STRANGE TALES #128

The cover exhibits a severe vertical tear/split running down the middle of the book, causing the front cover to separate and reveal the first interior splash page beneath it (visible Scarlet Witch page with handwritten issue number). There is significant loss of the logo lettering due to this tear, heavy edge wear and chipping along the right border, general yellowing/browning consistent with age, and soft, rounded corners. A previous owner's handwritten '128' notation appears on the exposed interior page. Interior contents and back cover were not assessed from this photo, but the extensive structural damage to the cover itself places this well into the low-grade range.

Strange Tales #128 (Marvel, January 1965) belongs to the mid-1960s dual-feature era of the title, pairing a Human Torch and Thing team-up drawn by Jack Kirby with a Doctor Strange installment by Steve Ditko, both scripted under Stan Lee's editorial hand. The issue falls within the Baron Mordo confrontation arc that Ditko was building across consecutive issues, a storyline central to the early expansion of Doctor Strange's mystic supporting cast and visual vocabulary. While not a first appearance or origin issue, it is a representative example of the Kirby/Ditko split-book format that defined Strange Tales through the mid-1960s.

The certified market shows a pronounced split between the bulk of the population and the top of the census. With 412 Universal copies recorded and pricing flat across grades 2.0 through 6.0 (roughly $38 to $60), the book trades as a common, well-supplied Silver Age title in low and mid grade. Above 9.0 the curve steepens sharply: 9.4 sits near $875, 9.6 near $1,900, and the three known 9.8 copies command roughly $4,100, with recent sales activity confirming that level. This shape is typical of a mid-run Marvel Silver Age issue where demand is concentrated among condition-census chasers and Kirby/Ditko art collectors rather than key-issue speculators.

Collecting interest centers on completists building Strange Tales or Doctor Strange runs and on Kirby or Ditko art buyers rather than character-key investors. Lower and mid-grade copies function as accessible reading copies with little grade-to-grade price sensitivity below 7.0, while the handful of 9.6 and 9.8 slabs draw outsized premiums purely from census scarcity. Expect steady, unremarkable turnover in raw grades and occasional strong results when a top-census slab reaches auction.