The Seventies Revisited: Star Wars & Planet of the Apes

Finds from the Back Issue Bins Cool Comics in My Collection, Episode 14

The Seventies Revisited: Star Wars & Planet of the Apes

Welcome to Cool Comics in My Collection, Episode 13, where we take a look at six cool comic books I currently own, and one that I let get away.

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Cool comics in my collection #85: Star Wars #23, May 1979.

Since the new Star Wars movie has been released, I thought I’d go there with my cool comic. For some people, the movie is like Christmas come early. I’m not the biggest Star Wars fan, but I like it okay. When the first movie came out, my family waited a while until it was at a cheap theater in Bellaire, Ohio. I think we got in for 50 cents each. I’ll always remember how sticky the floor was, as if someone had spilled pop all over it a couple weeks previously, and I felt fortunate that I could lift my shoes to leave once the movie was over. But I must admit that it kept me mesmerized, and I didn’t think of the gross floor until we stood up to leave. I bought this comic at Titan Comics in Atlanta, Georgia, around 1996, for about 25 cents. The cover price is 40 cents, while the current value is $12.
Cool comics in my collection #86: Afterlife With Archie #1, December 2013.

After going ten years of not buying any monthly comics, I caved in 2013 and got a subscription to an apocalyptic Archie comic. Yes, that’s what I said, the Riverdale gang of Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica, Reggie, Pops, Mr. Weatherbee, Moose, Sabrina, and Ms. Grundy face a zombie Arch-pocalypse. This certainly isn’t the Archie most of us grew up with. Archie has done some funny things over the years, such as the crossover with the Punisher, Archie’s Weird Mysteries (Scooby Gang? Mulder and Scully in Riverdale?), and Archie versus Predator, which started earlier in 2015. The freckled-face redhead has more tricks up his sleeve than you ever would have imagined. The cover price is $2.99, and the current value is $12.
Cool comics in my collection #87: Planet of the Apes #1, August 1974.

The Planet of the Apes magazine may have said Curtis on the cover, but Marvel was the company behind it. This hybrid comic/magazine features the first original Planet of the Apes tale, along with the start of a comic adaptation of the 1968 movie. It even features an interview with scriptwriter Rod Serling (yes, that Rod Serling of The Twilight Zone fame). This first issue came out shortly before I turned twelve, and I was already a huge Apes fan. I had the Mego Apes action figures, the battery-operated stallion, and the treehouse. I read the original novel, and the novelizations of each of the movies as they came out. This was my childhood Star Wars. Nineteen seventy-four was a great year, as the TV show also debuted. Though the new Planet of the Apes movies may look great, they certainly don’t have the same post-apocalyptic atmosphere as the original movies and the TV series (I have the DVD box set of it, along with the Saturday morning cartoon series on DVD). The original comic stories in these issues are fun and entertaining, and I wish I had the entire collection of 29 issues, but I’m 11 issues short, and these aren’t cheap. I bought this issue off the rack when it came out at Slicks in Martins Ferry, Ohio. The cover price is $1, and the current value is $32.
Cool comics in my collection #88: Shazam! The New Beginning #1, April 1987.

After DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths, they continued their “do-over” with some mini-series of different heroes, and the Big Red Cheese got to be one of these featured characters. Shazam is a character that kids can associate with, since young Billy Batson changes into a powerful superhero, when he says, “Shazam.” I remember watching the Shazam live-action Saturday morning show, which started in 1974 (that year comes up a lot in my history, it seems). Shazam has an interesting history, and outsold Superman for a while, back in the forties. I bought this comic in 1996 at Titan Comics in Atlanta, Georgia. The cover price is 75 cents, while the current value is $3.
Cool comics in my collection #89: The Amazing Spider-Man #194, July 1979.

It’s always fun when you find out one of the comics you own is highly collectible and you didn’t even realize it. That’s the case with this Amazing Spider-Man issue, which contains the first appearance of The Black Cat. When I’ve looked through my collection to decide what to put here, I tend to look at the early issues I have, but it turns out this is a great one to have. Felicia Hardy’s popularity continues to grow, so this is a very cool comic in my collection. When I started collecting comics for the third time, in the 1990s, I often would look for back issues of The Amazing Spider-Man, and I snagged this one in Atlanta, Georgia. The cover price is 40 cents, while the current value is $180.
Cool comics in my collection #90: Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions #1, June 1982.

Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions #1

Marvel recently released a softcover trade of this classic mini-series from 1982, but there really is nothing like owning the original. I bought this issue off the rack at a little store in Columbus, Ohio, when I was attending Ohio State. While it hasn’t gained much in value, what it does have is a tremendous, all-star cast, too numerous to list here. Just look at the cover and that will give you an idea. Because of the whims of others, heroes of the Marvel Universe end up fighting each other while searching for particular items. It’s a lot of action and a lot of fun, and if you have a chance to grab this one at a good price, I recommend it. The cover price is 60 cents, while the current value is $4.
Cool comics in my collection #91 (One That Got Away): Limited Collectors’ Edition Presents Christmas with the Super-Heroes C-43.

Do you remember these oversize comics? Both DC and Marvel put them out quite often in the seventies. I had over 20 of these giant comics, and when space became an issue in my house, these had to go. Unfortunately, I had some that were worth more money than I got for them, but I paid newsstand prices so I gained a little from the sales. Anyway, I had to put this one here on Christmas Eve. What’s Christmas without Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Sandman, and Cain. Okay, maybe Cain, from House of Mystery, seems a little out of place, but don’t we try to open our hearts and have goodwill towards all men at Christmas? The cover price for this is just $1, while the current value is $26.

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