Sunday, March 17, 2013

Tales from the 25¢-50¢ Bin!

Hello fellow Hordytes! And welcome to another edition of Tales from the 25¢ Bin, or what we may be forced to rename Tales from the 25¢-50¢ Bin due to the fact that my favorite local used bookstore has seemingly decided that their cheap-o bins weren't making them enough scratch, and so what were once piles of comics for a measley quarter each, are now piles of comics that vary from 1/4 to 1/2 a buck. 

I guess this was inevitable. But it does make me a little sad. It won't stop me from buying comics from them, but I will be a bit more choosey from here on out, because I'll buy just about anything remotely interesting for a quarter, but for some reason, as soon as it hits the two-for-$1 range, I get all stingy like a Great Depression baby. 

Anyhoo, that didn't stop me from bringing home a pretty epic haul the other day. I actually snagged a bigger stack than this, but I thought today we'd just take a look at all the comics I nabbed from the much-loved (by me, anyway) and long-gone Gold Key comics.

First up we have The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan. I have vague memories of this cartoon which was basically the cartoon version of a somewhat racist portrayal of a Chinese detective from a series of 1940s movies, but if he had a buttload of kids. You know, just what kids love.


Next up are a couple of issue of Boris Karloff's Tales of Mystery. These sort of weird tales had nothing to do with Boris Karloff, he didn't write them or draw them, nor were the stories even about him, but his picture was on each cover and a little drawn version of him introduced each story like a dapper Crypt Keeper. Odd as all of this sounds, I used to love these comics when I was a kid.


Next we have two issues of The Funky Phantom, which was about a gang of mystery solving teenagers (really, Hanna-Barbera?) that hung out with a colonial-era ghost in a tri-corner hat. You know, just what kids love.


 Here we have an issue of Walt Disney Showcase featuring Mickey Mouse playing the Watson roll in a Sherlock Holmes-like story. I bought it because I love Mickey Mouse, and I may be crazy, but I swear I had this very issue when I was a kid.


Next up are three issues of a comic I loved to death as a kid. I adored Ripley's Believe It or Not collections of the classic newspaper strip and the mega-creepy show hosted by Jack Palance when I was a kid and the few issues of this comic book, which focus solely on "true" ghost stories, that I had back in the day were especially treasured. 



These classic Scooby Doo issues are like gold to me! I've long been a fan of the original Scooby Doo, Where Are You? animated show and these comics, which came out around the same era (pre-Scrappy Doo, pre-Pup Named Scooby Doo) still have some of that classic spooky vibe.


And finally, I picked up this issue of Turok - Son of Stone, which is about a Native American who still lives in a land of dinosaurs, because like I mentioned before, I'll buy just about anything for a quarter.


That's it for this haul, kids! Check back for more Tales from the 25¢-50¢ Bin!