The Amazing Spider-Man #1 - First Appearance of J. Jonah Jameson, Printings and Contents

Identification plate

Series: The Amazing Spider-Man (Marvel, 1963 series)
Issue: #1
Publication date: March 1963
Key date: March 1963
On-sale date: December 10, 1962
Indicia publisher: Non-Pareil Publishing Corp.
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

From the editorial file Spider-Man's own title launches, March 1963, with two stories, a Fantastic Four appearance, and the first appearances of J. Jonah Jameson and the Chameleon. The bridge between Amazing Fantasy #15 and everything after.

First appearance of J. Jonah Jameson - the earliest non-flashback appearance on record for this character. An independent public reference records the same first appearance.

First appearance of John Jameson - the earliest non-flashback appearance on record for this character. An independent public reference records the same first appearance.

First appearance of Dmitri Smerdyakov - the earliest non-flashback appearance on record for this character.

First appearance of Chameleon - the earliest non-flashback appearance on record for this character.

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	The Chameleon Strikes!	cover	1	script: Stan Lee; pencils: Jack Kirby; inks: Steve Ditko; colors: Stan Goldberg; letters: Artie Simek, Sol Brodsky	Ben Grimm, Human Torch, Invisible Girl, Mister Fantastic, Peter Parker, Reed Richards, Spider-Man, Johnny Storm, Susan Storm Richards, The Thing
2	Spider-Man	comic story	14	script: Stan Lee; pencils: Steve Ditko; inks: Steve Ditko; colors: Stan Goldberg; letters: Johnny Dee	Liz Allan, J. Jonah Jameson First, John Jameson First, May Parker, Peter Parker, Spider-Man, Flash Thompson, The Burglar
8	Spider-Man vs. The Chameleon!	comic story	10	script: Stan Lee; pencils: Steve Ditko; inks: Steve Ditko; colors: Stan Goldberg; letters: John Duffi	Chameleon First, Ben Grimm, Human Torch, Invisible Girl, Mister Fantastic, Peter Parker, Reed Richards, Dmitri Smerdyakov First, Spider-Man, Johnny Storm, Susan Storm Richards, The Thing
11	A Personal Message from Spider-Man	promo (ad from the publisher)	1	script: Stan Lee; pencils: Jack Kirby, Sol Brodsky; inks: Sol Brodsky; colors: Stan Goldberg

Plus 10 pages of advertisements and other matter across 13 sequences, as published.

Printings and variants

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

Where to read it

Collection	Year
The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2	1965	On eBay ›
The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #7	1970	On eBay ›
Marvel Tales #138	1982	On eBay ›
Marvel Masterworks #1 ISBN 0-87135-305-9	1987	On eBay ›
Spider-Man Classics #2	1993	On eBay ›
The Essential Spider-Man #1 ISBN 0-7851-0286-8	1996	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

1 of 443#2 ›

Sources

Grand Comics Database, issue record (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Wikidata, Q1992523 (J. Jonah Jameson), first-appearance property (CC0)
Wikidata, Q2423326 (John Jameson), first-appearance property (CC0)

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