Strange Tales #67 is the first issue since the Atlas Implosion to feature new stories instead of inventory stories. The newly arrived at Marvel heavyweight artists Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby both have a story in this issue. The cover is by Joe Sinnott which is unusual as most of the newly revitalized Martin Goodman comics / pre-Marvels had covers by Jack Kirby. This Strange Tales #67, along with a reborn Journey Into Mystery #50 and World Of Fantasy #15 and three new titles, Strange Worlds, Tales Of Suspense, Tales To Astonish are historically important because they marked a fresh start for Martin Goodman's and Stan Lee's crumbled and tattered comic book company. This new start led directly to the most explosive and influential revolution in the history of American comic books, the Marvel Age Of Comics!

I got my first issue of Strange Tales which was #105, from a friend, Clay King, at White Bluff Elementary School in Savannah, Georgia probably in 1964. I rode my bicycle a few miles way out to Clay's house in the country to visit him since he had some old Marvel comics he was willing to sell. I had to cross the busy Abercorn Expressway which was a little tricky on a bicycle, but no risk was too great when hunting down back issues of Marvel comic books. In 1964 I was becoming more familiar with Marvel but I still didn't know much about its history. The Overstreet Price Guide with comic book historical publishing data wasn't invented until about 1970. Also, I didn't start subscribing to the leading comic book fanzine of the day, The Rocket's Blast Comic Collector (RB&CC) until 1966. So there was really no way to learn anything about Marvel history in 1964. I was pretty sure Fantastic Four #1 from 1961 was Marvel's first superhero book and the numbering on that title was only in the 30s range in 1964. So why did this Strange Tales #105 from 1963 which did have the superhero Human Torch have a much higher number than any of Marvel's current titles all of which had started only a few years ago? How could Strange Tales be older than Fantastic Four which was I thought was Marvel's oldest comic book? Of course I learned over the next few years, probably from RB&CC, that Strange Tales and also Journey Into Mystery began way back in the early 1950s when Marvel had been known as Atlas. I was intrigued by these two comics which for most of their history didn't have superhero stories but science fiction / fantasy stories instead and whose lineage stretched back into the mysterious early past of Marvel Comics.

Strange Tales was indeed Marvel's oldest comic book that was still being published in the early 1960s. The first issue is cover dated June 1951, preceding Marvel's second oldest title, Journey Into Mystery #1 cover dated June 1952. Both of these two titles and several more Atlas science fiction / horror titles chugged merrily along for several years in the 1950s. They survived the new Comics Code Authority which made them tone down their content but they finally got caught in the Atlas Implosion of 1957. Unlike all the other Atlas sci-fi / horror comics that started in the early 1950s, Strange Tales and Journey Into Mystery did survive the Implosion. They were only suspended instead of cancelled. The last Strange Tales issue before the Implosion was #60. After a few months delay Strange Tales published #61 - #66 up through the end of 1958. The stories in these books were most likely not new but "inventory" stories that been rejected for publication and placed in storage earlier. In late 1958 the artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko came on board full time at Marvel and helped Stan Lee lift Marvel out of the post Implosion doldrums and back into the limelight again.