MAN-THING #13

Cover shows good color and gloss with sharp corners overall. There is a visible vertical crease/stress line running through the upper right portion of the cover near the speech balloon, and slight waviness along the top edge. No major color breaks, tears, or stains are apparent, though a protective sleeve and slight glare limit full assessment. Interior pages and back cover were not examined.

Man-Thing #13 arrived during Steve Gerber's celebrated run on the title, a series that took Marvel's mute muck-monster into surreal, socially pointed horror-fantasy territory unusual for mainstream 1970s comics. Gerber's scripts on Man-Thing built a cult reputation that would culminate in the creation of Howard the Duck, and issues from this stretch of the run are valued as part of that broader creative achievement even when they lack a specific first appearance or landmark event of their own.

The market for this issue tracks the wider Bronze Age Marvel horror category: modest raw demand, a thin but consistent slab market, and a pronounced price jump at the top of the grade curve. With 45 universal copies recorded and only a handful in 9.6 and above, high-grade examples are scarce relative to demand, which explains the steep climb from mid-grade FMVs in the thirty-to-mid-double-digit range up to several hundred dollars at CGC 9.8. Sales volume is light at every tier, meaning pricing at the extremes leans on a small number of transactions rather than deep liquidity.

This is a book for Gerber-run completists, Man-Thing series collectors, and Bronze Age horror specialists building out a title rather than chasing a singular key. Raw copies in lower grades move as inexpensive filler for long-box collectors, mid-grade copies serve reading-run buyers, and the real premium is reserved for the rare high-grade certified copy, where scarcity on census rather than any specific in-story event drives the price.