STRANGE TALES #160

Cover shows moderate general wear consistent with a mid-grade Silver Age book: soft corners, some minor surface scuffing and a light vertical crease running through the lower right quadrant near the Mordo caption. There is slight color rub along the spine area and minor waviness/warping to the cover stock, along with a small amount of foxing near the top left indicia box. No major tears, missing pieces, or heavy staining are visible, but the book is in a protective sleeve which creates some glare obscuring fine detail; interior and back cover were not assessed.

Strange Tales #160 arrived in September 1967 during the final stretch of Marvel's split-anthology format, pairing a Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD adventure with a Doctor Strange tale before both features graduated to their own titles the following year. The issue is representative of the Jim Steranko era on the Fury strip, when his kinetic layouts and pop-art sensibility were reshaping how Marvel's espionage stories looked on the page, while the Doctor Strange feature carried forward the moody, psychedelic visual language that made the mystic's adventures a favorite of art-conscious readers. Stan Lee's plotting and dialogue anchor both halves, tying the book to the studio's late-1960s house style just as the anthology model was giving way to dedicated series.

Demand for the issue tracks the broader Steranko-Fury collector base rather than any single first appearance, since #160 does not introduce a major character or plot element that price guides single out as a key moment. Census data shows a healthy population across the grading spectrum with over 200 CGC Universal copies recorded, and the FMV curve is typical of a well-collected but non-key Silver Age Marvel: modest and stable through mid-grade, then rising sharply above 9.0 as high-grade survivors thin out. The jump from 9.4 to 9.6 FMV levels is pronounced, reflecting how few copies survive the era's newsprint stock and typical handling in top condition.

The book suits Silver Age Marvel completists, Steranko art collectors, and readers building a Nick Fury or Doctor Strange run rather than key-issue speculators. Raw copies in low and mid grade move steadily but without urgency, priced for shelf-fillers and reading copies, while certified high-grade examples — especially anything approaching the top of the census — command outsized premiums driven by scarcity rather than narrative significance. Expect the widest price spread between mid-grade and pristine slabs, with the top end reserved for buyers assembling census-topping Steranko material.