Strange Tales 1951 #85 - .5 - $5.00

Another group of scientists disturbs Gargantus, who can now breathe air and vows to conquer the surface world. The son of the man who found Gargantus uses his father's bathysphere to lure it deep into the ocean and uses a giant electric shock to kill him.

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.

A town's mayor threatens to imprison a gypsy seer who spurned his advances if her prediction that he will be injured by a fall does not come true. He goes to the basement and has himself tied down to prevent this, but realizes that a chandelier above him is coming loose.

A criminal hopes that the story of an ape man in the jungle around his prison will stop pursuit. Instead he finds that the ape man is real and a curse transforms him into an ape until he finds someone to take his place.

Includes 10 pages of paid advertisements (pages 2, 9, 15, 19, 25, 27, 33-36 of comic including inside front cover, inside back cover and back cover); pages of comic not numbered. Some information supplied by Tom Lammers, Dr. Michael J. Vassallo, and others via the Atlas/Timely discussion group. On-sale date from 1961 Periodicals, Copyright Office, Library of Congress.

• The Return of Gargantus! - Narrated in the first person. This story is divided into two parts: an untitled part one (6 pp) and part two?"Gargantus" (7 pp). Story is pages 3-7, 10-14, 16-18 of comic (pages numbered 1 to 13). Gargantus last appeared in issue #80 (January 1961); he next appears in Marvel Monsters: Monsters on the Prowl (Marvel, 2005 series) #1 (December 2005).
• New Glasses - Text story with illustration. Text story is pages 8, 26 of comic (pages of story not numbered).
• The Man Who Fell! - This story is retold in Tales of Suspense (Marvel, 1959 series) #48 (December 1963) as "Kraddak" by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber. Possible Lee plot and Lieber script per Nick Caputo. Previous indexer credited Stan Lee solely. Story is pages 20-24 of comic (pages of story numbered 1 to 5).
• The Ape Man - This story seems similar to "Gorilla Man" drawn by Robert Q. Sale in Men's Adventures (Marvel, 1950 series) #25 (March 1954). Possible Lee script per Nick Caputo's examination at his blog: http://nick-caputo.blogspot.com/2011/11/who-authored-ditko.html Story is pages 28-32 of comic (pages of story numbered 1 to 5).