Data courtesy of the Grand Comics Database under Creative Commons license.

Issue Details

Issue #43
Published May 1963
Frequency monthly
Cover Price 0.12 USD
Pages 36
Editing Stan Lee
Notes Distributed to newstands in February 1963. This issue includes 10 pages of paid advertisements. Distribution date from Joseph Marek's Marvel Comics Group history website.

Cover Details - "The Mad Master of Time!"

Characters Ant-Man [Hank Pym]
Genre superhero
Pencils Jack Kirby
Inks Sol Brodsky
Letters Artie Simek
Notes Cover inks credit from Nick Caputo via the GCD Errors list, February 2009. Original indexer credited Dick Ayers.
Reprinted in Essential Ant-Man (Marvel, 2002 series) #1 (2002) [black and white]; in Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man/Giant-Man (Marvel, 2006 series) #1 (2006)

13 page The Astonishing Ant-Man story "The Mad Master of Time!"

Characters Ant-Man [Henry Pym]; Time-Master [Elias Weems] (introduction, origin); Tommy Weems
Synopsis A scientist forced to retire makes a device to artificially age others and holds the city hostage. Ant-Man can't stop him, but when he accidentally ages his own grandson he repents and reverses the damage.
Genre superhero
Script Stan Lee (plot); Larry Lieber (script)
Pencils Don Heck
Inks Don Heck
Letters Ray Holloway
Notes The Time Master never appears again, Ant-Man still operates in "Center City".
Reprinted in Essential Ant-Man (Marvel, 2002 series) #1 (2002) [black and white]; in Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man/Giant-Man (Marvel, 2006 series) #1 (2006)

2 page text story "Lady Luck"

Characters Lester Ford; Marie Ford; Lady Luck
Synopsis A businessman doesn’t believe in luck, but several beneficial encounters with an old lady change his mind.
Genre occult
Letters typeset
Notes Text story with illustration.
Reprinted from Marvel Tales (Marvel, 1949 series) #136 (July 1955)

5 page story "Frankie's Fast Ball!"

Characters Frankie Jones
Synopsis A boy gains extraordinary physical and mental abilities due to his parents' exposure to radiation. He wants to play baseball, but his fastball punches a hole in a tree and would damage a catcher.
Genre science fiction
Script Stan Lee (plot); Larry Lieber (script)
Pencils Larry Lieber
Inks Sol Brodsky
Letters Artie Simek
Notes This is a retelling of "The Rookie" from Marvel Tales (Marvel, 1949 series) #131 (February 1955). The idea of radiation granting super-powers to unborn children was a major part of early X-Men stories.

5 page story "My Fatal Mistake!"

Characters Yates; Cosmo
Synopsis A man is bitter because he has been replaced by a computer and must take a job servicing it. It is ensconced in an air-tight clean room with a door that is opened after fifteen minutes allotted for servicing purposes. When the man enters the room, he gets the idea to sabotage the machine so that it will make mistakes and he can get his old job back, but he damages the circuits that allow the machine to open the door after the fifteen minutes of oxygen are used up.
Genre science fiction
Script Stan Lee
Pencils Steve Ditko
Inks Steve Ditko
Letters Artie Simek
Reprinted in Incroyable Hulk, L' (Editions Héritage, 1968 series) #42 (January 1975) [as "Mon erreur fatale", French translation]