STRANGE TALES #156

Cover shows moderate wear consistent with a mid-grade Silver Age book: visible vertical crease/wrinkling running through the green background at upper right, mild surface sheen/glare from the protective sleeve making some details hard to assess, and slight softness to the top corners. Spine area is largely obscured by the sleeve fold but no major spine roll or missing pieces are evident; edges appear intact without chunks missing. Interior pages and back cover were not visible for assessment, so grade is based solely on the front cover surface and edges.

Strange Tales #156 (May 1967) arrived during the title's dual-feature era, pairing a Doctor Strange adventure with a Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. story rendered in the moody, cinematic style Jim Steranko was refining just before the character graduated to his own ongoing title. The book sits within one of the most art-forward stretches of 1960s Marvel, when Steranko's photo-collage layouts and stark shadow work were pushing the visual language of the spy genre well past its contemporaries, while the Doctor Strange half continued Stan Lee's psychedelic mysticism into Dormammu's dimension-hopping conflicts.

Market data shows a well-populated census with over 260 Universal copies graded, and pricing that climbs sharply only in the top tiers: raw mid-grade copies trade for modest sums in the $20-$30 range, reflecting steady but unspectacular demand typical of a non-key mid-run issue, while values accelerate past 9.0 as Steranko-art condition scarcity takes hold. The lack of any certified 9.8 on census, against a single top-pop 9.6 example, signals genuine difficulty finding pristine survivors of a comic printed on period newsstand stock and handled as disposable entertainment.

This issue appeals primarily to Silver Age Marvel completists and Steranko-art collectors building out the Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. run rather than key-issue speculators, since #156 carries no first appearance or landmark event. Expect low- and mid-grade raw copies to move steadily at low double-digit prices to readers and set-builders, with meaningful value concentrated in high-grade certified examples where condition census scarcity, not character significance, drives the premium.