The Spectacular Spider-Man #13

Name: The Spectacular Spider-Man #13
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Dec 1977 · Marvel · 0.35 USD

📊 ~52,838 copies sold its debut month

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“...The Coming of Razorback!”

★ 1st appearance — Razorback

About this Issue

Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #13 marks the first full appearance of Razorback (Buford Hollis), a mutant truck driver from Texarkana, Arkansas, who wears a wild-boar cowl and wields an electrified mane — one of the Bronze Age's more memorable, deliberately off-center hero concepts. The issue also introduces Bobby Sue Hollis, Razorback's brainwashed sister, whose predicament drives the entire story and ties the Legion of Light cult arc together across issues #12–15. Beyond the debut itself, the issue is a compact snapshot of Bill Mantlo's Spectacular era: earnest, pulpy storytelling that leaned into working-class American archetypes — CB-radio culture, Southern trucking identity, and the late-1970s CB craze — in a way that no other Spider-Man title of the period attempted. Razorback would resurface meaningfully in John Byrne's Sensational She-Hulk, eventually piloting a stolen NASA spacecraft through deep space, proving that even the most apparently throwaway Bronze Age debuts could carry genuine narrative mileage.

In "The Coming of Razorback!", Spider-Man teams up with the newly introduced Razorback and Flash Thompson in a high-stakes pursuit of Brother Power and Sister Sun, leading them straight to the Hate-Monger’s hidden lair—only to be captured in the process. Written by Bill Mantlo and brought to life with dynamic art by Sal Buscema and Mike Esposito, this 1977 Marvel classic delivers a tense, action-packed chase with a bold new villain on the rise. The cover, penciled by Sal Buscema and inked by Joe Sinnott, captures the moment just before the trap springs.

writer Bill Mantlo · artist Sal Buscema · artist, inker Mike Esposito · colorist Janice Cohen · letterer Annette Kawecki · cover Sal Buscema, Joe Sinnott

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Fine) $5

CGC 9.8 · 97 in census $121

CGC 9.6 · 59 in census $50

CGC 9.4 · 27 in census $39

CGC 9.2 · 12 in census $22*

CGC 9.0 · 10 in census $20*

CGC 8.5 · 4 in census $20*

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CGC 8.0 · 3 in census $20*

CGC 7.5 · 3 in census $20*

CGC 7.0 · 2 in census $20*

CGC 6.5 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 6.0 · 3 in census $20*

CGC 5.5 none in existence

CGC 5.0 · 4 in census $20*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

This exact issue on ebay

CGC 9.8 ▾ $165–$205 2 listings

CGC 9.8 $165 CGC 9.8 $205

CGC 9.6 $90 1 listing Raw — MINT $14.99 1 listing Raw — NM $1.14 1 listing Raw — NM- $21 1 listing

Raw — VF ▾ $2.5–$15 4 listings

VF $2.5 VF $2.99 VF $11.99 VF $15

Raw — FN ▾ $6.99–$12.99 2 listings

FN $6.99 FN $12.99

Raw / ungraded ▾ $4.29–$60 14 listings

Raw / ungraded $4.29 Raw / ungraded $4.75 Newsstand $4.8 Raw / ungraded $6.99 Raw / ungraded $7 Raw / ungraded $7.89 Raw / ungraded $7.99 Raw / ungraded $8.99 Raw / ungraded $12 Raw / ungraded $14.99 Raw / ungraded $17.4 Raw / ungraded $35 Raw / ungraded $37.65 Raw / ungraded $60

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History

Issue #13 was written by Bill Mantlo, who had taken over Spectacular with issue #9 after the title cycled through Gerry Conway and Archie Goodwin as scripters in its opening months. Archie Goodwin served as editor throughout, and Sal Buscema — who penciled the book continuously from its launch through mid-1978 — was joined by inker Mike Esposito, colorist Janice Cohen, and letterer Annette Kawecki. The character of Razorback is credited to Goodwin, Mantlo, and Buscema across multiple reference sources; Goodwin had laid the groundwork with Razorback's shadowy cameo in issue #12 before Mantlo delivered the full reveal here. The issue went on sale September 27, 1977, with a December 1977 cover date, squarely within Marvel's ambition to run Spectacular as a third concurrent Spider-Man ongoing alongside Amazing Spider-Man and Marvel Team-Up.

Trivia · 8 facts

First full appearance of Razorback (Buford T. Hollis), a mutant truck driver and self-made costumed hero from Texarkana, Arkansas; his shadow-only cameo had appeared one issue earlier in #12 (November 1977).
First appearance of Bobby Sue Hollis, Razorback's younger sister and the hostage motivating the entire Legion of Light story arc.
Written by Bill Mantlo, penciled by Sal Buscema, inked by Mike Esposito, colored by Janice Cohen, lettered by Annette Kawecki, and edited by Archie Goodwin — the core creative team that defined early Spectacular.
The story title is '…The Coming of Razorback!' and the issue's first line of dialogue is 'He's Rough — He's Ready — He's the Rip-Roaring Razorback!!' — signaling the deliberately exuberant, CB-era tone of the new character.
Razorback's signature vehicle, an oversized tractor-trailer rig called the 'Big Pig,' makes its debut here as the team's transport to track the Legion of Light's headquarters.
The Hate-Monger in this arc is later revealed to be Man-Beast in disguise — a continuity detail that elevates the cult storyline beyond a one-note villain setup.
Razorback's mutant power — an innate ability to operate any vehicle or craft instinctively — was retroactively foregrounded during John Byrne's Sensational She-Hulk run, where Byrne acknowledged it as a parody of Marvel's then-trend of retroactively identifying established characters as mutants.
The issue has been reprinted in Essential Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man Vol. 1 (2005) and The Spectacular Spider-Man Omnibus Vol. 1 (2022), as well as in various international editions including Marvel UK's Super Spider-Man #271 (1978) and a Mexican edition of El Hombre Araña #228 (1984).