MIGHTY SAMSON #23

Cover shows strong gloss and vibrant color retention with sharp, unbroken color on the spine as visible. Corners appear only mildly blunted with no significant chipping, and there are no visible tears, creases, or stains on the front cover. A faint diagonal crease/press mark is visible near the top edge, and the book is housed in a protective sleeve which limits full assessment of edge wear. Interior pages and back cover were not assessed.

Mighty Samson #23 is a Bronze Age issue of Gold Key's long-running post-apocalyptic adventure title, which followed the eyepatch-wearing strongman Samson as he battled mutated creatures and warring factions in the ruins of a future New York City (referred to in the series as N'Yark). The title launched in 1964 and ran for over thirty issues, building a modest but dedicated readership around its Otto Binder-created premise blending science fiction, sword-and-sorcery adventure, and horror-tinged monster design. Gold Key's house style of painted or tightly rendered covers and interior art from studio regulars gave the series a distinct visual identity within the crowded newsstand adventure-comics field of the era.

As a mid-run issue from 1972, #23 falls well within the title's steady middle stretch rather than at any origin point or narrative turning point, and it carries no first appearance or other landmark distinction. Gold Key comics of this vintage are generally undervalued relative to contemporaneous output from the larger publishers, in part because the company's newsstand-only, no-variant-cover distribution model limited both print runs and collector visibility, and Mighty Samson in particular has never developed a broad crossover fanbase. The absence of a published fair-market value for this specific issue is consistent with its status as a common, easily found back-issue rather than a scarcity.

Collecting interest in this book comes primarily from Gold Key specialists and completists building a run of the Samson title, rather than from character-driven demand of the kind seen with major superhero keys. Raw copies circulate cheaply and are readily available in the lower grades that make up the bulk of surviving copies, while properly preserved high-grade examples are genuinely harder to find given the fragile paper and cover stock Gold Key used, which supports a meaningful premium for a top-tier certified slab even without any narrative significance driving that demand. This is a reader's and completist's book rather than an investment-grade key.