THE THING #24

Cover shows strong gloss and sharp corners with no visible creases or color breaks. Spine appears tight with no stress lines visible in this photo. There is minor edge wear noted at the top right corner and a small handling crease at the top edge near the spine; the book is in a protective sleeve which may obscure minor surface defects. Interior and back cover were not assessed.

Published with a June 1985 cover date, this issue of Marvel's Thing solo title comes from the post-Battleworld phase of the series, after Ben Grimm's return from the Secret Wars planet and his separation from the Fantastic Four. Mike Carlin scripts, with Ron Wilson penciling and Joe Sinnott inking both interiors and cover, and Mark Gruenwald editing under editor-in-chief Jim Shooter. The story pits Grimm against the Rhino, whose actions are being directed by the illusion-casting Miracle Man, and it belongs to the stretch of the run that repositioned the character around street-level slugfests and the wrestling storyline that would soon introduce Sharon Ventura. No first appearance, origin, or death occurs here; its interest is as a well-drawn chapter of a Wilson-Sinnott run that has drawn renewed attention since Marvel collected the series in omnibus form.

Market behavior follows the pattern of nearly all 1985 Marvel mid-run material. Print runs were large, survival rates high, and demand is driven by run collectors filling gaps rather than by speculators, so raw copies trade at or near bin pricing and rarely justify shipping on their own. Certified copies are scarce simply because submission costs exceed any plausible return, which leaves the census sparse and top-grade sales infrequent and irregular; when a high-grade slab does surface, the result reflects registry and set-building demand more than any underlying key status. The newsstand designation matters modestly at the top of the grade scale, since newsstand distribution produced fewer well-preserved copies than direct-market channels, but it adds nothing measurable in circulated grades.

Buyers are predominantly Thing and Fantastic Four completists, Copper Age run builders, and collectors of Joe Sinnott's inking work. The practical trading pattern is straightforward: low-grade copies move in lots or as filler, mid-grade copies sell readily and cheaply as single-issue want-list fills, and only pristine, well-centered newsstand examples make any case for certification. Anyone pursuing this issue should expect availability to remain steady and pricing to stay flat absent a media catalyst tied to the Thing's solo material.