| Issue | #21 |
| Published | July 1961 |
| Frequency | monthly |
| Cover Price | 0.10 USD |
| Pages | 36 |
| Editing | Stan Lee |
| Notes | Distributed to newstands in April 1961. This issue includes 10 pages of paid advertisements. Distribution date from Joseph Marek's Marvel Comics Group history website. |
| Characters | Trull; Phil; Bart Hanson; Gloria |
| Genre | monsters |
| Pencils | Jack Kirby |
| Inks | Dick Ayers |
| Reprinted | in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #3 (2010) |
| Characters | Trull; Phil; Bart Hanson; Gloria |
| Synopsis | The mental essence of an alien bent on global conquest takes over a steam shovel and is defeated by an elephant. |
| Genre | monsters |
| Pencils | Jack Kirby |
| Inks | Dick Ayers |
| Notes | Narrated in the first person. This story is divided into two untitled parts (7 pp, 6 pp). The story differs from others like it because the hero does not gladly win the affection of the previously shrewish female, but instead gives her the cold shoulder. Someone must have told Stan "It's about time." |
| Reprinted | in Creatures on the Loose (Marvel, 1971 series) #10 (March 1971); in Incroyable Hulk, L' (Editions Héritage, 1968 series) #17 (December 1972) [part 1, as "Thrull! L'Inhumain!", French translation]; in Incroyable Hulk, L' (Editions Héritage, 1968 series) #18 [part 2, as "Thrull! L'Inhumain!", French translation]; in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #3 (2010) |
| Synopsis | A man's fascination with history leads him to build a time machine and travel to the past, but when he sees the dangers of time travel he destroys the machine and blueprints. |
| Genre | science fiction |
| Letters | typeset |
| Notes | Text story with illustration. Narrated in the first person. |
| Reprinted | from Mystic (Marvel, 1951 series) #57 (March 1957) |
| Characters | Hulk |
| Synopsis | An infinite loop story about a monster who repeatedly steps out of a movie screen. |
| Genre | horror |
| Script | Stan Lee |
| Pencils | Steve Ditko |
| Inks | Steve Ditko |
| Notes | Story credited to Stan Lee in issue #26 (December 1961). Stan must have wondered about the appeal of this type of story because he specifically asks for reader comment at the end of it. |
| Reprinted | in Where Monsters Dwell (Marvel, 1970 series) #8; in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #3 (2010) |
| Synopsis | A dentist in 2030 discovers that his patient is a robot from Mars and calls the police. The Martian robot is stopped, and the dentist is relieved, since he wants nothing to stop the infiltration of Venusian robots like him. |
| Genre | science fiction |
| Pencils | Don Heck |
| Inks | Don Heck |
| Notes | Narrated in the first person. |
| Reprinted | in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 2006 series) #3 (2010) |