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

Issue Details

Issue #55
Published July 1964
Frequency monthly
Cover Price 0.12 USD
Pages 36
Editing Stan Lee
Notes Distributed to newstands in April 1964. This issue includes 10 pages of paid advertisements. Distribution date from Joseph Marek's Marvel Comics Group history website.

Cover Details - "No One Escapes the Mandarin!"

Characters Iron Man [Tony Stark]; Mandarin
Genre superhero
Pencils Jack Kirby
Inks Sol Brodsky
Letters Sam Rosen
Notes Inks credit from Nick Caputo via the GCD Error List (30 August 2006); the original indexer credited Dick Ayers. Letters credit from George Olshevsky's Marvel Comics Index.
Reprinted in Essential Iron Man (Marvel, 2000 series) #1 (2000) [black and white]; in Marvel Masterworks: The Invincible Iron Man (Marvel, 2003 series) #2 (2004); in Iron Man Omnibus (Marvel, 2008 series) #1 (2008)

13 page Iron Man story "No One Escapes the Mandarin!"

Characters Iron Man [Tony Stark]; Mandarin; Happy Hogan; Pepper Potts
Synopsis Iron Man escapes the Mandarin and destroys the ray he used to interfere with US missiles. Meanwhile, Happy struggles to keep the company operating in Tony's absence.
Genre superhero
Script Stan Lee
Pencils Don Heck
Inks Don Heck
Letters Artie Simek
Notes Continues from last issue. The Mandarin next appears in issue #61 (January 1965).
Reprinted in Marvel Collectors' Item Classics (Marvel, 1965 series) #15 (April 1968); in Essential Iron Man (Marvel, 2000 series) #1 (2000) [black and white]; in Marvel Masterworks: The Invincible Iron Man (Marvel, 2003 series) #2 (2004); in Iron Man Omnibus (Marvel, 2008 series) #1 (2008)

1 page promo (ad from the publisher) "Two More Triumphs for Marvel..!"

Pencils Jack Kirby (Fantastic Four cover); Steve Ditko (Amazing Spider-Man cover)
Inks Sol Brodsky (Fantastic Four cover); Steve Ditko (Amazing Spider-Man cover)
Notes Advertises Amazing Spider-Man (Marvel, 1963 series) #14 (July 1964) and Fantastic Four (Marvel, 1961 series) #28 (July 1964).

5 page Iron Man story "All About Iron Man"

Characters Iron Man [Tony Stark]; Black Widow [Natasha Romanoff]; Melter [Bruno Horgan]; Mandarin; Scarecrow [Ebenezer Laughton]; Mister Doll [Nathan Dolly]; Gargantus; Crimson Dynamo [Anton Venko]; Jack Frost [Gregor Shapanka]; Happy Hogan; Pepper Potts
Synopsis A detailed guide to Iron Man's armor. With some details about his personal life and supporting cast.
Genre superhero
Script Stan Lee
Pencils Don Heck
Inks Don Heck
Letters Sam Rosen
Notes The last page is a pin-up of Pepper Potts with Happy Hogan. It is also the first time we learn her real name: Virginia Potts.
Reprinted in Marvel Masterworks (Marvel, 1987 series) #20 (1992); in Essential Iron Man (Marvel, 2000 series) #1 [black and white]; in Marvel Masterworks: The Invincible Iron Man (Marvel, 2003 series) #2 (2004); in Iron Man Omnibus (Marvel, 2008 series) #1 (2008)

1 page Pepper Potts illustration

Characters Pepper Potts; Happy Hogan
Synopsis reduntant sequence marked for deletion.
Genre superhero
Pencils Don Heck
Inks Don Heck
Notes This sequence should be deleted because it is numbered as the fifth page of the previous sequence.
Reprinted in Marvel Masterworks (Marvel, 1987 series) #20 (1992); in Essential Iron Man (Marvel, 2000 series) #1 (black and white)

1 page text story "The Atomizer"

Characters Charlie Smith; Will
Synopsis A boy stumbles across a secret disintegrating formula stolen from a government lab.
Genre science fiction
Letters typeset
Notes Continues in next issue. This page includes a teaser for the next issue: "Next Ish: 'Iron Man Meets the Unicorn!'"
Reprinted from Mystic (Marvel, 1951 series) #39 (September 1955) [page 1]

5 page Tales of the Watcher story "The Sun-Stealer!"

Characters Watcher [Uatu]
Synopsis The Watcher must save Earth from an alien without breaking his vow of non-interference.
Genre science fiction
Script Stan Lee (plot); Larry Lieber (script)
Pencils Larry Lieber
Inks Larry Lieber
Letters Artie Simek
Reprinted in Marvel Collectors' Item Classics (Marvel, 1965 series) #20 (April 1969); in Fantastici Quattro, I (Editoriale Corno, 1971 series) #60 (July 24, 1973) [as "Il ladro del sole!", Italian translation]