretty sure you’re all familiar with Conan, perhaps the other two are strangers. Robert E. Howard’s Cimmerian has entertained fans for decades, first in the pulps, and later via comic books and then on the big screen. Many of you have probably seen the original Conan film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and whether you liked the movie or not, it put Conan front and center for a new audience. When Marvel was putting Conan the Barbarian on comic racks and shelves across the nation, it was never a choice for me. Instead, I preferred modern day superheroes in spandex. But something about the character always intrigued me, and now I buy back issues when I can find them at decent prices (I got this one for a quarter). And in case you didn’t hear the news, Marvel has regained the Conan license, so I’m looking forward to seeing what they do this time around. The cover price of Conan the Barbarian #118 is 50¢, while the current value is $4.

#621 — Skull the Slayer #8, Marvel Comics, August 1975.

Skull is a little different from our other two heroes this week, as he is a 20^th Century guy who gets trapped 250 million years in the past. He and three companions ventured too near the Bermuda Triangle, and we know that always means trouble in fiction! But lucky for him, he has a power belt that boosts his strength and endurance (when are they going to make those for the rest of us?), which he needs because there’s all kinds of trouble just waiting in that distant past! This issue is the last of the short-lived ongoing series, but later Skull and his buddies are rescued by the Thing of The Fantastic Four, although Marvel made little use of him after that. If you’re looking to put together small, complete runs of titles from the Seventies, this one shouldn’t be too difficult to finish (again, I was able to get this issue from a quarter box). The cover price of Skull the Slayer #8 is 30¢, while the current value is $12.

#622 — Arak, Son of Thunder #1, DC Comics, September 1981.

Yes, you’re absolutely right that my DC selection should have been The Warlord, but I no longer have any Warlord comics in my collection. At one point I had seven issues I’d picked up in discount boxes, but when my collection got too large to manage, I had a garage sale, and, well, you get the picture: the Warlord comics didn’t make the cut and I sold them, unread. Sigh. Yet, Arak, Son of Thunder, does make a little sense, because it came from the same quarter box in which I bought the Conan and Skull comics. I saw a theme, and I fished all three out and into my collection! And Arak, though not lasting as long as the Warlord did, made it to 50 issues. I was completely unfamiliar with this character as I sat down to read it, and thoroughly enjoyed getting transported back to the days of Vikings. Oh, and there is magic in this series, so if you are a fan of sword and sorcery, you may just want to hunt for some of these issues. The cover price of Arak, Son of Thunder #1 is 50¢, while the current value is $4.

Recently Read Digital Comics

I really wanted to keep my theme going this week, so I searched my digital comics until I found Elric: The Balance Lost, which was a Free Comic Book Day issue back in 2011, and I just happened to download this BOOM! Studios digital comic free from comiXology before it disappeared. That’s right, it’s no longer available on comiXology. Unless it’s under a different company now, since Elric is a licensed character based on novels and stories by Michael Moorcock. Are you familiar with Elric of Melniboné? I read about three novels featuring the 428^th Emperor, but it was so long ago I can’t recall much of what happened. I know that Moorcock has a number of characters that are all part of the “Eternal Champion,” stories, and if you want to know more, a little Internet searching will give you lots of information. At any rate, Elric’s first comic book appearance was in Conan the Barbarian #14 from Marvel in 1972, and this free digital comic walks us through Elric’s history in comic books, which I enjoyed reading about.

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