Strange Tales
#85
(June 1961)
- Volume
- 1
- Price
- 0.10 USD
- Pages
- 36
- Indicia Frequency
- monthly
- On-sale Date
- 1961-03-07
- Publisher's Age Guidelines
- Approved by the Comics Code Authority
- Indicia / Colophon Publisher
- Vista Publications Inc.
- Editing
- Stan Lee (editor)
Issue Notes
This issue has variants:
The Return of Gargantus!
cover / 1 page
- Script
- Stan Lee
- Pencils
- Jack Kirby (signed as Kirby)
- Inks
- Dick Ayers (signed as Ayers)
- Colors
- Stan Goldberg
- Letters
- Artie Simek
- Genre
- horror-suspense
- Characters
- Gargantus (sea monster)
- Reprints
- Keywords
- monsters
in 
![Cover Thumbnail for Strange Tales (1951 series) #85 [British]](https://files1.comics.org//img/gcd/covers_by_id/977/w100/977398.jpg?5263996747405881467)
The Return of Gargantus!
comic story / 13 pages
- Script
- Stan Lee ? (plot); Larry Lieber ? (script)
- Pencils
- Jack Kirby (signed as Kirby)
- Inks
- Dick Ayers (signed as Ayers)
- Colors
- Stan Goldberg
- Letters
- Artie Simek
- Job Number
- V-171
- Genre
- horror-suspense
- 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.
- Reprints
- Keywords
- monsters
Indexer 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). Story is pages 3-7, 10-14, 16-18 of comic (pages numbered 1 to 13).
Gargantus last appeared in issue #80 (January 1961); he next appears in Marvel Monsters: Monsters on the Prowl (Marvel, 2005 series) #1 (December 2005).
New Glasses
text story / 2 pages
- Job Number
- K-368
- Genre
- fantasy-supernatural
- 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.
- Reprints
-
from Spellbound (Marvel, 1952 series) #30 (October 1956) -
in Creepy Worlds (Alan Class, 1962 series) #51
-
Indexer Notes
Text story with illustration. Text story is pages 8, 26 of comic (pages of story not numbered).
The Man Who Fell!
comic story / 5 pages
- Script
- Stan Lee ? (plot); Larry Lieber ? (script)
- Pencils
- Paul Reinman (signed as
Paul Reinman) - Inks
- Paul Reinman (signed as Paul Reinman)
- Colors
- Stan Goldberg
- Letters
- Artie Simek
- Job Number
- V-173
- Genre
- horror-suspense
- 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.
- Reprints
- in Amazing Stories of Suspense (Alan Class, 1963 series) #15 (1964 ?)
- in Where Monsters Dwell (Marvel, 1970 series) #25 (November 1973)
-
Indexer Notes
This story is retold in Tales of Suspense (Marvel, 1959 series) #48 (December 1963) as "Kraddak" by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber. Possible Lee plot and Lieber script per Nick Caputo. Previous indexer credited Stan Lee solely.
Story is pages 20-24 of comic (pages of story numbered 1 to 5).
The Ape Man
comic story / 5 pages
- Script
- Stan Lee ?
- Pencils
- Steve Ditko (signed as Steve Ditko)
- Inks
- Steve Ditko (signed as Steve Ditko)
- Colors
- Stan Goldberg
- Letters
- Artie Simek
- Job Number
- V-172
- Genre
- horror-suspense
- 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.
- Reprints
- in Amazing Stories of Suspense (Alan Class, 1963 series) #15 (1964 ?)
- in Where Monsters Dwell (Marvel, 1970 series) #24 (October 1973)
- in Giant-Size Werewolf (Marvel, 1974 series) #2 (October 1974)
- in Marvel Masters of Suspense: Stan Lee & Steve Ditko Omnibus (Marvel, 2019 series) #1 (2019)
-
Indexer Notes
This story seems similar to "Gorilla Man" drawn by Robert Q. Sale in Men's Adventures (Marvel, 1950 series) #25 (March 1954).
Possible Lee script per Nick Caputo's examination at his blog:
http://nick-caputo.blogspot.com/2011/11/who-authored-ditko.html
Story is pages 28-32 of comic (pages of story numbered 1 to 5).
-
0.
The Return of Gargantus!
-
1.
The Return of Gargantus!
-
2.
New Glasses
-
3.
The Man Who Fell!
-
4.
The Ape Man
- Bill Borre
- David Bruce
- Nick Caputo
- Steve Coates
- Ethan Hoddes
- machinal jocelyn
- Mike Nielsen
- Gregory Roe
- Jim Van Dore
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