Welcome back to my month-long Magical Misery Tour of the Bronze Age Marvel Comics I scissored up in futile pursuit of an utterly worthless collection of Marvel Value Stamps!

We’re just short of half-way through my personal chamber of terrors. Let us count today’s dead!

Killraven, Red Sonja, and The Ancient One is a man. Oh yeah, you know you’re in the 70s, baby!

Here are the comics I sacrificed for this dubious faux stamp collection:

• #25 The Torch: Captain Marvel #34 – $25
• #26 Mephisto: Captain America #177 – $9
• #27 Black Widow: Fantastic Four #150 – $31 (Crystal and Quicksilver’s wedding)
• #30 Grey Gargoyle: Creatures on the Loose #31 – $9
• #33 Invisible Girl: Doctor Strange #4 – $17 
• #35 Killraven: Thor #227 – $10
• #38 Red Sonja: Adventure into Fear #24 – $21 (Morbius vs Blade)
• #40 Loki: Thor 228 – $10

That gets me up to $375 to replace my damaged books in today’s dollars … but I have to admit, that is a cheap price to pay for the nostalgic joy I’ve experienced going through this project. One of the unexpected bonuses has been looking up the cover images of the source books for each stamp, to confirm that I did indeed have that issue.

I mean, look at this Frank Brunner masterpiece from Doctor Strange #4:

That is one awesome comic book cover … and it was on a book I bought for a quarter in 1974! Takes me back, I tell you.

Hey, I’m actually feeling kind of good about this project! I’m all nostalgic and … and … I think I might cry tears of joy. This could be the high point of my blogging career!

This is the greatest night of my life! What could possibly destroy this precious moment?

Marvel Value Stamp info sourced through the Marvel Value Stamps Index. Thanks to Billy King for Marvel Value Stamp horror scenes Photoshop wizardry and indexing back order prices!

TOMORROW: Swamp Thing!