*Marvel: All of the Marvel Silver/Bronze key issues have been through our hands multiple times over the years, except one that has always eluded us. We’ve had the British reprint a couple of times, the American reprint in Strange Tales Annual #1 and the 2nd appearance on a number of occasions, but here at last via the Bute Collection is the honest-to-goodness 1st appearance of Groot, the Monster From Planet X. Before Spider-Man, before the Fantastic Four, before Dr Droom even there was Groot. Little did Stan Lee imagine back in 1960, as he and Jack created the latest in a long line of Big Panty Monsters, that this particular one would go on to become a titan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Groot, by the way, says rather more in his cover speech balloon than I believe he has uttered in his MCU career. Main event of course by Kirby. Back-up stories by Kirby, Ditko and Heck. This is a lower graded copy, with a very reasonable cover image with good colours. A corner is torn off top right (see scan) with a short tear leading from it. There are a couple of long cover creases across the corners breaking colour, with smaller creases of spine and edge wear also breaking colour. There are two longer vertical creases, one just breaking colour and the other not. The staples are attached and okay, the pages are a nice supple white to off-white. High resolution images are available on request. 
PICTURED: TALES TO ASTONISH #13 GD- £1,125