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

Issue Details

Issue #85
Published June 1961
Frequency monthly
Cover Price 0.10 USD
Pages 36
Editing Stan Lee
Notes Distributed to newstands in March 1961. This issue includes 10 pages of paid advertisements. Some information on this issue supplied by Tom Lammers, Dr. Michael J. Vassallo, and others via the Atlas/Timely discussion group. Distribution date from Joseph Marek's Marvel Comics Group history website.

Cover Details - "The Return of Gargantus!"

Characters Gargantus (sea monster)
Genre monsters
Pencils Jack Kirby
Inks Dick Ayers

13 page story "The Return of Gargantus!"

Characters Gargantus (sea monster); Bill; Anne; Frank
Synopsis Another group of scientists disturbs Gargantus, who can now breathe air and vows to conquer the surface world. The son of the man who found Gargantus uses his father's bathysphere to lure it deep into the ocean and uses a giant electric shock to kill him.
Genre monsters
Pencils Jack Kirby
Inks Dick Ayers
Notes Narrated in the first person. This story is divided into two parts: an untitled part one (6 pp) and part two—"Gargantus" (7 pp). Gargantus last appeared in issue #80 (January 1961); he next appears in Marvel Monsters: Monsters on the Prowl (Marvel, 2005 series) #1 (December 2005).

2 page text story "New Glasses"

Characters Herbert; Mr. Blooper
Synopsis A man insists on getting a specially made pair of glasses in a hurry, and finds that the optician has a magical corridor that leads back in time.
Genre occult
Letters typeset
Notes Text story with illustration.
Reprinted from Spellbound (Marvel, 1952 series) #30 (October 1956)

5 page story "The Man Who Fell!"

Characters Hans; Katrina; Albert
Synopsis A town's mayor threatens to imprison a gypsy seer who spurned his advances if her prediction that he will be injured by a fall does not come true. He goes to the basement and has himself tied down to prevent this, but realizes that a chandelier above him is coming loose.
Genre occult
Script Stan Lee ?
Pencils Paul Reinman
Inks Paul Reinman
Notes This story is retold in Tales of Suspense (Marvel, 1959 series) #48 (December 1963) as "Kraddak" by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber. Stan Lee is tentatively credited as writer based on his authorship of the later story.
Reprinted in Where Monsters Dwell (Marvel, 1970 series) #25 (November 1973)

5 page story "The Ape Man"

Characters Salty Gruner; Ape Man
Synopsis A criminal hopes that the story of an ape man in the jungle around his prison will stop pursuit. Instead he finds that the ape man is real and a curse transforms him into an ape until he finds someone to take his place.
Genre occult
Pencils Steve Ditko
Inks Steve Ditko
Notes This story seems similar to "Gorilla Man" drawn by Robert Q. Sale in Men's Adventures (Marvel, 1950 series) #25 (March 1954).
Reprinted in Where Monsters Dwell (Marvel, 1970 series) #24 (October 1973); in Giant-Size Werewolf (Marvel, 1974 series) #2 (October 1974)