JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS #14

The cover shows strong gloss and sharp corners with no visible creasing or color breaks at the spine. Minor handling wear may be present but is not clearly visible through the protective sleeve; edges appear clean and square. The book is currently housed in a plastic sleeve, which limits full assessment of surface sheen and spine stress. Interior pages and back cover were not visible and were not assessed.

John Carter, Warlord of Mars #14 (Marvel, August 1978) arrived during the publisher's late-1970s push into licensed adventure properties, adapting Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom novels for a 28-issue run. This issue is scripted by Marv Wolfman, penciled by Carmine Infantino, and inked by Rudy Nebres, with lettering by Jim Novak and coloring credited to Franu00u00e7oise Mouly, who would go on to co-found RAW Magazine and later serve as art editor of The New Yorker. The cast includes John Carter, Dejah Thoris, Tars Tarkas, Kantos Kan, Mors Kajak, and Sola, continuing the ongoing Barsoom saga rather than introducing any new characters of lasting significance.

The series occupies a niche within Bronze Age Marvel: a licensed adaptation without a first appearance, death, or origin story to anchor collector demand, and it has never generated the crossover interest seen in Marvel's core superhero or horror lines of the period. Demand is concentrated among Edgar Rice Burroughs completists and collectors assembling the full John Carter run, plus a smaller pool of Infantino and Wolfman completists. Graded census populations for the title are thin across the board, which supports modest premiums at the top end even without broad speculative interest.

This issue trades as a run-builder's book rather than a speculative hold. Low-grade copies circulate cheaply in dollar bins and bulk lots aimed at readers completing the series; mid-grade raw copies are readily available to collectors filling gaps without urgency. A CGC 9.8 newsstand copy is scarce simply because few examples were submitted for grading, so its value reflects condition-census scarcity within a narrow buyer pool rather than any broader market pull on the character or storyline.