STRANGE TALES #12

Cover shows strong gloss and vibrant color with sharp corners and no visible creases or spine stress. Edges appear clean with no chipping, and the image is well-centered with no color breaks visible. The book is in a protective sleeve which may create minor glare but no significant defects are apparent; interior pages and back cover were not assessed.

Strange Tales #12 is part of the short-lived second volume of Strange Tales, a title Marvel revived in 1987 primarily as a vehicle for Cloak and Dagger, the street-level duo introduced a few years earlier in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man. This volume ran only nineteen issues before cancellation, with Cloak and Dagger's adventures forming the lead feature and rotating creative teams handling art chores through the run. By issue #12, cover-dated March 1988, the series was well into its back half, continuing the characters' ongoing storylines without any major structural change to the title's format.

This is a common late-Copper Age Marvel back issue. It was not a high-print-era breakout nor does it contain a first appearance, death, or other landmark event that collectors track; Cloak and Dagger had already been established as characters well before this volume began. The absence of a published fair-market value reflects the book's status as a plentiful, inexpensive find in longbox and dollar-bin inventories, consistent with most mid-run issues from short-lived 1980s spinoff titles.

Demand for this issue centers on completists building a full run of Strange Tales volume 2 or Cloak and Dagger character collectors filling gaps in their character-specific runs. Raw copies in low and mid grade are readily available and inexpensive, changing hands mostly in bulk lots or bargain bins rather than as individually marketed items. A high-grade CGC 9.8 example would appeal to a narrower slab-collecting audience interested in pristine copies of the run, but such copies are scarce on the certified market and command only modest premiums relative to the book's otherwise minor standing.