THE FLASH #140

Front cover shows a diagonal crease running through the upper left corner near the logo, a small dent/tear at the top edge, and general wear along the spine with light stress lines. Corners show blunting, especially lower left, and there is mild surface soiling on the green background. Color appears bright with no major fading. Book is in a protective sleeve; back cover and interior pages were not assessed.

The Flash #140 (November 1963) arrives during the height of DC's Silver Age revival of its signature speedster, produced by the regular creative team of writer John Broome, penciler Carmine Infantino, and inker Joe Giella. Infantino's clean, kinetic linework defined the visual identity of Barry Allen's Flash throughout this stretch of the series, and this issue is representative of that era's blend of science-fiction plotting and rogues'-gallery action rather than a landmark issue in its own right. It falls within the broader run collectors pursue for the character's foundational Silver Age stories rather than standing out for any single first appearance.

Market data shows a typical mid-run Silver Age curve: values stay flat through the mid-grades in the $48-$80 range, where supply is comparatively deep across 297 census copies, before climbing sharply above 9.0 as high-grade survivors thin out. The jump from 9.4 to 9.6 and the near-total absence of any 9.8 on census reflect the difficulty of finding pressed, bright, well-centered copies of a 60-year-old newsstand comic that saw heavy handling. Demand is driven by Flash-title completists and Silver Age DC collectors building the Broome/Infantino run rather than by first-appearance speculators, which keeps mid-grade pricing steady but unspectacular.

This is a book that trades as a run-filler rather than a headline lot: expect steady, unremarkable turnover in low-to-mid grade at auction and via dealer stock, with real premiums concentrated almost entirely in the handful of surviving 9.0-plus copies. Buyers are typically series collectors and Silver Age generalists rather than key-issue investors, and a certified 9.8 would command outsized interest at auction simply due to census scarcity rather than story significance.