THE FLASH #144

Cover shows moderate wear consistent with a 1964 silver age book: visible spine stress lines and light color-break ticks along the spine, soft/rounded corners, and a small chip at the bottom left edge. There is faint surface soiling and slight discoloration to the blue background, plus a small crease near the lower spine area. The book is in a protective sleeve which adds glare in spots but does not appear to mask major tears. Interior pages and back cover were not visible for assessment.

The Flash #144 arrived in May 1964 during the height of writer John Broome and artist Carmine Infantino's defining run on the title, the creative partnership most responsible for shaping the visual language of the Silver Age Flash. The issue is a standard entry in that run rather than a first appearance or landmark story, featuring Infantino's clean, kinetic linework on the cover and interiors alongside the Kid Flash backup feature that had become a regular fixture of the book by this point in its numbering. It stands as a representative example of DC's mature Silver Age superhero output, produced at a time when the Flash title was a proving ground for many of the visual and narrative conventions that would carry into the character's later decades.

The certified population is modest but not scarce, with 102 total graded copies and 97 in the CGC Universal census, and sales activity spread fairly evenly from the mid grades up through the low 9s. The pricing curve is telling: values stay compressed and modest through 7.0-9.0, then rise sharply at 9.2 and above, with only two copies certified at 9.6 and none higher on record. That top-end thinness, combined with steady but unspectacular demand in the middle grades, indicates a book collected primarily as part of a run rather than chased individually.

Buyers for this issue are typically Silver Age Flash completists and readers assembling the Broome/Infantino era rather than speculators seeking a single marquee key. Mid-grade raw copies move in a narrow, predictable band reflecting consistent but unexcited demand, while certified copies at the top of the census command an outsized premium purely on condition scarcity rather than story significance. Collectors building a full run of the title, or focused specifically on Infantino cover art from this period, represent the most active market for the book across all grades.