OUR ARMY AT WAR #252

Cover shows moderate wear consistent with a well-read Bronze Age book: visible spine stress with a couple of small ticks along the spine edge, slight corner softening at top left, and light surface scuffing. There is a small crease/bend near the upper left edge and mild waviness to the cover stock. Colors remain bright with no notable fading or staining visible. The book is in a protective sleeve which obscures fine edge detail; interior pages and back cover were not assessed.

Our Army at War #252 is a Bronze Age issue of DC's long-running war anthology series, published with a December 1972 cover date. By this point in its run the title was firmly built around Sgt. Rock and Easy Company, the combat unit created by writer Robert Kanigher and artist Joe Kubert in the late 1950s, with Kubert continuing to serve as the line's editor and frequent cover artist through the 1970s. The issue arrives well into a series that would run for over 300 issues before eventually being retitled Sgt. Rock, placing it in the middle of a very long, well-documented publishing history rather than at any origin or turning point for the character.

As a mid-run entry with no first appearance, death, or other landmark event attached to it, the issue carries no designation as a key book in standard price guides, and that assessment lines up with how it actually circulates in the market: raw copies are plentiful and generally trade close to original cover price in worn condition, with modest premiums for cleaner, more complete copies. War comics of this era, including Sgt. Rock titles, have a steady but modest collector base compared to superhero counterparts, and demand for individual non-key issues like this one is driven mainly by readers assembling a run or admirers of Kubert's war-comics work rather than speculative key-issue buyers.

Collecting interest in this issue is best understood as reader- and completist-driven. Buyers are typically fans of the Sgt. Rock character and Kanigher-Kubert war stories looking to fill gaps in a long run, rather than investors chasing appreciation. Across grades the book behaves like most ordinary Bronze Age war comics: inexpensive in worn condition, modestly priced in the mid-grade range typical of longbox finds, and only reaching more meaningful figures in pristine, certified high-grade slabs where scarcity of well-preserved copies, rather than any inherent key status, accounts for the premium.