WEREWOLF BY NIGHT #40

Cover shows strong gloss and vivid color with sharp corners and no visible creases or tears; a small area of surface sheen/reflection near the werewolf's head may be glare rather than wear. UPC barcode box confirms newsstand edition, consistent with slight edge wear typical of the format. Spine appears tight with no obvious stress lines or color breaks visible in this image. Back cover and interior pages were not assessed, so grade is based solely on the visible front cover condition.

Werewolf by Night #40 arrived in September 1976 as the series wound toward its cancellation with issue #43, part of the run's later stretch scripted by Doug Moench with pencils by Don Perlin, the art team most associated with Jack Russell's adventures after the departure of Mike Ploog. The title had already delivered its most historically important content earlier in the run, including the first appearances of Moon Knight in issues #32-33, and issue #40 does not carry a first appearance, origin, or death of note; it is a working installment of a cult Bronze Age horror book rather than a recognized key.

Market activity reflects that status: sales are thin at every census point, with single-digit transaction counts from 7.0 through 9.6 and pricing that climbs gently through the mid grades before spiking at the top of the census, where only a handful of 9.4 and 9.6 copies have traded and none at 9.8 have sold at all. That shape is typical of a low-key issue in a collected series — demand is driven almost entirely by Werewolf by Night completists and Bronze Age horror collectors building full runs, rather than by first-appearance or landmark-cover buyers, so the low and mid grade tiers move for modest sums while a true top-census slab is scarce enough to justify outsized bidding when one surfaces.

For cataloging purposes this is a solid but unspectacular filler book for series runs: raw copies in low and mid grade are inexpensive and largely traded within Bronze Age horror want-lists, while a 9.8 (or the closest certified equivalent) becomes a condition-census trophy purchased by registry-focused collectors rather than general Marvel buyers. Expect steady but unspectacular turnover at the bottom of the grade scale and a thin, patient market for top-graded examples.