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

Issue Details

Issue #17
Published March 1961
Frequency monthly
Cover Price 0.10 USD
Pages 36
Editing Stan Lee
Notes Distributed to newstands in October 1960. This issue includes 10 pages of paid advertisements. All new stories in this issue are narrated in the first person unless otherwise specified. Distribution date from Joseph Marek's Marvel Comics Group history website.

Cover Details - "Vandoom! He Who Made a Creature!"

Characters Vandoom's Creature
Genre monsters
Pencils Jack Kirby
Inks Steve Ditko; Dick Ayers ? (touch-ups on monster)
Notes Cover inker and touch-up artist from Nick Caputo via the Error Tracker (February 2009).
Reprinted in Where Creatures Roam (Marvel, 1970 series) #4 (January 1971) [without touch-ups on monster]; in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #2 (2008)

13 page story "Vandoom, the Man Who Made a Creature!"

Characters Ludwig Vandoom; Vandoom's Creature
Synopsis Vandoom, the owner of a Transylvanian wax museum, sets out to build a new monster in order to bring customers back to the museum. A lightning bolt brings the creature to life, but despite the fearful attacks of the villagers, it is not hostile and does not strike back. An invasion force of Martians lands and Vandoom convinces his creation to attack them. The wax figure defeats them, but the effort drains the life force out of it.
Genre monsters
Pencils Jack Kirby
Inks Dick Ayers
Notes This story is divided into two chapters: an untitled first chapter (6 pp), and chapter 2—"The Mark of Vandoom" (7 pp).
Reprinted in Where Creatures Roam (Marvel, 1970 series) #4 (January 1971); in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #2 (2008)

2 page text story "The Spirit"

Characters Bobby Davis; Tom Davis; Alice Davis;
Synopsis A young boy cleans out the attic of the old house his family moved into and meets a ghost from the Revolutionary War era.
Genre occult
Letters typeset
Notes Text story with illustration.
Reprinted from Astonishing (Marvel, 1951 series) #49 (May 1956)

5 page story "Beware! Of the Ghastly Glass!"

Characters Bruno
Synopsis A man kills to gain possession of a magic crystal that grants him four wishes, but even his carefully worded wishes backfire, stranding him on the moon.
Genre occult
Pencils Steve Ditko
Inks Steve Ditko
Notes Narrated in the third person.
Reprinted in Where Creatures Roam (Marvel, 1970 series) #4 (January 1971); in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #2 (2008)

5 page story "I Dared to Enter the Haunted Room!"

Characters Mr. Smith
Synopsis A scientist builds an ultimate bomb and plans to use it to hold the world hostage. He hides it in a room believed haunted, but when he goes to give his ultimatum to the UN he realizes that he is now a ghost.
Genre horror
Pencils Don Heck
Inks Don Heck
Reprinted in Tower of Shadows (Marvel, 1969 series) #9 (January 1971); in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #2 (2008)