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

Issue Details

Issue #5
Published September 1959
Frequency bi-monthly
Cover Price 0.10 USD
Pages 36
Editing Stan Lee
Notes Distributed to newstands in May 1959. This issue includes 10 pages of paid advertisements. All new stories in this issue are narrated in the first person. Distribution date from Joseph Marek's Marvel Comics Group history website.

Cover Details - "The Things on Easter Island!"

Genre science fiction
Pencils Jack Kirby
Inks Christopher Rule
Reprinted in Where Monsters Dwell (Marvel, 1970 series) #24 (October 1973); in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #1 (2006)

5 page story "I Was Trapped by the Things on Easter Island!"

Synopsis A pilot crash lands on Easter Island where he observes the statues rise out of the ground and discuss invasion plans of their home planet and the enslavement of Earthmen. He flees the pursuit of the statues and attempts to warn the proper authorities, but no one believes him. Eventually he begins to doubt his story as well, and unobserved, the statues who had been following him return to Easter island safe in the knowledge that no one would believe such an outlandish tale.
Genre science fiction
Pencils Jack Kirby
Inks Christopher Rule
Notes Job number from Dr. Michael J. Vassallo via the Atlas/Timely discussion group.
Reprinted in Where Monsters Dwell (Marvel, 1970 series) #24 (October 1973); in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #1 (2006)

2 page text story "The Inventor"

Characters Ned Carter; Mr. Jonas
Synopsis A disgruntled janitor's obsessive effort to create a sweeping robot costs him his job and ends in failure, but only because he sees no use for a perpetual motion machine.
Genre science fiction
Letters typeset
Notes Text story with illustration.
Reprinted from Uncanny Tales (Marvel, 1952 series) #32 (June 1955)

5 page story "I Am the Menace from Outer Space!"

Characters Krag
Synopsis An alien race sends a scout to Earth prior to their invasion, but when he investigates a mysterious space ship he is trapped and crushed, as the ship is actually a living being. The aliens believe he has been captured and call off the invasion.
Genre science fiction
Pencils Joe Sinnott (signed)
Inks Joe Sinnott (signed)
Notes Job number from Dr. Michael J. Vassallo via the Atlas/Timely discussion group.
Reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #1 (2006)

4 page story "I Can See Tomorrow!"

Characters Willy Adams
Synopsis A burglar steals a golden camera that takes pictures of tomorrow. He uses it to get information on the stock market and horse races, but when he photographs himself he realizes that he has no tomorrow.
Genre occult
Pencils Don Heck
Inks Don Heck
Notes Job number from Dr. Michael J. Vassallo via the Atlas/Timely discussion group.
Reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #1 (2006)

4 page story "I Found the Nightmare Note"

Characters Joe Baxter; Spencer Worthington
Synopsis An assistant at a record store devises a sound that will make a person unconscious, planning to use it to rob a wealthy customer. When the man doesn't pass out the crook thinks he failed, not knowing that the customer was deaf, and only bought records for his wife.
Genre science fiction
Pencils Al Williamson (signed)
Inks Al Williamson (signed)
Notes Job number from Dr. Michael J. Vassallo via the Atlas/Timely discussion group.
Reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #1 (2006)

5 page story "I Landed on the Forbidden Planet!"

Characters Tim Korey
Synopsis A space pilot visits a nearby planet, but finds that it is inhabited by giants, and so is too dangerous. He gets away, happy that his own universe is too tiny for the inhabitants of Earth to see it.
Genre science fiction
Pencils Steve Ditko (signed)
Inks Steve Ditko (signed)
Notes Job number from Dr. Michael J. Vassallo via the Atlas/Timely discussion group. This story is similar to "The Changeling", drawn by Jack Kirby, in Tales of Suspense #23.
Reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #1 (2006)