TARZAN OF THE APES #164

Cover shows strong gloss and vibrant color with no visible fading. Corners appear sharp with only minor blunting, and the spine shows no significant stress lines or ticks visible in this image. There is slight edge wear along the right border and a faint vertical crease near the left edge, but overall the cover presents cleanly. Interior pages and back cover were not assessed, so grade is based solely on the visible front cover.

Tarzan of the Apes #164 arrived from Gold Key in February 1967, part of the publisher's long-running licensed continuation of the Tarzan comic book series after Dell's exit from the character. By this point in the run, Russ Manning's influence over the Tarzan newspaper strip and comics had reshaped the visual language of the character for a new generation of readers, and Gold Key's photo-cover-free painted and inked styling gave the title a distinct identity apart from its Dell predecessor. The issue is a standard installment of ongoing jungle-adventure storytelling rather than a milestone in the character's publishing history.

Market data for this specific issue is sparse, reflecting a title that sees relatively few CGC submissions overall. The certified population skews toward mid-to-high grades with almost no recorded sales below 9.0, meaning most trading activity for this issue happens in the raw market rather than through graded auctions. The handful of high-grade sales that do exist command outsized prices simply because so few copies of any grade come to market, not because of intrinsic scarcity or a defining first appearance.

This is a book collected primarily by Tarzan and Gold Key completists building toward a full run rather than by speculators chasing a key. Raw copies in worn condition trade for a few dollars and rarely move independently of bulk lots, while presentable mid-grade raw copies attract modest premiums from readers assembling the series. High-grade CGC-certified examples, by contrast, see a disproportionate jump in value due to the shallow pool of submissions at the top of the census, making a 9.8 slab a genuine outlier purchase for condition-focused collectors rather than a reflection of broad market depth.