Tales to Astonish #20

(June 1961)

What Was "X" the Thing That Lived! [, Part 1] (Table of Contents: 1)

comic story / 5 pages (report information)

Script:

Stan Lee (plot) ?; Larry Lieber (script) ?

Pencils:

Jack Kirby (signed)

Inks:

Dick Ayers (signed)

Colors:

Stan Goldberg

Letters:

Artie Simek

Job Number:

V-185

Genre:

horror-suspense

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:

• in Zombie (L. Miller & Son, 1961 series) #9 ([circa 1961])
• in Mystic (L. Miller & Son, 1960 series) #43 (1964)
• in Fear (Marvel, 1970 series) #2 (January 1971) [part 1]
• in Monster Masterworks (Marvel, 1989 series) (1989)
• in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #2 ([March] 2008)
• in Monsters (Marvel, 2017 series) #1

Indexer Notes

Narrated in the first person. X next appears in Alpha Flight (Marvel, 1997 series) #17 (December 1998). The unnamed editor of Tales to Astonish appears in the story.

[What Was "X" the Thing That Lived!], Part 2 (Table of Contents: 2)

comic story / 5 pages (report information)

Script:

Stan Lee (plot) ?; Larry Lieber (script) ?

Pencils:

Jack Kirby [as K] (signed)

Inks:

Dick Ayers [as A] (signed)

Colors:

Stan Goldberg

Letters:

Artie Simek

Job Number:

V-185

Genre:

horror-suspense

Characters:

Charles Bentley; X

Reprints:

• in Fear (Marvel, 1970 series) #2 (January 1971) [part 2]
• in Monster Masterworks (Marvel, 1989 series) (1989)
• in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #2 ([March] 2008)
• in Monsters (Marvel, 2017 series) #1

[What Was "X" the Thing That Lived!], Part 3 (Table of Contents: 3)

comic story / 3 pages (report information)

Script:

Stan Lee (plot) ?; Larry Lieber (script) ?

Pencils:

Jack Kirby [as K] (signed)

Inks:

Dick Ayers [as A] (signed)

Colors:

Stan Goldberg

Letters:

Artie Simek

Job Number:

V-185

Genre:

horror-suspense

Characters:

Charles Bentley; X

Reprints:

• in Fear (Marvel, 1970 series) #2 (January 1971) [part 3]
• in Monster Masterworks (Marvel, 1989 series) (1989)
• in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #2 ([March] 2008)
• in Monsters (Marvel, 2017 series) #1

[What Was "X" the Thing That Lived!], Part 4 (Table of Contents: 4)

comic story / 5 pages (report information)

Script:

Stan Lee (plot) ?; Larry Lieber (script) ?

Pencils:

Jack Kirby [as K] (signed)

Inks:

Dick Ayers [as A] (signed)

Colors:

Stan Goldberg

Letters:

Artie Simek

Job Number:

V-185

Genre:

horror-suspense

Characters:

Charles Bentley; X

Reprints:

• in Fear (Marvel, 1970 series) #2 (January 1971) [part 4]
• in Monster Masterworks (Marvel, 1989 series) (1989)
• in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #2 ([March] 2008)
• in Monsters (Marvel, 2017 series) #1

Odd Skills (Table of Contents: 5)

text story / 2 pages (report information)

Script:

?

Pencils:

Joe Maneely

Inks:

Joe Maneely

Colors:

?

Letters:

typeset

Job Number:

J-216

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:

• from Journey into Mystery (Marvel, 1952 series) #34 (May 1956)
• in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #2 ([March] 2008)

Indexer Notes

Text story with illustration.

One-Way Journey! (Table of Contents: 6)

comic story / 5 pages (report information)

Script:

Stan Lee ?

Pencils:

Steve Ditko (signed)

Inks:

Steve Ditko (signed)

Colors:

Stan Goldberg

Letters:

Artie Simek

Job Number:

V-184

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 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:

• in Amazing Stories of Suspense (Alan Class, 1963 series) #19 (1964 ?)
• 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 ([March] 2008)

Indexer Notes

Nick Caputo suspects Stan Lee may have written this story based on an examination at his blog:

http://nick-caputo.blogspot.com/2011/11/who-authored-ditko.html