ASTONISHING TALES #33

Cover shows moderate wear consistent with a mid-grade copy: visible vertical crease lines running through the center of the cover art, slight color rubbing/wear along the spine, and a soft corner at the lower left. There is a faint diagonal stress line across the upper portion of the cover and some minor surface scuffing. The book is currently housed in a protective plastic sleeve, which adds some glare but does not appear to hide major defects. Interior pages and back cover were not visible for assessment.

Astonishing Tales #33 arrived in January 1976 near the end of the title's run, by which point the anthology format had given way to a solo Ka-Zar feature following the earlier discontinuation of the Man-Thing and Guardians of the Galaxy back-ups that had once shared the book. The series is best remembered for Deathlok's debut in issue #25 and for its role as an incubator for Marvel's jungle-lord character between his own solo titles; #33 falls into the later, less-documented Ka-Zar-only stretch that closed out the series at #36. It carries no first appearance, origin, or landmark creative milestone, and its historical footnote is largely tied to being part of that final run rather than to any content unique to the issue itself.

Market data reflects a book with steady but modest demand: sales are thin at every grade, pricing stays compressed through the mid grades, and only a handful of high-grade copies exist on certified census. The FMV curve shows the typical late-Bronze-Age pattern of flat values from very good through near mint, with meaningful separation only appearing at 9.4 and above, where scarcity of pristine survivors starts to matter more than raw completist demand. There is no confirmed 9.8 sale price, underscoring how few copies have reached that grade and how uncertain a true "top of census" price point remains.

This is a book that trades as run-filler for Ka-Zar and Astonishing Tales completists rather than as a standalone target, so most transactions happen at the low end in bulk lots or long-box browsing rather than as featured auction lots. Mid-grade copies see occasional individual sales driven by series collectors filling gaps, while true high-grade examples are rare enough that pricing above 9.4 is more speculative than data-driven. Long-term interest will likely continue to track the broader Ka-Zar and Deathlok collecting communities rather than any independent demand for this specific issue.