Strange Tales 1951 #113 - 4.5 - $29.00

The Human Torch saves his new girlfriend Doris?s father from a disgruntled gardener who gains the ability to control plants.

A man insists on getting a specially made pair of glasses in a hurry, and finds that the optician has a magical corridor that leads back in time.

An alien crash lands on Earth, and offers knowledge to in exchange for help. Greedy humans cannot find his ship, since he sensed their selfish thoughts and hid himself until humanity is ready.

A shoemaker who enjoys telling the neighborhood children stories of the little people who come out at night to help him make shoes becomes ill and goes to a loan shark to acquire money for medical treatment. The loan shark harasses him constantly to make interest payments on his loan so he must work night and day. The last time the greedy money lender visits the shoemaker he gets the shock of his life as it turns out the little people are real. They shrink the man and put him to work building shoes for the shoemaker.

On-sale date is the publication date reported in U. S. Copyright Office filings. Includes 10 pages of paid advertisements. Indicia incorrectly lists issue as #112, September - accidentally unchanged from previous issue.

• - Sol Brodsky likely altered the Human Torch figure. Info per Nick Caputo, August 2014. Don Heck inks also per Nick. Previous indexer credited Dick Ayers. An unaltered cover with different lettering and art on the trees was published in Creepy Worlds #51.
• The Coming of the Plantman! - Plantman's costume resembles that worn by The Shadow; he next appears, in a new costume, in issue #121 (June 1964). Doris Evans would continue as Johnny's semi-reluctant girlfriend until the end of his solo series.
• New Glasses - Text story with illustration.
• The Shoemaker's Strange Assistants! - Uncredited Roussos Inks per Bob Bailey, 2005-03-19. (Per Sandell ed.). Previous indexer credited Steve Ditko. Ditko plot credit removed due to lack of attribution. (13/07/2010) Job number confirmed on original art: https://www.nostalgicinvestments.com/by-artist/2375/steve-ditko/strange-tales-113-p1-splash-large-art This is the last non superhero comic story to appear in Strange Tales.