Strange Tales #83
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeStrange Tales #83 is the first appearance of Grogg, an ancient fire-breathing dragon awakened from his slumber beneath Soviet territory by atomic bomb tests — one of the pre-hero monster anthology characters who was later absorbed wholesale into Earth-616 continuity. The issue sits at a historically charged creative moment: it falls in the thick of the era when Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko were using the Strange Tales anthology as a proving ground for giant-creature concepts, a creative pipeline that would soon produce Fin Fang Foom and help define the visual DNA of Marvel's monster tradition. The Cold War framing of the lead story — a reluctant Soviet scientist who deliberately engineers Grogg's awakening to secure his own defection to the United States — gives the tale a genuine moral cleverness uncommon in standard monster fare of the period, elevating it above genre filler. Grogg himself proved durable enough to return four issues later and reenter modern Marvel continuity decades on, eventually becoming a sometime operative of S.H.I.E.L.D.
In "From Out of the Black Pit Came...Grogg!", a Soviet scientist's atomic experiments awaken the ancient dragon Grogg, unleashing chaos upon his military unit. With the creature rampaging, the scientist sees his chance to defect to the United States—exactly as he'd planned all along. Written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber, with dynamic art by Jack Kirby and inks by Dick Ayers, this 1961 Marvel classic features a cover by Kirby and Ayers that captures the dragon's terrifying arrival.
When a Soviet scientist's atomic tests awaken the ancient dragon Grogg, the resulting chaos forces a desperate choice—escape to the West, as he'd secretly planned all along. The dragon's sudden rampage becomes the perfect cover for a defection that was always in motion.
In "Masquerade Party," a cunning socialite turns her lavish gathering into a game of psychological terror, targeting an old rival with a twist that blurs reality and fear. When her rival’s husband appears in disguise, his eerie presence unsettles her—leaving her to wonder if she’s the predator or the prey.
In "The Menace of Shandu!" from Strange Tales #83, a curious boy stumbles upon a mysterious book in a dusty used bookstore, unaware of the ancient magic it holds. When he summons a vengeful genie with a single wish, the creature promises torment—only for the boy to quickly wish everything undone, hoping to erase the moment he opened the book.
ComicBooks.com Value
Show all 18 grades ▾
This exact issue on ebay
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
The issue went on sale January 5, 1961 under the Atlas Comics banner, at a point when Stan Lee was editing and plotting the bulk of the anthology's monster stories, often in collaboration with his brother Larry Lieber on the scripting side. Jack Kirby supplied the lead Grogg story's pencils — inked by Dick Ayers, his regular inker on the Strange Tales monster run at this time — while Steve Ditko handled backup art duties, a typical division of labor for the anthology in this period. Scripts for these early monster stories were generally uncredited on the printed page; credit assignments for this issue, particularly the precise split between Lee and Lieber on dialogue, rely on retrospective scholarship rather than original indicia.
Trivia · 9 facts
- Cover date: April 1961; on-sale date: January 5, 1961; published by Atlas Comics (the pre-Marvel incarnation of the company).
- Lead story: 'From Out of the Black Pit Came... Grogg!' — first appearance of the ancient dragon Grogg, Soviet scientist Miklos Kozlov, and Soviet Army Colonel Fedor Vorcutsky, all confirmed Earth-616 debut appearances.
- Creative credits on the lead story: plot by Stan Lee, script by Larry Lieber, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Dick Ayers, letters by Artie Simek.
- The Grogg story is structured in two parts across 13 pages; the final page carries an editorial caption inviting readers to write in if they want to see more of Grogg — an early, direct reader-feedback mechanism Stan Lee used to gauge character popularity.
- The issue is an anthology containing multiple backup stories; the second story is a reprint of a tale from Journey Into Mystery #25, and additional short stories appear alongside the Grogg lead.
- When the Grogg story was reprinted in Where Monsters Dwell #27, the text was edited: the protagonist's name changed from Miklos to Michael and the unnamed remote Asian province became 'Bodavia,' a fictional communist nation created for Marvel's British reprint market — a retcon later confirmed canonical by Marvel Monsters: From the Files of Ulysses Bloodstone #1.
- The other backup stories in this issue were subsequently reprinted individually: 'Masquerade Party' in Chamber of Chills #16, and 'The Menace of Shandu!' in Crypt of Shadows #17.
- Grogg returned just four issues later in Strange Tales #87 and was eventually folded into modern Marvel continuity — appearing in S.H.I.E.L.D.-related stories and being identified in later handbooks as a possible member of the Makluan 'Elder Races,' the same dragon-like alien species as Fin Fang Foom.
- The lead story was also collected in Monsters: The Marvel Monsterbus by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber & Jack Kirby (Marvel, 2017).
Full credits
Reprints
↩ Reprints Journey into Mystery #25 (1955)
Reprinted in Where Monsters Dwell #27 (1974), Chamber of Chills #16 (1975), Crypt of Shadows #17 (1975), Sinister Tales #203 (1984), Monsters: The Marvel Monsterbus by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber & Jack Kirby #1 (2017), Marvel Masters of Suspense: Stan Lee & Steve Ditko Omnibus #1 (2019), Misterios del Gato Negro #133, Sinister Tales #2
Key issues in Strange Tales
Variants (1)
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.