Strange Tales #113
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeStrange Tales #113 holds a firm place in the Silver Age Marvel canon as the debut of two characters who would shape the Human Torch's solo era: the plant-controlling villain Plantman (Samuel Smithers) and Dorrie Evans, Johnny Storm's first real recurring girlfriend. Dorrie wasn't a throwaway date — she remained Johnny's semi-reluctant love interest through Strange Tales #133, giving the solo series a sustained emotional throughline that it had previously lacked. The issue also marks an editorial inflection point: the short sci-fi backup story 'The Shoemaker's Strange Assistants!' was the last non-superhero story to appear in Strange Tales, signaling the title's complete pivot toward costumed-hero content that would eventually house Nick Fury and Doctor Strange. Plantman himself proved durable enough to tangle with the X-Men, the Avengers, the Defenders, and Namor across decades, even reinventing himself as the eco-themed Thunderbolts member Blackheath in the early 2000s.
In "The Coming of the Plantman!", a desperate shoemaker whose nightly tales of helpful little people begin to blur with reality finds himself trapped in a nightmare when a loan shark’s relentless demands force him to work through the night. Written by Stan Lee and illustrated with eerie precision by Steve Ditko, this 1963 Marvel classic blends whimsy and dread as the shoemaker’s fables take a terrifying turn. The cover, a dynamic collaboration by Jack Kirby, Sol Brodsky, and Don Heck, captures the story’s eerie transformation in bold, striking detail.
In "The Coming of the Plantman!", Johnny, still trying to win over Doris Evans without relying on his Torch identity, finds himself caught in a bizarre turn of events after her father fires the groundskeeper, Sam Smithers, over a strange plant-enhancement device. When a lightning strike activates the invention, Smithers gains control over plant life—and with it, a dangerous new agenda. With the city now under siege by a rampaging army of sentient flora, Johnny must protect Doris’ father from a frame-up and stop the Plantman before his twisted vision takes root.
In "The Search for Shanng!" from Strange Tales #113, an alien named Shanng crash-lands on Earth, offering wisdom to those who prove worthy. When greed and suspicion cloud the minds of those who seek him, Shanng remains hidden—waiting for a time when humanity’s intentions are pure.
In "The Shoemaker's Strange Assistants!" from *Strange Tales* #113, a humble cobbler who once spun tales of nocturnal helpers to neighborhood children finds his stories eerily real when desperation drives him to borrow from a ruthless loan shark. As the man’s debt grows and his health fails, the shoemaker’s nightly labor takes a supernatural turn—when the lender himself is shrunk and forced to work in the cobbler’s workshop, the line between myth and nightmare blurs.
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The lead story, 'The Coming of the Plantman!', was plotted by Stan Lee and scripted by Jerry Siegel — Superman's co-creator — working under the house pseudonym Joe Carter, a practice Marvel used regularly during this period to sidestep page-rate and credits complications. Dick Ayers handled the interior pencils and inks for the Human Torch feature, while the cover was drawn by Jack Kirby and inked by Don Heck, with researcher Nick Caputo later determining that production man Sol Brodsky likely retouched the Human Torch figure before publication. The issue shipped with a printing error in its indicia, which mistakenly carried over the previous issue's designation — listing the book as #112 dated September, when it was in fact #113 with an October cover date.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance and origin of Plantman (Samuel Smithers), whose plant-controlling ray gun was struck by lightning while he worked as a gardener for the Evans family in Glenville, Long Island.
- First appearance of Doris (Dorrie) Evans, Johnny Storm's first named, recurring girlfriend; she and Johnny dated from Strange Tales #113 through #133 before she broke up with him in Fantastic Four #45.
- The lead story 'The Coming of the Plantman!' was plotted by Stan Lee and scripted by Jerry Siegel (co-creator of Superman) under the Marvel house pseudonym 'Joe Carter,' with pencils and inks by Dick Ayers.
- Cover penciled by Jack Kirby and inked by Don Heck; researcher Nick Caputo determined that Sol Brodsky likely altered the Human Torch figure on the finished cover art.
- The backup story 'The Shoemaker's Strange Assistants!' (script by Stan Lee, art by Steve Ditko) is documented as the last non-superhero anthology story to appear in Strange Tales, marking the series' complete transition to superhero content.
- The issue's indicia contains a production error, mistakenly identifying it as issue #112 with a September date — unchanged from the previous issue's indicia.
- Plantman's origin was later retconned in Namor, the Sub-Mariner #24, revealing that the lightning bolt that empowered his device was actually sent by the extra-dimensional plant creatures known as the H'ylthri.
- Reprinted in The Human Torch & The Thing: Strange Tales — The Complete Collection (Marvel, 2018) and included in the Marvel July 1963 Omnibus (Marvel, 2023); a British edition was also published contemporaneously under Vista Publications Inc.
Full credits
Reprints
↩ Reprints Spellbound #30 (1956)
Reprinted in Sinister Tales #24 (1965), Marvel Tales #16 (1968), I Fantastici Quattro #12 (1971), I Fantastici Quattro #13 (1971), Dracula #17 (1978), Eclipso #73 (1980), Star Wars Weekly #113 (1980), Sinister Tales #202 (1984), Essential Human Torch #1 (2003), Marvel Masterworks: The Human Torch #1 (2006), Marvel Masterworks: The Human Torch #1 (2014), The Human Torch & The Thing: Strange Tales - The Complete Collection #[nn] (2018), Marvel Masters of Suspense: Stan Lee & Steve Ditko Omnibus #2 (2019), Marvel July 1963 Omnibus #[nn] (2023), Creepy Worlds #51
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