STRANGE TALES #140

Pre-1977 cover, so no direct/newsstand distinction applies. Visible defects include moderate cover wear with soft/rounded corners, a vertical crease near the left edge running through the price box, and general surface wear with slight color rubbing along the spine area. There is noticeable waviness/mild warping to the cover and some minor edge wear along the top and bottom margins; the book is in a protective sleeve which adds some glare. Interior pages and back cover were not assessed.

Strange Tales #140 arrived during the anthology title's mid-1960s run pairing two features by two of the era's most consequential artists: Steve Ditko's Doctor Strange and Jack Kirby's Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Both serials were then near the height of their original creative teams' involvement, with Ditko's Doctor Strange stories widely regarded as some of the most visually inventive mainstream comics of the decade, built on his surreal, dimension-hopping linework, and Kirby's Fury feature translating the Cold War spy-fiction boom into Marvel's expanding superhero universe under Stan Lee's scripting. The issue reflects Marvel's dual-feature format of the period, a structure the company used to build multiple properties within a single low-risk title before some graduated to solo books.

Market data shows the book trading as a solid but unspectacular mid-run Silver Age Marvel: values stay in the teens through most of the collectible grade range before rising sharply near the top of the census, where certified 9.6 and 9.8 copies command significant premiums over anything below 9.0. This grade curve is typical of undervalued anthology-format issues from the period — steady demand from Ditko and Kirby completists and S.H.I.E.L.D./Doctor Strange character collectors, but without a first appearance or landmark event to drive broader key-issue demand. The scarcity of true gem-mint copies (only five 9.8s on census, with just two recorded sales) explains the outsized top-end value relative to the modest mid-grade market.

This issue suits collectors building complete Ditko Doctor Strange or Kirby Nick Fury runs, or those assembling representative Silver Age Marvel anthology sets, rather than speculators chasing a single marquee copy. Raw copies in low and mid grades remain affordable entry points reflecting steady but unexceptional demand, while high-grade certified copies — particularly anything approaching 9.6 or above — see outsized bidding due to genuine census scarcity rather than character-driven hype. Expect price stability at the low and mid tiers with continued gradual appreciation at the top end as fewer high-grade copies surface.