Marvel Tales (1949–1957)
The first Marvel Tales was the direct continuation of the superhero anthology Marvel Mystery Comics, published by Marvel Comics' initial iteration, Timely Comics. This series ran through issue #92 (cover-dated June 1949). Beginning with issue #93 (Aug. 1949), it became Marvel Tales, an anthology of horror, fantasy, and science fiction stories.[8][9][10] The bulk of this series was published under the company name Atlas Comics.
Marvel Tales included among its contributors writer and editor-in-chief Stan Lee and such comics artists as Golden Age veterans Harry Anderson, Carl Burgos, Bill Everett, Fred Kida, Mike Sekowsky, Syd Shores, and Ogden Whitney, and, early in their careers, Dick Ayers, Gene Colan, Tony DiPreta, Mort Drucker, Russ Heath, Bernard Krigstein, Joe Maneely, Joe Sinnott, and Basil Wolverton, among others.[11] Issue #147 featured one of Steve Ditko's first stories for Marvel, "The Vanishing Martians".[12] The series ran 67 issues under the new title, through #159 (Aug. 1957).[13] It ended because of the collapse of Atlas's distributor, American News Company, and the subsequent restructuring that limited the number of comics the company could publish in a month.[14][15]
An issue of Marvel Tales was included in a display of covers representative of the "Crime, Horror & Weird Variety" at the April 1954 hearings of the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency.[16]
Marvel published a different series of the same name in the 1960s, primarily reprinting Spider-Man stories.
