Lot # 1845: 1964-1968 Marvel Tales to Astonish Complete Run of Hulk Issues #60-#101 (42)

Hulk's turn as a star in Marvel's Tales to Astonish title is fully realized with this 1964-1968 complete run of 42 issues. Composed of issues #60-#101, this run includes every issue with Hulk as a featured hero. Born of Gamma radiation during a bomb test, Hulk was first seen in a brief six-issue run of The Incredible Hulk, from May 1962 to March 1963. Finding himself unemployed, Hulk was there when the Avengers were first assembled in September 1963. However, because of his volatile nature, he left the team after just a couple of issues. The big green guy had to go somewhere and Tales to Astonish was where he landed. Though he battled Giant-Man in issue #59, this appearance was as a guest star. First appearing as Ant-Man, Giant-Man, and often the Wasp, were on-again, off-again in Tales to Astonish since issue #27. Hulk and Giant-Man began appearing as double feature characters sharing space in TTA, beginning with issue #60. Starting with issue #70, Sub-Mariner replaced Giant-Man, and the mutant from Atlantis starred with Hulk for the remainder of the TTA run, which ended with issue #101, dated March 1968. The Incredible Hulk title resumed the very next month, continuing the numbering from TTA, and ran until March 1999.

This thrilling Tales to Astonish run reports in a respectable condition range of 50% VG-FN to FN+, 43% GD to VG and 7% FR-GD. Featured issue numbers are: 60 Hulk and Giant-Man double feature begins, 61 first appearance of Glenn Talbot, 62 origin and first appearance of the Leader, 63 origin of the Leader continues, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69 last Giant-Man issue, 70 Hulk and Sub-Mariner double feature begins, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82 Sub-Mariner battles Iron Man, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90 first appearance of the Abomination, 91 first Abomination cover, 92 Silver Surfer first crossover outside of Fantastic Four, 93 Silver Surfer battles Hulk in his first full crossover outside of FF, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100 Hulk battles Sub-Mariner in a full-length story, 101 final issue.

Also present is a bonus comic book, with Tales to Astonish #58 starring Giant-Man and the Wasp (GD).

These comic books come from a determined collector, who took many years to round up the original first six Incredible Hulk issues, every issue of Tales To Astonish featuring Hulk as a star character from #60-101, every issue of the 1968-1999 Incredible Hulk Volume 1 run from #102-474, a group of The Defenders including the first 11 issues, and a wide variety of Modern Age Hulk titles. This entire collection can be found in this current auction, including eight CGC graded issues of the Incredible Hulk Volume 1, offered on an individual basis with #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #180, and #181. The other Hulk comics are offered in runs of Incredible Hulk Volume 1, Tales To Astonish, The Defenders, and a bundle of Modern Age titles featuring an Incredible Hulk Volume 2 run, and some Red Hulk issues.