Strange Tales 1951 #112 - 4.0 - $40.00

A TV host starts a public campaign against the Human Torch. The Torch?s efforts to regain his popularity fail, but when he stops the high tech thief the Eel from detonating a powerful bomb he is redeemed.

A gem merchant hears of the world's largest ruby guarded by a legendary giant statue in Tibet. He travels to Tibet and steals the ruby, but his escape is cut off by a boulder as he drives his jeep down the mountain pass and he is startled to see the giant statue is alive and pursuing him.

A deserter from the Space Corps of the future finds a replica of his home town and friends on an alien world. A stranger reveals that they are illusions created from the imagination of those who visit this planet and that they disappear. The man is horrified to find that he too is only a figment of the stranger's imagination.

On-sale date is the publication date reported in U. S. Copyright Office filings. Includes 10 pages of paid advertisements and is the first issue to be published without text pages.

• The Living Bomb! - Possible Kirby inks per Nick Caputo based on an examination at his blog: http://nick-caputo.blogspot.com/2011/09/kirby-inking-kirby.html. Previous indexer credited Dick Ayers.
• The Living Bomb! - The Eel next appears in issue #117 (February 1964). The Eel, with his blueish-purple costume and oily-slick coating may have inspired the villain on the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon, "The Slippery Doctor Von Schlick". Charles Lawson, an atomic scientist, may have been related to Walter Lawson, an expert in guided missiles, who died in Marvel Super-Heroes (Marvel, 1967 series) #13 (March 1968). The plot about a miniature atomic pile which eventually explodes is similar to the Mike Hammer film, "Kiss Me Deadly" (1955).
• Don't Miss Another Big One from Marvel! - Promo features a cover repro of the Avengers (Marvel, 1963 series) #1 (September 1963).
• Marvel Comics Group Ushers in the Marvel Age of Comics! - Promo includes cover repros of the Fantastic Four Annual (Marvel, 1963 series) #1; Strange Tales Annual (Marvel, 1962 series) #2 and the logo of X-Men (Marvel, 1963 series) announcing that new series.