GREEN LANTERN #59
First appearance of Guy Gardner
// Unit specification
| Publisher | Cover date | Era | Variant | Key attribute | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DC Comics | March 1968 | Silver | — | First appearance of Guy Gardner | AVAILABLE |
// Run position
// Condition analysis
Cover shows moderate wear typical of a Silver Age book: notable spine stress with a visible vertical crease/tick marks along the left edge, mild corner blunting at top left and bottom left, and light surface soiling especially along the left border. There is a small tear/crease near the bottom left edge and slight discoloration/yellowing consistent with age. Colors remain fairly bright with no major color breaks visible, but the spine wear and edge wear push this out of high-grade territory. Interior and back cover were not assessed, so overall grade may vary once fully examined.
// Valuation — market reference
| Bracket | Grade | Est. market value | Marker |
|---|---|---|---|
| LOW_RAW | 0.5 – 1.5 | $76 | |
| MID_RAW | 4.0 – 6.0 | $234 | |
| HIGH_CERT | 9.8 SLAB | $30,000 |
// Archive commentary
Green Lantern #59 (DC Comics, cover-dated March 1968) is written by John Broome with art by Gil Kane and inks by Sid Greene, closing out the celebrated Broome/Kane run that defined the Hal Jordan era. The issue's lasting significance rests on a single introduction: Guy Gardner, presented here as a Green Lantern candidate and eventual rival to Hal Jordan, a character who would go on to become one of DC's most recognizable Green Lantern Corps members and a founding-era fixture of Justice League International in the 1980s.
The FMV curve for this issue shows the classic profile of a mid-tier Silver Age key: raw grades from About Good through Fine hold modest, steady values reflecting a reasonably large surviving population, while the market accelerates sharply at the high end. The jump from 9.6 to 9.8 is disproportionate to the rest of the curve, driven by the extreme scarcity of pristine survivors — only a handful of copies occupy the top of the census against nearly two thousand graded overall. That imbalance signals demand concentrated among collectors chasing condition census copies of a recognized first appearance rather than casual readers of the underlying Hal Jordan storyline.
The book is a staple for Silver Age Green Lantern run collectors, key-issue investors building first-appearance sets, and the wider base of Guy Gardner and Justice League International fans who trace the character back to his debut. Lower and mid-grade raw copies move steadily as affordable entry points into the key, while high-grade certified copies, particularly those approaching or achieving 9.8, trade as centerpiece pieces commanding a premium far out of proportion to the rest of the grade scale.
// Copies in archive
| Unit | Grade | Variant | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| ECA-007762 | ~7.0 | — | AVAILABLE |
| ECA-007760 | ~6.5 | — | AVAILABLE |
| ECA-007764 | ~5.0 | — | AVAILABLE |
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