Tales to Astonish #56 for Sale - First Appearance of Magician - Where to Buy

Identification plate

Series: Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 1959 series)
Issue: #56
Publication date: June 1964
Key date: 1964-06-00
On-sale date: 1964-03-03
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 of Magician - the earliest non-flashback appearance on record for this character.

First appearance of Lee Guardineer - 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 the Magician!	cover	1	script: Stan Lee; pencils: Jack Kirby; inks: Sol Brodsky; colors: Stan Goldberg; letters: Artie Simek	Giant-Man, Lee Guardineer First, Magician First, Hank Pym, Janet Van Dyne, Wasp
1	The Coming of the Magician!	comic story	18	script: Stan Lee; pencils: Dick Ayers; inks: Dick Ayers; letters: Sam Rosen	Giant-Man, Lee Guardineer First, Magician First, Hank Pym, Janet Van Dyne, Wasp
2	The Balloon	text story	1	letters: typeset	Leroy; Zoop
3	Two More Triumphs for Marvel..!	promo (ad from the publisher)	0.833	script: Stan Lee; pencils: Jack Kirby; inks: Sol Brodsky, Bill Everett; letters: Sam Rosen
4	Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation	statement of ownership	0.167	letters: typeset
5	Beware the Bog Beast!	comic story	5	script: Stan Lee, Larry Lieber; pencils: Larry Lieber; inks: Paul Reinman; letters: Art Simek	Giant-Man, Hank Pym, Janet Van Dyne, Wasp

Printings and variants

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

Where to read it

Collection	Year
Marvel Tales #11	1967	On eBay ›
Essential Ant-Man #1 ISBN 0-7851-0822-X	2002	On eBay ›
Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man / Giant-Man #2 ISBN 978-0-7851-2911-0	2008	On eBay ›
Women of Marvel: Celebrating Seven Decades Omnibus #[nn] ISBN 978-0-7851-4326-0	2010	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

‹ #5556 of 101#57 ›

Sources

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

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