Tales to Astonish #27 is CGC’s Featured Comic of the Month for July

At left, this copy of Tales to Astonish #27, graded CGC 9.4, sold in 2016 for $205,501. At right, this copy of Tales to Astonish #27, graded 1.8, was listed for sale earlier this year on ComicLink for $1,250. Click images to enlarge. (Images courtesy of ComicLink)

Name of comic: Tales to Astonish #27

Comic publisher: Marvel Comics

Date: January 1962

Variants: United Kingdom

What makes it special? With a Stan Lee story and Jack Kirby cover, Tales to Astonish #27 features the first appearance of scientist Henry Pym (not in his Ant-Man costume). Ant-Man the superhero debuted in Tales to Astonish #35 (September 1962). Pym’s girlfriend, Janet van Dyne (the Wasp), was introduced in Tales to Astonish #44 (June 1963). Ant-Man and the Wasp were founding members of the Avengers (along with Iron Man, Thor and the Hulk) in Avengers #1 (September 1963).

Why is it interesting now? The next generation of the Ant-Man and Wasp characters appear in the 20th Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” being released July 6. It is a follow-up to the 2015 movie, which (like nearly every MCU movie) was both a critical and box office success. Paul Rudd reprises his role as Scott Lang (Ant-Man), while Evangeline Lilly returns as Hope van Dyne (daughter of Henry Pym and Janet van Dyne), taking on the role of the Wasp.

Did you know? Get your MCU fix now, because after four movies in eight months (“Thor: Ragnarok,” “Black Panther,” “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp”), you’ve got an eight-month wait until the next one (“Captain Marvel,” March 2019). This is the longest MCU gap since “Ant-Man” (July 2015) and “Captain America: Civil War” (May 2016). Still, there are plenty of other comic book movies ahead, including “Venom” (October 2018), “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” (December 2018), “Aquaman” (December 2018) and “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” (February 2018).

Total graded by CGC: CGC has graded 907 copies of this book (as of June 12, 2018), including 16 of its UK variant. Just shy of 10 percent of them have Signature Series labels.

CGC median grade: The median grade for these books is Very Good 4.0

CGC highest graded: CGC has graded 3 copies as Near Mint 9.4 (2 Universal and 1 Restored).

Sales highlights: The top sale of all-time for Tales To Astonish #27 occurred in the ComicLink 2016 Fall Featured Auction (held in November 2016), when a CGC 9.4 sold for $205,501. Low-grade copies can be found online for several hundred to several thousand dollars.

CGC Comics Registry Champion: The humbly named ‘A Not So Astonishing Set’ is the big winner of Tales to Astonish #1-#101 in the CGC Comics Registry, thanks in large part to one of those rare CGC 9.4-graded copies of Tales to Astonish #27 (as well as a CGC 9.6-graded Tales to Astonish #35 and a CGC 9.8-graded Tales to Astonish #44, both tied for highest graded for those respective books). Explore this and other collections in the CGC Comics Registry.

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