I’ve discussed Marvel Value Stamps with you before, but I recently reached a new level of geekdom with these little treasures. My LCS (local comic shop) sold me a cheap grab bag of heavily abused Avengers comics. In that bag awaited Avengers #130. That’s the one that has Marvel Value Stamp #96, Dr. Octopus.
Now, I have a few Value Stamp issues in our collection, but I would NEVER dream of cutting up the pages of our 1970s Marvels. But in this case, the comic existed in such bad shape that I figured, well, to hell with it! (Yes, I know it’s a $100 book in CGC 9.6, but this was more like a $2 VG-/FR.) And so, with a socially inappropriate and childlike glee that only my fellow comic book fans could share, I grabbed a pair of scissors and peformed the first Value Stamp Extraction Surgery of my Martian life.
Later, I sacrificed Doc Ock to the gods of art in a mixed-media collage type thing for my Dream Journal series. He is either worth more now, or worth less, depending on how you value things. And just what is the value of a value stamp?
Avengers #130 also had a fun splash page I cut out to decorate my humble abode: Thor putting the smack-down on Iron Man!
It seems Iron Man had a personal grudge and wanted to beat up some characters in a foreign country. Thor told him to chill out and put his personal vendetta aside. Ol’ Shell Head wasn’t having it, though. Rule of thumb: No matter how many billions of dollars your costume cost, don’t get in a fist fight with a thunder god. CLANG!
Collector’s Guide: From Avengers #130. Reprinted in Essential Avengers TPB #6 (but not with the value stamp!).
Mars Will Send No More 
Marvel Value Stamps were all the rage in the summer I first got into comics, and I enthusiastically cut them from every book I acquired (to my eternal regret that included my copy of Incredible Hulk #181). I even remember licking the back of a “stamp” thinking that if it was a stamp, it had to have glue on the back … but all I got for that was an inky black tongue.
Even in those days, I had some sensitivity to preserving my books, as I “carefully” cut the stamps out with a razor, to maintain page integrity, but alas … there are still dozens of comics in my Accumulation reminding me of my indiscretions from the summer of ’74. Thanks for ripping the scab off that old wound, Mars!
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It’s time to confront the painful past and come to terms with your grief, Paul. We suggest doing a post dedicated solely to the Marvel Value Stamp issues in your collection. Can we call it a collection now? Has The Accumulation been fully transformed over the last year?
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That Value Stamp post might be just the catharsis I need, Mars. There’s definitely something cosmic going on with me and Value Stamps today — my eBay box arrived with a big stack of Marvel Two-In-Ones and yep, you guessed it, the lousy Marvel Value Stamps had been cut from several of the earliest issues!
What a revoltin’ development this is! Enduring my own youthful mistakes is bad enough, but as a paying customer I shouldn’t have to put up with this nonsense. It’s clobberin’ time!
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We’d be irritated if someone sold us a cut-up Value Stamp issue but didn’t mention that in the auction post!
It’s definitely bloggerin’ time. Last year, we scanned all the Stamps in our collection; but, something dedicated to all the issues themselves would be a cool series.
Dug the stories in your inaugural podcast, and the Bradbury quote. Made us feel like grabbing a six-pack and typing a few memoirs ourselves.
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Oh sweet trip down the smooth road of nostalgia! My dad has that exact issue (I think the Avengers were wandering around in Communist China, for some reason). In the olden days of comics, characters would smack the bejesus out of each other like every other page, with no lingering after effects. Nowadays, that panel would lead into some multi-part Civil War part 2 . . .
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Yes, Kat, the Avengers were in the land of those evil communists of the early 1970s: Vietnam. It includes dialogue like, “You’re a Commie!” But Englehart’s script seems sympathetic to the Vietnamese, and Iron Man’s anti-commie belligerence is painted in a very poor light indeed. This was back when Iron Man’s war-based origin took place in Southesast Asia and not the modern Middle East version. Iron Man got angry and wanted to kick some commie butt, not taking kindly to Thor’s admonition to chill the hell out.
The Avengers were burying the Swordsman in Vietnam at a temple.
This story came out prior to the fall of Saigon.
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