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

Issue Details

Issue #73
Published October 1961
Frequency monthly
Cover Price 0.10 USD
Pages 36
Editing Stan Lee
Notes Distributed to newstands in August 1961. This issue includes 10 pages of paid advertisements. Distribution date from Joseph Marek's Marvel Comics Group history website.

Cover Details - "The Spider Strikes!"

Genre monsters
Pencils Jack Kirby
Inks George Klein
Notes Inking credit from Nick Caputo via the GCD Error list, December 2008. Original indexer had not credited an inker.

7 page story "Where Will You Be, When...The Spider Strikes"

Characters Prof. Robert Carter
Synopsis A physicist working at an atomic research lab in New Mexico goes into work one day with a spider in his pants cuff. The creature is bombarded by the atomic rays and grows to a huge size, gaining the power to think and speak, and then attacks the humans. The physicist tricks the spider into snagging a test missile in its web and when it climbs towards it, the missile detonates and kills the spider.
Genre monsters
Pencils Jack Kirby
Inks Dick Ayers
Notes Job number from Tom Lammers and Ger Apeldoorn via the Atlas/Timely discussion group.
Reprinted in Where Creatures Roam (Marvel, 1970 series) #8 (September 1971)

2 page text story "The Thread"

Characters Matt Anderson; Midget Morgan/Count Morgan; Dr. Waynne
Synopsis The mysterious death of a scientist reveals a mystical device and leads to the death of a centuries-old Italian count.
Genre occult
Letters typeset
Notes Text story with illustration. The events of this story are dated January 8, 1952.
Reprinted from Journey Into Unknown Worlds (Marvel, 1951 series) #13 (October 1952)

6 page story "What Lurks on Channel X?"

Characters Bill Jones; Ruth Jones; Mr. Cragley; Jordan
Synopsis A couple with a nasty landlord get a free TV set from a stranger. It is a device sent by aliens to enslave Earth by hypnotizing people through the sets in preparation for their landing force. The couple snap out of the hypnosis and the aliens from Pluto realize that their plan has failed and leave Earth. It turns out the landlord took down the antenna that the couple had set up to improve reception of the set, and the couple express their overwhelming gratitude to the puzzled landlord.
Genre science fiction
Pencils Jack Kirby
Inks Dick Ayers
Notes Narrated in the first person. Job number from Tom Lammers and Ger Apeldoorn via the Atlas/Timely discussion group.
Reprinted in Fear (Marvel, 1970 series) #5 (November 1971); in Monster Menace (Marvel, 1993 series) #1 (December 1993)

5 page story "Menace from Mars!"

Synopsis Martians come to Earth to discover if humans represent a threat to them. They question a human using a machine to verify his answers, and find that he is totally free of greed, hatred or deceit. The Martians leave satisfied, unaware that they questioned a mental patient.
Genre science fiction
Pencils Don Heck
Inks Don Heck
Notes Job number from Tom Lammers and Ger Apeldoorn via the Atlas/Timely discussion group.
Reprinted in Fear (Marvel, 1970 series) #5 (November 1971)

5 page story "One Look Means Doom!"

Characters Charles Grey; Sarah Grey; Medusa the Gorgon
Synopsis A couple moves to a cursed castle and the man discovers the imprisoned Medusa. When her powers do not affect him she thinks they have disappeared and accidentally turns herself to stone, not knowing the man is blind.
Genre occult
Pencils Steve Ditko
Inks Steve Ditko
Notes This story has never been referenced in any other Marvel story using Medusa or the other figures of Greek mythology. Job number from Tom Lammers and Ger Apeldoorn via the Atlas/Timely discussion group.
Reprinted in Fear (Marvel, 1970 series) #5 (November 1971)