Astonishing Tales began as a split title with solo features starring the jungle lord Ka-Zar and the supervillain and monarch Doctor Doom in 10–page stories each. The latter feature was dropped after issue #8 (Oct. 1971). The creative team of "Doctor Doom" was initially composed of writer Roy Thomas and penciler-inker Wally Wood, a veteran of 1950s EC Comics stories and one of the early, signature artists of Daredevil. Wood remained as artist through issue #4 (Feb. 1971), succeeded by penciler George Tuska for two issues and Gene Colan for the final two. Larry Lieber was writer for issues #3–6, succeeded by Gerry Conway.
