Dates
- Cover date
- March 1962
- On sale
- January 2, 1962
- Pages
- 36
Editions and covers (2)
Copies of #78 are not all the same book. Here is how to tell each one apart.
- Original edition12¢ coverSource ↗
- UK pence edition9d [0-0-9 GBP] cover
British
Printed cover price 9d [0-0-9 GBP].
This edition’s page
Creators
Stories
- Kraggoom! The Creature Who Caught an Astronaut! · 7 pages
An exiled gaseous alien criminal named Kraggoom waits in Earth orbit for the first human astronaut in order to enter his body and possess his mind, returning to Earth as a conqueror. However, the first astronaut turns out to be a wealthy cheat who paid a safecracker to obtain the test results from NASA's selection process and altered them so that he would be chosen as the first astronaut. He is unable to cope with space travel and develops amnesia under the stress. Kraggoom, trapped in the human's mind, suffers the same fate as the spacecraft returns to Earth.
- Time Machine · 2 pages
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.
- The Sorcerer · 6 pages
A stranger appears at a gas station and asks for a job. He has mysterious powers, and is eventually attacked by supernatural beings. They agree to leave him alone, but only if he gives up his powers.
- The Clutching Hand · 5 pages
The producers of an oddities exhibit strike it rich when a suspended hand appears in their booth. The more honest one discovers that the hand is part of a stranded extra-dimensional being and frees it, enraging his crooked partner, who takes the profits and leaves, leaving his partner to collect a reward in gold from the being.
- Monsters on Mercury! · 5 pages
On Christmas eve, the first group of astronauts to land on Mercury encounter a group of friendly telepathic aliens who make them a Christmas tree.
Reprinted in
Creepy Worlds (1962), Amazing Stories of Suspense (1963), Secrets of the Unknown (1962), Astounding Stories (1966), Monsters: The Marvel Monsterbus by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber & Jack Kirby (2017), Weird Planets (1962), Fantasy Masterpieces (1966), Monsters on the Prowl (1971), Crazy Magazine (1973), Marvel Masters of Suspense: Stan Lee & Steve Ditko Omnibus (2019)