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This issue’s 7-page cover-story, “I Discovered Gorgilla! The Monster Of Midnight Mountain!”, was written by Larry Lieber, penciled by Jack Kirby and inked by Steve Ditko. It begins as an archeologist named Scotty studies the origins of the “missing link”. His research leads him to the island of Borneo, where he and his expedition of fellow scientists question the local natives about the missing link. They confirm Scotty’s hunch, but reveal that the creature – known as “Gorgilla” -- is still alive and is worshipped as a god by the mountain country’s headhunters! Their guides refusing to accompany them, the team of explorers penetrates Borneo’s interior, where they ascend Midnight Mountain and scale its giant stone wall, despite the efforts of the local headhunters to drive them away. On the other side, they encounter the awesome object of their search:

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
And then we saw it! – the awesome unbelievable sight of a MONSTER! HALF-MAN and HALF-APE! A moment later we no longer worried about capturing Gorgilla! For HE had now become the hunter…and WE were his prey…

When Gorgilla uproots a tree in which one of Scotty’s friends is trapped, the archaeologist, feeling responsible for his plight, lights a makeshift torch to distract the mile-high simian. But suddenly, the expedition finds itself trapped between Gorgilla and a newly arrived Tyrannosaurus rex! (Gee, the locals didn’t say a thing about any dinosaurs living behind that big wall!)

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
It was no use running – we COULDN’T escape! We just stood there fearfully, watching the two prehistoric monsters come closer and closer to us! Gorgilla was the FIRST to reach us! But when he did, he didn’t strike…he merely watched us, and then he looked at the approaching Tyrannosaur…it was as though he were trying to MAKE A DECISION!

Soon, like a scene out of 1933’s KING KONG (and why not? – everything else in the story seems to have been swiped from that classic film!), Gorgilla engages the ferocious T-rex in a savage fight to the finish. Triumphant, Gorgilla pounds on his chest, but is obviously too exhausted to offer any resistance to Scotty’s band of explorers.

SCOTTY:
We could capture him – but we won’t! He saved our lives! We OWE it to him to let him REMAIN here in peace!

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
That night, under cover of darkness, we made our way past the headhunters, back to the coast of the island, and the next day we took off from Borneo…our expedition was OVER!

SCOTTY:
We’ll never see him again…but somehow I feel Gorgilla KNOWS…he UNDERSTANDS why we let him remain on Midnight Mountain…

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
And somewhere in the wilds of Borneo, in a hidden jungle, Gorgilla still lives! Gorgilla, part man, part beast – the strangest creature of all time! Gorgilla – the Missing Link!

(This story was reprinted in MONSTERS ON THE PROWL No. 9.)

Also included in this issue of TALES TO ASTONISH are the stories:

• “My Nightmare Has No End!”, drawn by Don Heck. – An unspecified man has a repetitive series of nightmares in which he’s pursued by a shadowy creature. One night, the creature reveals itself as a being from the dimension of Zendu, who, for months, has “been working telepathically to cross the barrier” that separates their dimensions with the intentions of trading places with him! The furry-faced stranger shows the Earthman mental images of Zendu, a high-tech utopia whose inhabitants enjoy life spans of a thousand years. This convinces the human to eagerly agree to the swap, but once they’ve exchanged minds and transferred dimensions, the former Earthman is informed that he was a fool to agree to exchange bodies, because Zendu may be a utopia, but it is also a place of unbearable boredom. But the joke is on the creature from Zendu, for as he awakens on Earth, he learns that he’s now occupying the body of an inmate locked in a prison cell, condemned to death! (This story was reprinted in FANTASY MASTERPIECES No. 4 and FEAR No. 4.)

• “Save Me! Save Me!”, drawn by Paul Reinman. – Albert Poole, a nerdy scientist plans to steal Project X35 out from under the noses of top government officials and military men aboard an offshore yacht. Once he has the X35 plans, he’ll sell them to the highest foreign bidder. He hopes to accomplish this by using his “atomic disintegrating machine” to rearrange the atoms of his body, enabling him to stand on the surface of water. He exposes himself to the machine’s effects, but it’s not enough to give him the power to walk on water. He repeats the process over and over, each time increasing the rays’ dosage, until he finally is able to walk across the bay, enter a porthole, and steal the top-secret papers. But as he treasonous scientist strolls back to shore, he makes a rather astonishing discovery: “How could I have been such a fool? Why didn’t I realize that…anybody whose atoms were changed so that he could walk on water – would have to SINK ON LAND!” Huh? (This story was reprinted in FEAR No. 3.)

• “A Monster Waits Outside!!”, drawn by Steve Ditko. – After a man is sealed inside a metal sphere, he’s launched into outer space. But as the minutes turn into hours, time drags to the point that the sphere’s occupant feels like his isolation is driving him insane. What’s more, he starts to hear noises from outside his sphere. As his panic mounts, the space traveler sees a huge crimson creature claw a hole in the sphere’s side, but as it penetrates his microcosm, he desperately presses the “emergency” button to return him to Earth. Safely back at the space center, his crew assure him that his experience was merely a result of hallucinations brought on by his solitude, and the “claw marks” in the skin of the sphere were probably the result of being grazed by a meteor. But when he probes deeper, the frazzled space traveler finds something more – a huge crimson claw lodged within one of the slashed on the sphere’s metallic skin! “Yes, the Space Age has begun! But what will we really find out there? What? WHAT??” (This story was reprinted in FEAR No. 3.)

ODDBALL Factoid – Gorgilla returned to visit New York City and climb the Statue Of Liberty in “Gorgilla Strikes Again!” in TALES TO ASTONISH No. 18!

For more from Scott Shaw!, visit his Web site at http://www.shawcartoons.com/.

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