Tales to Astonish #13 (1960, First Groot)

Before the Guardians of the Galaxy. Before the MCU. Before "I am Groot." There was a ten-cent monster comic from November 1960 that nobody collected, and in it appeared a tree creature called Groot, the Monarch of Planet X, who came to Earth to capture humans for experimentation. Tales to Astonish #13 is a genuinely important piece of comic book history, and it has become one of the most sought-after pre-Marvel monster keys as a result of the character's cinematic success.

The Original Groot

The Groot of 1960 bears some resemblance to the Groot audiences know from the Guardians films, but the original was a villain. The character appeared in a short story called "I Was a Prisoner of Groot! The Monster from Planet X," featuring a humanoid tree monster who arrived on Earth to kidnap specimens for study. The story ended with Groot defeated by termites, a humble conclusion for a character who would eventually become one of Marvel's most beloved.

The story was written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber, with artwork by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. The creative team of Lee, Lieber, Kirby, and Ayers produced dozens of monster anthology stories for Atlas Comics (the predecessor to Marvel) during this period, and most of those monsters faded into obscurity. Groot happened to survive.

Why This Issue Exploded in Value

Tales to Astonish #13 was a relatively ignored pre-Marvel monster book for decades. The first sustained collector interest came when Groot was reintroduced in a 2006 Annihilation comic event, but the real explosion came with the Guardians of the Galaxy films (2014 and 2017), where Groot became one of the most popular characters in the MCU.

The combination of "original first appearance of now-famous character" and "pre-Marvel Silver Age scarcity" creates strong demand. The book had print runs typical of the era, but survival rates for high-grade examples are extremely low. Most copies that survive have been stored for decades and show the full range of Golden/Pre-Silver Age condition issues.

The CGC Census Reality

Finding this book in high grade is genuinely difficult. The CGC census shows very few copies in the upper grades, and the books that exist in grades above VF are trophy pieces. A 9.2 appeared in a suspect sale that raised concerns about authenticity in the collector community, which affected price records. The verified record sales for legitimate high-grade copies establish that the book can reach $10,000+ in fine to very fine grades.

Value by Grade

Values have grown significantly since 2014 and show continued demand in mid-grades where most available copies fall.

Condition Challenges

Tales to Astonish #13 is a pre-code/early Silver Age anthology comic from Atlas Comics. Condition factors:

Paper quality: The newsprint paper from this era tans readily and becomes brittle. Off-white pages are typical; white pages are a meaningful premium.

Cover wear: The cover stock is thin and prone to corner blunting, spine wear, and surface abrasion.

Staples: Original staples show rust typical of the era. Replacement staples significantly affect grade and value.

Centerfold attachment: Check that the centerfold pages are firmly attached to the staples, not loose.

The Pre-Marvel Monster Era Context

Tales to Astonish was one of several Atlas Comics anthology titles that ran science fiction, horror, and monster stories in the late 1950s and early 1960s. These books were transitional works between the Golden Age and the Silver Age Marvel Universe, and they produced dozens of characters that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby later recycled into Marvel heroes and villains.

Collectors who build pre-Marvel monster collections pursue these books for the combination of early creator work, colorful monster imagery, and the historical link to the characters who would dominate American comics for the next sixty years. Tales to Astonish #13 is now the most valuable of these pre-Marvel monster books because of the specific character it introduced.

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