TARZAN OF THE APES #180

The cover shows generally strong gloss with vibrant color retention, but there is a faint horizontal crease line running across the upper portion of the cover and mild corner softness at the top right and bottom right. Slight overall toning/aging is visible especially near the edges, and there appears to be minor spine stress with light ticking near the top of the spine. No major tears, color breaks, or stains are visible in this photo; the book is protected in a plastic sleeve which limits full assessment of surface texture. Interior pages and back cover were not assessed.

Tarzan of the Apes #180 appeared from Gold Key in December 1968, part of the publisher's long-running licensed adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs's jungle hero. By this point in the run, Gold Key's Tarzan title benefited from the work of Russ Manning, who had taken over the newspaper strip in 1965 and brought a cleaner, more naturalistic visual style to the character across both strip and comic-book work; Gaylord DuBois, the primary scripter for Gold Key's adventure and licensed titles throughout the 1960s, is the presumed writer. The issue is a standard entry in the series rather than a storyline milestone, with no first appearance, death, or origin sequence attached to it.

Market data reflects a book with a small certified population and correspondingly thin sales history. The handful of recorded CGC sales show a wide spread between mid and top grades, with the small number of 9.6 and 9.8 copies commanding meaningfully more than the 9.0-9.2 tier, a pattern typical of Gold Key Silver Age adventure comics where high-grade survivors are scarce due to lower print quality and lighter collector attention at the time of release. Demand is driven primarily by Tarzan and Burroughs completists, Russ Manning art collectors, and Gold Key specialists rather than broad crossover interest.

This is a book for series and character completists rather than speculative buyers chasing key-issue appreciation. Lower and mid-grade raw copies trade as affordable reading or filler pieces for Tarzan runs, while top-tier CGC-graded examples, given their scarcity on census, draw stronger competition among a narrower pool of high-grade Gold Key collectors. Expect steady but modest demand across grades, with pricing tightly tied to certified population size rather than any narrative significance.