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

Issue Details

Issue #2
Published January 1971
Frequency Bi-Monthly
Cover Price 0.25 USD
Pages 68
Editing Stan Lee

Cover Details - "X the Thing that Lived!!"

Characters X
Genre Monsters
Script Stan Lee ?
Pencils Jack Kirby
Inks Dick Ayers ?; Jack Kirby ?
Notes Inks credits from the GCD index to the original publication.
Reprinted from Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 1959 series) #20 (June 1961)

18 page story What Was "X" the Thing That Lived!

Characters Charles Bentley; X
Synopsis A writer buys an enchanted typewriter that brings his monster stories to life.
Genre Monsters
Script Stan Lee ?; Larry Lieber ?
Pencils Jack Kirby
Inks Dick Ayers
Notes Narrated in the first person. X next appears in Alpha Flight (Marvel, 1997 series) #17 (December 1998).
Reprinted from Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 1959 series) #20 (June 1961)

7 page story "Orrgo...the Unconquerable!"

Characters Orrgo (introduction); Jo-Jo
Synopsis An alien race with immense telepathic and telekinetic powers send one of their kind to conquer Earth. He easily defeats the police and army and freezes Washington, DC in a block of ice, but is killed by a gorilla while resting because he only prepared defences against humans.
Genre Monsters
Pencils Jack Kirby
Inks Dick Ayers
Notes Orrgo or a character based on him next appears in Defenders (Marvel, 2001 series) #9 (November 2001).
Reprinted from Strange Tales (Marvel, 1951 series) #90 (November 1961)

5 page story "One-Way Journey!"

Characters Adam Gree
Synopsis A heartless tycoon has a time machine built to take him forty years into the future, where he believes that war and disease will be wiped out.
Genre horror
Script Stan Lee ?; Larry Lieber ?
Pencils Steve Ditko
Inks Steve Ditko
Reprinted from Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 1959 series) #20 (June 1961)

6 page story "I Dared Enter the Forbidden World!"

Characters Derek; John; Monga; Uxmal; Antogg
Synopsis A white game hunter finds the legendary elephant's graveyard, hoping to make a fortune in ivory. He discovers that elephants were introduced to Earth by Martians, who use the graveyard as a gathering point for the ivory, and won't let him leave.
Genre Horror
Script Stan Lee ?; Larry Lieber ?
Pencils Don Heck
Inks Don Heck
Notes Narrated in the first person.
Reprinted from Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 1959 series) #15 (January 1961)

5 page story "The Inhuman!"

Characters X-35
Synopsis In a future war between humans and robots the robots try to find a way to break the human defences by sending a robot spy disguised as a human. The spy's information leads them into a trap, and they discover that their spy was himself a human disguised as a robot.
Genre Science Fiction
Pencils Don Heck
Inks Don Heck
Reprinted from Strange Tales (Marvel, 1951 series) #90 (November 1961)

7 page story "I Learned the Dread Secret of the Blip!"

Characters The Blip
Genre Science Fiction
Script Stan Lee ?; Larry Lieber ?
Pencils Jack Kirby
Inks Dick Ayers
Notes Narrated in the first person.
Reprinted from Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 1959 series) #15 (January 1961)

5 page story "I Defied the Curse of Tut-Ah-Anka!"

Synopsis A criminal hides from the police in an old Egyptian tomb, ignoring the warning of a curse. He not only escapes the police, but has a run of luck that makes him rich and happy. Or so he thinks, as the gas in the tomb drove him mad and he is delusional in an Egyptian hospital.
Genre Horror
Script Stan Lee ?; Larry Lieber ?
Pencils Paul Reinman
Inks Paul Reinman
Notes Narrated in the first person.
Reprinted from Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 1959 series) #15 (January 1961)