THE THING #20

Cover shows strong gloss and vibrant color with sharp corners and no visible creasing, spine stress, or color breaks. Edges appear clean with no chips or tears visible; the book is currently housed in a protective sleeve which limits full surface inspection. No writing, stains, or fading are apparent on the front cover. Interior pages and back cover were not assessed.

The Thing #20 lands in the stretch of the character's first solo ongoing that John Byrne scripted with Ron Wilson on pencils, continuing the post-Secret Wars storyline that kept Ben Grimm away from the Fantastic Four and on Battleworld. The issue carries the series' recurring supporting cast of the period — Tarianna, the Takers, and the alien Llrrllllnnllyyrrl — alongside an Ultron appearance, with Joe Sinnott inking the cover and Mike Gustovich on interior inks, Bob Sharen coloring and Jack Morelli lettering, under the Mike Carlin/Jim Shooter editorial regime. It is a working chapter of a well-regarded run rather than a milestone: no first appearance, origin, or death anchors it, and its interest rests on Byrne's stewardship of Grimm during one of the few extended periods the character headlined his own book.

Market behavior matches that profile. Copies circulate constantly in dollar boxes and bulk lots, and dedicated price data is effectively absent — the census carries little or nothing certified, and guide sites default to estimates interpolated from neighboring issues. Demand is driven almost entirely by run collectors completing the 1983-1986 series and by Byrne completists, neither of whom pay meaningful premiums for mid-grade material. Direct-edition copies like this one were the dominant distribution channel for the title by 1985; the parallel newsstand printing is scarcer in high grade but has not developed the pricing separation seen on more heavily traded Marvel titles of the decade.

Collectors approaching this book are typically assembling the full Thing run, filling a Fantastic Four-adjacent shelf, or chasing Ron Wilson interior work. Low- and mid-grade raw copies trade interchangeably and are usually bought as part of multi-issue groupings rather than individually. Value concentrates almost entirely at the top: a certified copy at the highest tier would be a scarcity play on the empty census rather than on underlying demand, and any such result should be treated as a thin, single-bidder market. For a dealer archive, this is inventory that moves best in run lots.