Tales to Astonish #13
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeTales to Astonish #13 (November 1960) is the debut issue of Groot, a character who began life as a Cold War-era alien invader in the Atlas/Marvel monster-anthology tradition and eventually became one of the most recognizable figures in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The issue is a vivid time-capsule of the pre-superhero Marvel house style — a multi-story anthology packed with science-fiction twist endings, oversized monster menaces, and the kind of pulp-magazine storytelling that Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby were perfecting just months before the Fantastic Four would change everything. That a single seven-page monster yarn from this period could, five decades later, anchor a billion-dollar film franchise testifies to how durable the Atlas-era monster concept proved to be. The issue also showcases the rare collaboration of Jack Kirby (pencils) and Steve Ditko (inks) on the cover — a pairing unusual enough that its existence is considered a minor landmark in early Marvel production history.
In Tales to Astonish #13 (1960), a desperate thug's quest for fortune in the Himalayas takes a strange turn when he's driven to madness by isolation and the locals' warnings about a cursed photograph. Written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber, with art by Jack Kirby and inks by Steve Ditko, this eerie tale unfolds as the man’s obsession with the image begins to warp reality—until the photo itself seems to mirror his unraveling. The cover by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko captures the chilling moment just before the line between man and monster blurs.
When the monarch of Planet X descends upon Earth to seize a town for his alien experiments, Leslie Evans and her sister Alice find themselves at the center of a bizarre invasion. With the planet's monstrous guardian, Groot, unleashed, the sisters must rely on quick thinking and unexpected allies to survive the alien threat.
In "I Found the Abominable Snowman!", a desperate man ventures into the frozen heart of the Himalayas, chasing a prize he believes will bring him fortune. Armed with a photograph and driven by greed, he’s met with silence and fear from the locals—each warning him the image is cursed. As the cold and isolation take their toll, his resolve frays, and the line between hunter and hunted begins to blur.
When a woodcarver’s obsession with his sculpture crosses a line, he finds himself turned to wood—only to see his creation come to life, thanks to a vengeful gypsy’s curse. Gustav’s twisted romance takes a dark turn as the line between man and art blurs, and the figure he once shaped begins to move with a will of its own.
When a former convict named Joey stumbles upon a professor’s wild claim about a hidden world inside television sets, he’s skeptical—until the impossible happens. With Frankie by his side, Joey finds himself caught between two realities when a rift opens and the denizens of the hidden world spill into his own, bringing with them a dangerous enemy from his past.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Tales to Astonish launched in January 1959 as part of publisher Martin Goodman's strategy of riding the late-1950s wave of monster and science-fiction anthology comics, a direct response to shifting newsstand tastes after the superhero market had contracted following World War II. By issue #13, the series was still firmly in its Atlas-era pre-superhero identity, with Stan Lee plotting stories, his brother Larry Lieber scripting them into full dialogue and panel descriptions under the early 'Marvel Method,' and a rotating stable of artists — Kirby, Ditko, Don Heck, and Dick Ayers — executing the pages. The lead Groot story, titled 'I Challenged... Groot! The Monster from Planet X!,' drew on the era's pervasive B-movie tropes of alien invasions and Cold War anxieties, placing a biologist protagonist against a seemingly unstoppable extraterrestrial rather than a soldier or superhero, which gave the resolution an unusual intellectual twist: termites rather than firepower save the day. The indicia for this issue lists the publisher as 'Zenith Publishing Corp.,' one of Goodman's multiple corporate shells, reflecting the tangled Atlas business structure that predated Marvel's consolidated identity.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Groot, the extraterrestrial tree-creature from Planet X, in the story 'I Challenged... Groot! The Monster from Planet X!' — created by Stan Lee (plot), Larry Lieber (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), and Dick Ayers (inks).
- In his debut, Groot is a fully articulate, self-proclaimed Monarch of Planet X whose stated goal is to abduct an entire Earth town for scientific experimentation — a characterization sharply at odds with his later heroic, monosyllabic Guardian persona.
- The issue's protagonist is scientist Leslie Evans (first appearance), who defeats Groot not with weapons but with a specially cultivated termite colony, a resolution that highlights the anthology's recurring theme of intellect over brute force.
- The cover is pencilled by Jack Kirby and inked by Steve Ditko — a relatively rare creative pairing — while the interior Groot story is inked by Dick Ayers.
- The issue is a five-story anthology; other features include 'I Found the Abominable Snowman!' (introducing Carl Hanson) and 'My Friend Is... Not Quite Human!' and 'I Found the Hidden World!' — colorist Stan Goldberg and letterers Ray Holloway and Artie Simek are credited across the stories.
- The Groot lead story has been reprinted multiple times: in Where Monsters Dwell #6 (1970), Weird Wonder Tales #19 (1976), Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish Vol. 2 (2008), Annihilation Classic (2008), Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Prelude (2014), Monsters: The Marvel Monsterbus (2017), and True Believers: Kirby 100th – Groot (October 2017), among others.
- Groot lay dormant for decades before being revived in Nick Fury's Howling Commandos #2 (January 2006), then re-cast as a heroic cosmic figure in the 2007 Annihilation: Conquest – Star-Lord miniseries written by Keith Giffen, which directly seeded the modern Guardians of the Galaxy.
- The 2015 Groot solo series (issue #6, by Jeff Loveness and Brian Kesinger) retroactively established that the villainous 1960 Groot and the heroic Guardian Groot are separate members of the same Flora colossus species — though subsequent stories in Infinity Wars complicated or partially reverted that retcon.
Cast · 4 characters
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Reprints
↩ Reprints Strange Tales of the Unusual #5 (1956)
Reprinted in Misterios del Gato Negro #132 (1961), Mystic #40 (1963), Chamber of Darkness #7 (1970), Tower of Shadows #8 (1970), Where Monsters Dwell #6 (1970), Atomos #20 (1973), Atomos #23 (1974), Doktor Strange der Magier #2 (1975), Tomb of Darkness #19 (1976), Weird Wonder Tales #19 (1976), Secrets of the Unknown #222 (1984), Monster Masterworks #[nn] (1989), Inferno #4 (1997), Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish #2 (2008), Annihilation Classic #[nn] (2008), Annihilation Classic #[nn] (2009), Marvel 70th Anniversary #[nn] (2009), Rocket Raccoon & Groot: The Complete Collection #[nn] (2013), Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Prelude #[nn] (2014), King-Size Kirby #[nn] (2015), Guardians of the Galaxy Solo Classic Omnibus #[nn] (2015), Monsters Unleashed Prelude #[nn] (2017), Monsters: The Marvel Monsterbus by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber & Jack Kirby #1 (2017), The A-Z of Marvel Monsters #[nn] (2017) + 3 more
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