WEREWOLF BY NIGHT #42

Cover shows strong gloss and bright, unfaded colors with sharp corners and a tight, unstressed spine in this photo. No visible creases, tears, or color breaks are apparent, though the protective sleeve introduces some glare that could mask minor surface wear. Interior pages and back cover were not assessed, so the grade reflects front-cover appearance only.

Werewolf by Night #42 arrived during the later stretch of Marvel's 1970s werewolf-horror title, part of a run that helped anchor the publisher's horror line alongside Tomb of Dracula and Ghost Rider. The series had already made its mark on Marvel history by introducing Moon Knight a few years earlier, and by the time of issue #42 the book was firmly a mid-run entry rather than a launch point for any new character or concept, with Jack Russell's lycanthropic saga continuing under the regular Bronze Age creative rotation of writer Doug Moench and penciler Don Perlin.

Market data shows a book that trades like a typical mid-tier Bronze Age horror title: modest and fairly flat pricing through the mid and lower grades, with a pronounced premium concentrated at the top of the census. With only six 9.8 copies certified against a total graded population of 88, the gem-mint tier commands outsized value relative to the rest of the curve, a pattern common to non-key Bronze Age issues where survivorship in pristine condition is scarce even though raw copies remain plentiful and inexpensive.

This is a book collected primarily by Werewolf by Night series-run completists and Bronze Age horror specialists rather than key-issue speculators. Lower and mid-grade raw copies see steady but unremarkable demand as reading and run-filling copies, while the 9.8 tier draws targeted competition from census-chasers and registry collectors, producing the wide spread between raw and top-slab pricing evident in the sales history.