Tales to Astonish #20

(June 1961)

What Was "X" the Thing That Lived! (Table of Contents)

comic story / 18 pages (report information)

Credits

Script:

?

Pencils:

Jack Kirby

Inks:

Dick Ayers

Colors:

?

Letters:

?

Job Number:

V-185

Content Information

Genre:

monsters

Characters:

Charles Bentley; X (introduction, origin)

Synopsis:

A comic writer's monsters keep coming to life, until he creates one that can't be defeated. The monster is unstoppable physically, but he wills it out of existance.

Reprints: show reprint note before migration

• in Fear (Marvel, 1970 series) #2 (January 1971)
• in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #2

Indexer Notes

Narrated in the first person. This story is divided into four untitled parts (5 pp, 5 pp, 3 pp, 5 pp). X next appears in Alpha Flight (Marvel, 1997 series) #17 (December 1998).

Odd Skills (Table of Contents)

text story / 2 pages (report information)

Credits

Script:

?

Pencils:

Joe Maneely

Inks:

Joe Maneely

Colors:

?

Letters:

typeset

Job Number:

J-216

Content Information

Genre:

science fiction

Characters:

Jim Branner; Bill Toney

Synopsis:

The manager of an auto parts shop develops a sudden tolerance for "human variation" in parts, possibly linked to otherworldly strangers in the shop at night.

Reprints: show reprint note before migration

• from Journey Into Mystery (Marvel, 1952 series) #34 (May 1956)

Indexer Notes

Text story with illustration.

One-Way Journey! (Table of Contents)

comic story / 5 pages (report information)

Credits

Script:

?

Pencils:

Steve Ditko

Inks:

Steve Ditko

Colors:

?

Letters:

?

Job Number:

V-184

Content Information

Genre:

science fiction

Characters:

Adam Gree

Synopsis:

A heartless tycoon spends great resources and eliminates jobs in order to build a machine that will transport him forty years into the future from the current moment to one forty years hence because his scientists have predicted an end to disease, war, and poverty in the year 2001, but he neglects to consider his body will age forty years in what seems to his mind merely an instant and since the machine has only enough power to move forward the one time he's lost most of the years of his life.

Reprints: show reprint note before migration

• in Fear (Marvel, 1970 series) #2 (January 1971)
• in Doomsday (K. G. Murray, 1972 series) #12 (November 1973)
• in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #2