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

Issue Details

Issue #68
Published April 1959
Frequency bi-monthly
Cover Price 0.10 USD
Pages 36
Editing Stan Lee
Notes Distributed to newstands in December 1958. This issue includes 10 pages of paid advertisements. Some information on this issue supplied by Dr. Michael J. Vassallo, Tom Lammers and the Atlas/Timely discussion list. Distribution date from Joseph Marek's Marvel Comics Group history website.

Cover Details - "Evacuate Earth!"

Genre science fiction
Pencils Jack Kirby
Inks Christopher Rule

5 page story "Last Warning--Evacuate Earth!"

Characters Makka
Synopsis A gaseous alien arrives on Earth to warn people to evacuate before its race invades. It attempts to communicate with humans telepathically, but they disregard his warning as madness or a trick. Convinced that the humans' lack of fear is due to some impenetrable defence, the alien leaves and warns its people to call off the invasion.
Genre science fiction
Pencils Joe Sinnott (signed)
Inks Joe Sinnott (signed)
Notes Narrated in the second person.

2 page text story "Mystery Trip"

Characters Tommy Pidgeon; Goober Jones; Rosie; Uncle Pete
Synopsis Tommy's uncle returns from a space journey needing to re-learn how to walk on earth instead of floating.
Genre science fiction
Pencils Joe Maneely
Inks Joe Maneely
Letters typeset
Notes Text story with illustration.
Reprinted from Uncanny Tales (Marvel, 1952 series) #46 (August 1956)

5 page story "The Creatures from the Bottomless Pit!"

Characters Serge Kemplet; Kloto
Synopsis A man descends in a bathysphere into a pit so deep that he is surprised to find a waterless cavern beneath it occupied by elves banished long ago by a wizard. They stole the magic ball that kept Atlantis safe from the waves and so a sorcerer cast a spell that would send them to the deepest pit in the Earth. They offer to make the man ruler of humans if he returns them to the surface would. He agrees, but then has second thoughts about unleashing their mischief upon unsuspecting humanity and destroys the bathysphere, accepting underground exile in the process.
Genre occult
Pencils Steve Ditko (signed)
Inks Steve Ditko (signed)

5 page story "Test Pilot!"

Characters Ralph Preston (only appearance)
Synopsis A rocketship test pilot in the year 2089 takes an experimental rocket on a test flight. He faces an oxygen leak caused by a collision, alien raiders and other hazards before returning safely to Earth.
Genre science fiction
Pencils Jack Kirby
Inks Christopher Rule
Notes Narrated in the second person.

4 page story "Next Stop--Mars!"

Characters Shorty; Walter Lanson
Synopsis A short child mocked for his height takes comfort from his one friend and his love of airplanes. He is rejected by the air force because of his height, but when his friend designs an experimental rocket that can only be piloted by a short man he becomes the first man on Mars.
Genre science fiction
Pencils Carl Burgos
Inks Carl Burgos

5 page story "Trapped In Tomorrow!"

Characters Willy Phelps
Synopsis A man spends twenty years building a time machine in order to use knowledge of the future to enrich himself. He travels to 2010 and memorizes stock market and horse race information from the newspaper archives. When he tries to return to the past, however, he finds that he accidentally left his time machine in a futuristic garbage processor, and it has been disintegrated.
Genre science fiction
Pencils John Buscema
Inks John Buscema
Notes Narrated in the second person. This story is retold in Tales of Suspense (Marvel, 1959 series) #9 (May 1960) as "Time on My Hands!" drawn by John Forte.