TARZAN LORD OF THE JUNGLE #12

Cover shows strong color and gloss with sharp, well-defined corners and no visible creases or tears. A small area of wear/split is visible near the top edge of the cover where it meets the spine, and slight handling wear is present along the top edge. The book is in a protective sleeve which causes some glare, obscuring fine detail; spine stress ticks cannot be fully assessed due to the bag. Interior pages and back cover were not visible in this photo and were not assessed.

Tarzan Lord of the Jungle #12 (Marvel, cover-dated May 1978) is a mid-run installment of Marvel's late-1970s license to adapt Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan stories, following the publisher's loss of the character to DC in the mid-1970s and subsequent reacquisition. The series was built around John Buscema's pencils, and this issue, titled "Fangs of Death," continues the loose adaptation of Burroughs' original prose tales for a comics readership already familiar with Buscema's jungle-hero work from the earlier Tarzan of the Apes graphic novel and DC's prior run. The issue carries no first appearance, death, or origin story and is not associated with any classic or widely cited cover image, placing it firmly among the series' solid but unremarkable regular issues rather than its handful of recognized keys.

Market demand for this title tracks the broader Bronze Age licensed-comics category: steady but modest interest from Tarzan and Edgar Rice Burroughs completists and from admirers of Buscema's adventure-comics art, without the crossover pull of Marvel's superhero output from the same years. Raw copies in low and mid grades move slowly and at low price points, consistent with sales data for sibling issues in the run, while submission volume to CGC has remained thin enough that 9.8 copies are scarce and priced more on population scarcity than on collector competition. Newsstand copies of this era generally command a modest premium over direct editions in high grade due to lower survival rates, though absolute dollar amounts remain small in either format.

This book fits the profile of an accumulation or filler item for most buyers: affordable in any raw grade for readers assembling a run, and appealing in slabbed high grade primarily to Tarzan specialists and Buscema completists seeking a census-conscious copy rather than to generalist key-issue investors. Across grades the book trades in a narrow band, with the gap between raw and 9.8 driven more by condition scarcity than by intrinsic demand, and prices are unlikely to see significant movement absent a broader revival of interest in the Tarzan license or Buscema's non-superhero work.