TARZAN LORD OF THE JUNGLE #26

Cover shows strong gloss and bright colors with a visible vertical crease running through the upper left corner box and slight waviness across the spine area. Corners appear sharp with only minor wear at the top edges; no major creases, tears, or color breaks are evident elsewhere. The UPC barcode box confirms newsstand edition. Interior and back cover were not assessed, so grade is based solely on this front cover photo.

Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle #26 is a late installment of Marvel's 1977-1979 adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs property, arriving a few issues before the series' cancellation at #29. The Marvel run followed on the heels of Gold Key and DC's earlier Tarzan licenses, adapting Burroughs' novels with John Buscema supplying covers for the bulk of the series and lending the book a consistent, recognizable visual identity even as the title's fortunes waned commercially. No first appearance, death, or origin sequence is associated with this issue, and it is not cited as a key in standard price guides.

Market demand for the Marvel Tarzan run is narrow, concentrated among Burroughs completists, jungle-adventure genre collectors, and buyers assembling the full 29-issue set rather than speculators chasing a single hot issue. Sales activity clusters on eBay, where raw mid-grade copies move steadily but modestly, and graded copies are scarce enough that certified sales at the top of the grade scale are infrequent and command a premium mainly for eye appeal and scarcity rather than storyline significance. As a newsstand printing from a period when direct-market distribution was just beginning to split print runs, high-grade survivors of this specific edition are somewhat harder to find than their direct-edition counterparts, which supports a modest premium in top grades.

This is a book that trades within a tight, low-volume niche: raw copies in reading condition are inexpensive and readily available, mid-grade examples turn over routinely as part of run-building purchases, and a Universal 9.8 is a specialist purchase for a Tarzan or Buscema-cover collector rather than a mainstream investment vehicle. Expect thin bidding at auction, slow but steady raw-copy turnover, and pricing driven more by completist demand for the series than by any single feature of this issue.