Tales to Astonish #48 - First Appearance of Porcupine, Printings and Contents

Identification plate

Series: Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 1959 series)
Issue: #48
Publication date: October 1963
Key date: October 1963
On-sale date: July 2, 1963
Indicia publisher: Vista Publications Inc.
Price: $0.12
Pages: 36
Rating: Approved by the Comics Code Authority

Match the book in your hand against this plate before paying an edition-specific price.

Why this issue matters

First appearance (cover) of Porcupine - the earliest appearance on record is a cover, not an interior story.

First appearance (cover) of Alexander Gentry - the earliest appearance on record is a cover, not an interior story.

The evidence

Claims here come from the story records for this issue, listed under Sources at the bottom of the file. Character hubs with full evidence tables are coming to this site.

Seq	Story	Type	Pages	Credits	Characters
0	Ant-Man and The Wasp Battle: The Porcupine	cover	1	script: Stan Lee; pencils: Jack Kirby; inks: Sol Brodsky; colors: Stan Goldberg; letters: Artie Simek	Ant-Man, Alexander Gentry First, Porcupine First, Hank Pym, Janet Van Dyne, Wasp
1	Ant-Man and the Wasp Defy the Porcupine!	comic story	13	script: Stan Lee, H. E. Huntley; pencils: Don Heck; inks: Don Heck; letters: S. Rosen	Ant-Man, Alexander Gentry First, Porcupine First, Hank Pym, Janet Van Dyne, Wasp
2	The Inventor	text story	2	letters: typeset	Ned Carter; Mr. Jonas
3	Grayson's Gorilla!	comic story	5	script: Stan Lee, Larry Lieber; pencils: Larry Lieber; inks: Matt Fox; letters: Artie Simek	Harvey Grayson
4	The Little Green Man!	comic story	5	script: Stan Lee; pencils: Steve Ditko; inks: Steve Ditko; letters: Art Simek	Jasper Jenks

Printings and variants

Edition	How to tell
British	price 9d [0-0-9 GBP]

Where to read it

Collection	Year
Essential Ant-Man #1 ISBN 0-7851-0822-X	2002	On eBay ›
Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man / Giant-Man #1 ISBN 0-7851-2049-1	2006	On eBay ›

Reading the story costs a fraction of owning the issue. Both routes are on every file.

Before you buy

Check spine ticks and cover gloss in the photos; silver-age Marvels chip at the edges easily.
Look for tanning at the page edges and transfer stains on the inside covers.
Confirm the cover price against the plate; higher prices can mean a later or foreign printing.

Series context

‹ #4748 of 101#49 ›

Sources

Grand Comics Database, issue record (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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