It’s time once more for Undervalued and Overlooked Comics! This time we’ll be looking at the Silver Age. Take a look at the comics that are flying under most collectors’ radar.

First Classic Green Arrow Costume

Green Arrow began wearing his costume now viewed as the classic look in The Brave and the Bold #85, cover dated July 1969. That’s right; Ollie was wearing his old Golden Age Robin Hood knockoff through most of the Silver Age. Whereas most DC characters had revamped looks early on in the Silver Age, Green Arrow just kept chugging along in his dated duds.

Thanks to Neal Adams afficionados, this isn’t quite an overlooked comic, although it’s close. It is, however, like many DC Silver Age comics, undervalued.

There are 283 graded copies of The Brave and the Bold #85 in the CGC census, with the most plentiful grade being 8.5. The last sale of an 8.5 graded copy was in July 2022 when one sold for $240 in a fixed price eBay sale. It’s a marginal increase over the four copies that sold in 2020 for $200. However, when you look at present dollar value, you realize that this comic was worth $282 all the way back in May 2015. So, this book has actually lost value, and I’m not sure why.

It’s a cool book. Neal Adams art. New Green Arrow costume. And it’s relatively cheap. Definitely worth adding to your collection.

First Space Ghost

If you were a kid in the late 1960s through the mid to late 1970s, you probably remember some of the cool adventure and sci-fi based Hanna-Barbera cartoons. One of the most riveting was Space Ghost. As was inevitable at the time, Space Ghost received his own comic book series, beginning with Space Ghost #1, published by Gold Key in 1967. There are 224 graded copies of this comic in the CGC census. There haven’t been many sales over the past year so we’ll have to look at the 5.5 grade, one of the few with multiple sales to see if we can come up with any trends.

Unfortunately for Space Ghost #1, the trends are similar to what we’ve seen in so many other comics of late. After a 5.5 graded copy sold for $528 in a February 2022 Heritage auction, the price plummeted to $208 in an October 2022 eBay auction. The price has risen since – a good sign for this book’s value – to $300 in a December 22 eBay sale.

It’s hard to say that this trend will continue, however. If the price drops below $300 again, this could very much be considered an undervalued comic. It’s hard to say what IP will take off in this day and age – Space Ghost did have a second life in the Space Ghost Coast to Coast animated series - but if you can find this comic on the cheap, it just may pay off in spades.

A Marvel First You Probably Haven’t Heard Of

At the dawn of the Silver Age, before Marvel came up with the superhero formula that would change comics forever, Stan and Company were throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what would stick. One that didn’t stick was romance one-shot The Romances of Nurse Helen Grant #1, cover dated July 1957. Marvel – Atlas at the time – was constantly coming out with new series in the late 1950s but they typically let them last at least a few issues. Not this one; it was likely cancelled before they even received any sales data.

There are six graded copies of The Romances of Nurse Helen Grant #1 in the CGC census. Only two of those copies have recorded sales. The most recent was the top graded 8.0 which sold for $720 in the December Heritage auction. The previous sale was a 4.0 selling for $335 in a June 2017 ComicConnect auction. Considering the amount of time that has lapsed and the difference in grades, it looks like the sale in the Heritage auction was a bit of a bargain.

Clearly, this is beyond an overlooked comic – this is diving deep into the forgotten comic category. Can’t really say that it’s underpriced, but why not take a shot if you can find one.

Well, that’s all we have time for this week.  Join us next week as we take a look at some undervalued and overlooked Copper Age comics.

Do you think later The Brave and the Bold #85, Space Ghost #1, and The Romances of Nurse Helen Grant #1 are undervalued, overlooked, or both?  Let us know below.

*Any perceived investment advice is that of the freelance blogger and does not represent advice on behalf of GoCollect.