Bronze Age Hot Pick – Warlock #12 1st Pip The Troll Cover

CLICK HERE for Silver Age Hot Pick: House of Mystery #160

Explore any red-highlighted links or comic covers to shop directly from all available eBay sellers now.
*This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Bronze Age Hot Pick – Warlock #12 1st Pip The Troll Cover

Warlock #12 from 1976 is one of those comics that barely registers on anyone’s radar—and honestly, there’s not much reason for it to. We just wanted to shine a little light on it because the cover absolutely rips. Jim Starlin (Marvel’s cosmic godfather) delivered a killer piece of art here. And to be fair, the issue does have one notable distinction: it features Pip the Troll’s first cover appearance and his origin story. So yes, there’s at least a spark of collector value tucked in there.
Pip actually debuted a year earlier in Strange Tales #179—also courtesy of Starlin. He’s never been a major force in the Marvel Universe, but he’s a fun oddball character to own, and he even popped up in the Eternals film in 2021.
Now for the numbers. There are only 368 CGC‑graded copies out there, and the census is wildly top‑heavy. A massive 283 of them are Near Mint. That’s nearly 80% of all graded copies sitting in high grade. Translation: this book is not hard to find clean, and the sales reflect that. A 9.2 recently moved for just $35. You could probably dig this out of a dollar bin at a local show without breaking a sweat.
So no, it’s not a heavy hitter—just a fun Bronze Age oddity with a sliver of significance in a hobby overflowing with “big” books. And sometimes that’s exactly what makes a comic worth talking about.

-Jay Katz