BATMAN #142

This Silver Age book shows significant wear consistent with a heavily read copy: heavy spine wear with multiple splits/chips along the spine edge, noticeable color loss and rubbing across the cover surface, corner rounding and blunting on all four corners, and a piece missing from the lower left corner. There is soiling and staining, especially near the cape of the sorcerer figure, and the cover shows overall dinginess and yellowing typical of 1960s newsprint stock. The book is protected in a plastic sleeve which shows some glare but does not obscure major defects. Interior and back cover were not assessed.

Batman #142 (DC Comics, September 1961) arrived during the period when editor Jack Schiff and regular art team Sheldon Moldoff (working under the Bob Kane credit) and Charles Paris were broadening the Bat-family cast beyond Batman and Robin, following the recent introductions of Bat-Girl and other supporting characters in the same run. Scripts for the era were typically supplied by Bill Finger or Dave Wood, continuing the whimsical, gadget-driven tone that defined Batman comics before the New Look relaunch of 1964. The issue is representative of this transitional stretch of the Batman mythos rather than a landmark single moment, but it remains a legitimate piece of the character's Silver Age publishing history.

Market data shows a comic with a substantial certified population (177 Universal copies of 182 total graded) and steady but unspectacular demand: values stay compressed through the low-to-mid grades before rising sharply above 8.0, where population thins and buyer competition increases. The mid-grade FMV plateau near $60-70 reflects a book bought largely by Silver Age Batman completists filling out a run rather than speculators chasing a specific first appearance, while the jump to four-figure territory at 9.0 and above shows the premium collectors place on high-end survivors of any Baby Boomer-era Batman comic, key or not.

This is a run-building book rather than a marquee investment piece, and it trades accordingly: raw copies in low and mid grades move steadily but modestly within established Silver Age Batman price bands, while properly certified high-grade copies (8.5 and above) draw stronger competition from collectors assembling complete graded runs of the title. Absent any certified 9.6 or 9.8 copies, a top-graded example would likely set a new benchmark price rather than following an established comp, making such a slab a genuine condition-census event for the title.