Tales to Astonish #39

(January 1963)

The Vengeance of the Scarlet Beetle! (Table of Contents: 1)

Ant-Man / comic story / 10 pages (report information)

Script

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

Pencils

Jack Kirby (credited)

Inks

Dick Ayers (credited)

Colors

Stan Goldberg

Letters

Artie Simek (credited as A. Simek)

Job Number

V-958

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Your days of meddling are ended, Ant-Man!

Feature Logo

The Astonishing Ant-Man

Genre

superhero

Characters

Ant-Man [Henry Pym]; Scarlet Beetle (introduction, origin)

Synopsis

Ant-Man fights a beetle made super-intelligent by radiation. It uses Ant-Man's growth gas to become giant, but he is able to defeat it.

Reprints

• in Der Eiserne (BSV - Williams, 1975 series) #6
• in Marvel Tales (Marvel, 1966 series) #4 (September 1966)
which is reprinted
• in L'Incroyable Hulk (Editions Héritage, 1968 series) #32 ([mars 1974]) [N&B [B&W]]
• in Hit Comics (BSV - Williams, 1966 series) #139
• in Marvel Tales (Yaffa / Page, 1977 ? series) #3 ([1979])
• in Hulk Comic (Marvel UK, 1979 series) #8 (April 25 1979) [Extensively edited to bring the story length down to 2.5 pages. Prints pages 2-5], #9 (May 2 1979) [Extensively edited to bring the story length down to 3.5 pages. Prints, in this sequence, detail from cover, used as story panel; pages 6-7; page 8, panels 1-5; page 9, panel 1; page 1; page 8, panel 6; page 9, panels 2-6; page 10. panels 1-5 & 7-8]
• in Hulk (Arédit-Artima, 1976 series) #21 (mai 1982) [N&B et recadré [B&W and reframed]]
• in Essential Ant-Man (Marvel, 2002 series) #1 (February 2002) [black and white]
• in Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man / Giant-Man (Marvel, 2006 series) #1 ([March] 2006)
• in Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man / Giant-Man (Marvel, 2013 series) #1 ([December] 2013)
• in Marvel Gold. El Hombre Hormiga: ¡El Hombre en el Hormiguero! (Panini España, 2015 series) (Junio 2015)
• in Ant-Man / Giant-Man Epic Collection (Marvel, 2015 series) #1 - The Man in the Ant Hill (2015)

Indexer Notes

The Scarlet Beetle next appears in Iron Man (Marvel, 1968 series) #44 (January 1972).

The Remedy Oil (Table of Contents: 2)

text story / 2 pages (report information)

Script

?

Pencils

Marie Severin

Inks

Marie Severin

Colors

?

Letters

typeset

Job Number

J-984

First Line of Dialogue or Text

All of the fancy clothing stores on Main Street were doing a...

Genre

science fiction

Characters

Mrs. Gerrity; Tom Gerrity; Officer O'Malley; Logarithm

Synopsis

An old-fashioned shopkeeper unwittingly saves the life of a boy from Mechanica when her remedy oil lubricates the gears in his brain.

Reprints

• from Uncanny Tales (Marvel, 1952 series) #54 (April 1957)
which is reprinted
• from Journey into Mystery (Marvel, 1952 series) #37 (August 1956) [retitled]

Indexer Notes

Text story with illustrations.

Ozamm the Terrible! (Table of Contents: 3)

comic story / 8 pages (report information)

Script

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

Pencils

Don Heck (credited)

Inks

Don Heck (credited)

Colors

Stan Goldberg

Letters

Jon D'Agostino (credited as Johnny Dee)

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Surrender, Earthlings!

Genre

science fiction

Characters

Ozamm; Joe Baxter

Synopsis

A factory worker laid off to be replaced by a machine foils a seemingly invincible alien by cutting off his power source.

Reprints

• in Out of This World (Alan Class, 1963 series) #3
• in Hit Comics (BSV - Williams, 1966 series) #135
• in Le Tombeau de Dracula (Editions Héritage, 1973 series) #11
• in Where Monsters Dwell (Marvel, 1970 series) #29 (July 1974)
• in Los Vengadores (Ediciones Vértice, 1974 series) #19 (Abril 1976)
• in Hulk (Arédit-Artima, 1976 series) #18 (novembre 1981) [N&B et recadré [B&W and reframed]]
• in Secrets of the Unknown (Alan Class, 1962 series) #205 ([circa 1982 - 1983]) [original title: Ozamm the Terrible!]
• in Creepy Worlds (Alan Class, 1962 series) #246 ([circa 1988 - 1989])
• in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #4 ([January] 2012)

The Toy Soldiers (Table of Contents: 4)

comic story / 5 pages (report information)

Script

Stan Lee (signed as Stan Lee [early- to mid-career])

Pencils

Steve Ditko (signed as S. DITKO)

Inks

Steve Ditko (signed as S. DITKO)

Colors

Stan Goldberg

Letters

Artie Simek

First Line of Dialogue or Text

How can anyone possibly dream up a fantasy story as simple as a few toy soldiers?

Genre

science fiction

Characters

Billy Barton; Zogg

Synopsis

A boy who enjoys toy soldiers buys a new civil war figure to place in his prisoner of war stockade. That evening, he and his father are attacked by an invader from the sixth dimension. Suddenly, the lights go out, and when they turn the lights back on, the invader has disappeared. They chalk it up to some sort of unusual shared dream, and go back to sleep. The following morning when the boy wakes up and peers into his model stockade, he sees the invader languishing in the cell guarded over by the toy soldier.

Reprints

• in Secrets of the Unknown (Alan Class, 1962 series) #100
• in Amazing Stories of Suspense (Alan Class, 1963 series) #22 (1964 ?)
• in Hit Comics (BSV - Williams, 1966 series) #137
• in I Fantastici Quattro (Editoriale Corno, 1971 series) #2 (20 Aprile 1971)
• in Uncanny Tales (Marvel, 1973 series) #8 (February 1975)
• in Amazing Stories of Suspense (Alan Class, 1963 series) #151 ([circa 1976 - 1977]), #184 ([circa 1980 - 1981])
• in Los Vengadores (Novedades, 1981 series) #14 (4 de junio de 1981)
• in Hulk (Arédit-Artima, 1976 series) #19 (janvier 1982) [N&B et recadré [B&W and reframed]]
• in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #4 ([January] 2012)
• in Marvel Masters of Suspense: Stan Lee & Steve Ditko Omnibus (Marvel, 2019 series) #2 (2019)

Indexer Notes

Letters credit from George Oshevsky's Marvel Comics Index.