Fantastic Four #48 for Sale - First Appearance of Silver Surfer - Where to Buy

Identification plate

Series: Fantastic Four (Marvel, 1961 series)
Issue: #48
Publication date: March 1966
Key date: 1966-03-00
On-sale date: 1965-12-09
Indicia publisher: Canam Publishers Sales 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

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

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

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

First appearance of Galactus - 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 Coming of Galactus!	cover	1	script: Stan Lee; pencils: Jack Kirby; inks: Joe Sinnott; colors: Stan Goldberg; letters: Artie Simek	Ben Grimm, Human Torch, Invisible Girl, Mister Fantastic, Reed Richards, Susan Storm Richards, Johnny Storm, The Thing, Uatu, The Watcher
2	The Coming of Galactus!	comic story	20	script: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby; pencils: Jack Kirby; inks: Joe Sinnott; colors: Stan Goldberg; letters: Artie Simek	Black Bolt, Blackagar Boltagon, Medusalith Amaquelin Boltagon, Crystal, Galactus First, Galan First, Gorgon, Ben Grimm, Human Torch, Invisible Girl, Karnak, Crystalia Amaquelin Maximoff, Maximus, Medusa
3	Tales to Astonish	promo (ad from the publisher)	1	pencils: Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers; inks: John Romita, Steve Ditko, John Tartaglione; letters: Sam Rosen	Spider-Man [Peter Parker]; Kraven the Hunter; Hulk [Bruce Banner]; Rick Jones; Sgt. Nick Fury
14	-	in-house column	1	script: ? (promo copy); colors: ? (panel backgrounds only); letters: typeset
15	-	promo (ad from the publisher)	1	script: ? (ad copy)	Hulk; Dr. Doom; Spider-Man; The Fantastic Four
16	-	letters page	1.8	script: Stan Lee; pencils: Jack Kirby; inks: Joe Sinnott	Human Torch [Johnny Storm]
17	Fantasy Masterpieces	promo (ad from the publisher)	0.2	script: ? (ad copy); letters: typeset

Plus 10 pages of advertisements and other matter across 14 sequences, as published.

Printings and variants

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

Where to read it

Collection	Year
Marvel's Greatest Comics #35	1972	On eBay ›
Marvel Treasury Edition #2	1974	On eBay ›
Marvel Masterworks #25 ISBN 0-87135-990-1	1993	On eBay ›
Silver Surfer: The Coming of Galactus #[nn] ISBN 0-87135-957-X	1992	On eBay ›
Wizard Ace Edition: Fantastic Four #48 #[nn]	2002	On eBay ›
Essential Fantastic Four #3 ISBN 0-7851-0782-7	2000	On eBay ›
The 100 Greatest Marvels of All Time #1	2001	On eBay ›
Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four #5 ISBN 0-7851-1184-0	2004	On eBay ›
Fantastic Four Omnibus #2 ISBN 0-7851-2403-9	2007	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 416#49 ›

Sources

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

Found an error in this file? corrections@comicrecord.com