The RAREST Marvel Comic Books from the 1970s Bronze Age! With examples in my comic book collection!

Comic books from the 1970s or the Bronze Age era are one my favorite areas to collect. In this episode I go over some of the hardest to find Marvel comic books from this time period to locate in high grade as well as some examples from my collection. This video was inspired by an excellent series of videos by @kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842 , on comic book rarity. Rarity by itself does not make a comic book valuable, but these are fun to search out, and some of these books have become quite collectable.

Keston's article on comic book rarity on the collector hub:

Keston's video on rarity:

Chapters
0:00 Introduction, Rarity in Comic Books
1:45 Marvel Treasury Editions
3:26 Marvel Humor & Satire
5:21 Marvel Horror Magazines
6:52 Marvel Horror Reprint Titles
9:52 How did I come up with this list?
11:10 Marvel Western Titles
14:04 Hanna-Barebera Titles
17:08 Teen Humor Titles
19:23 Children Humor Titles
22:00 Other Obscure Marvel Bronze Age items
25:47 Marvel Romance Titles
27:16 Marvel 30 and 35 Cent Variants
29:51 Closing Thoughts

#comicbooks #keycomics #comiccollecting #marvelcomics #comic #comics #keyissues

[robertmonroejr]

Books from the 70’s are hard to find in a high grade because, back then, we actually read our comic books and didn’t stick just them in a bags & boards.

[michaelp_]

Night Nurse was another Rare book hard to find In high grade ‼️
I was fortunate to get a sweet copy for a few bucks back in the mid 1980’s. Years later I sent it to CGC and it received an 8.5 grade with white pages.
This was a very nice video that I enjoyed watching 👍

[andrewmarinkovich]

Excellent video! I've often been attracted to collecting "oddball" or "esoteric" comics published by Marvel and DC in the '50s, '60s, and '70s. In the '50s you had such titles from DC as "Congo Bill, " Phantom Stranger, " "Frontier Fighters, " "The Adventures of Charlie Chan, " among others that I used to collect because hardly anybody else was looking for them. I've also owned some of the Marvel '70s books you mention, like "Pete the Pest, " "Homer the Happy Ghost, " and some of those romance books. I just find it fun to collect that kind of stuff because, as you say, it can be genuinely tough to find in nice shape and, for me, the hunt is often the best part of collecting comics. Once I have the books, they just sit in a box so, yeah, the hunt is where the fun is for me. Of course it can be tough to sell these types of books and get full value if you need to liquidate your comics, but there are collectors out there who appreciate them. Anyway, thanks for the entertaining video. 👍

[georgeskuros]

Ralph is rapidly becoming my must see videos about the evolution of comics and comic collecting. Good content and subject matter. Again.

[christopherwilliams]

What a great topic and video! I loved how you explained each category with a few examples.

[kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks]

Hi, Ralph. Great video! Thanks for the shout out 🙂

[murraykelm]

In the late 70's marvel published a pop culture magazine called Pizzazz, it had puzzles, interviews with the pop stars of the time and mixed in marvel characters.

[jessemccann]

😮Yes, Ralph. That is The Mod Squad on the cover of the Spoof comic!😊

[artofbusiness]

To: Ralph’s Retro-Comics,
This is the type of comic book YT Channel that I really enjoy, that I look forward to, and was not haphazardly suggested to me, by the algorithm.

I’m looking forward to viewing all your previously uploaded videos.
I’m a collector of several niche comic books from multiple publishers over the last 80 years.
Looking forward to your future videos, in this series. The rarest DC, the rarest Gold Key, the rarest Tower Comics, the rarest Atlas-Seaboard. The sky’s the limit.

I’ve subscribed.

— Thank you.

[garagegeek]

What a fun video. That Spidey thumbnail drew me in because I love that cover. The Monster magazines are so nice. I like collecting the western books too. This video is so informative and interesting.

[littlekoalas]

Great video. I've been collecting Marvel horror for 3 years now and trying to complete the Marvel horror genre. Completed Tomb of Darkness, Beware, Uncanny Tales from the Grave, Chamber of Chills, Fear, and Dead of Night, all high grade. For me, it's high grade or go home. Now gotta complete Monsters on the Prowl and Where Creatures Dwell. EC Horror is next on my list. Keep up the great videos. Love the content. Stay a kid at heart and never part with what you love.

[LeadPaint]

These are the comics/genres I’ve been focusing on the past few years, and you’re right, most are difficult to find in mid to high grade. I’ve had a few of those series on my want list for years with not much activity. Really fun video with some on point insight!

[the-G-Man]

Great video! I started collecting back in 1972 and recall seeing some of these obscure issues, particularly the horror items. It’s great to see and hear about some truly rare comics.

[Allan-zebn]

>10 K views in 4 days and barely over 600 subscribers? Come on people! Another great video. Thanks!

[daviawyliefinch]

This was great. I'm a fan of Bronze Age books but I hadn't heard of some of these!

[SJSPosts]

Hey! I Owned a lot of these issues. They usually ended up as rolled up fly swatters in the summertime! 😃 who knew?

[Deephouse_Gent]

This was a great video. I am 58 and have been collecting since I was 8, and I would agree with you that many of the titles you names can be found but not in high grades. I LOVE those horror reprint titles, especially MONSTERS ON THE PROWL because you almost always found some old Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko art in them. Same for the Marvel Western reprint titles. The stories were often fun, and I looked forward to coming across art by Kirby or Dick Ayers. Rawhide Kid seemed to last forever. Man, I completely forgot about those Hanna Barbera titles! I remember seeing them, but never bought any. NOW I wish I had! I NEVER had an issue of FOOM, nor have I ever seen any out in the wild. In terms of rare Bronze Age Marvel items you don't see often, I would also mention the MARVEL SUPER SPECIAL magazine. The first issue featured the rock group KISS in battle against Doctor Doom. Other issues featured comicbook versions of popular films like JAWS-II and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS. I believe one issue featured THE BEATLES with art by George Perez. Nice finds and a great video! I just subscribed to your channel!

[kurtanglerookieyear]

Great content, and it's good to see someone notice these things!

[vincentimbesi]

Very cool list! I have some of these books, but not in high grade. 👍🏼💙

[kenny_numbers]

Great video! Absolutely incredible to have all those issues in such high grade. I had about 12-14 issues of FOOM, most in high grade, but unfortunately sold them all for next to nothing over 20 years ago.