Cover reprinted from Tales to Astonish (1959) #13 by Kirby/Ditko (modified).
"I Challenged...Groot! The Monster from Planet X!" (T-839) by Kirby/Ayers. 7 pages.
Reprinted from Tales to Astonish (1959) #13.
An extraterrestrial falls to Earth. He uses his immense size and ability to control all things made of wood in an attempt to take the townspeople back to his home-world for experimentation. Is the townspeople' fight against the monster hopeless, or can a lone scientist save the day?
First appearance of Groot.
"I Dared to Look Into the Beyond!" (T-773) by Kirby/Ditko. 5 pages.
Reprinted from Tales to Astonish (1959) #11.
In a story in the near future, scientists have mastered time travel to the past, but not the future. One man is obsessed with making it a reality, despite the pleas of his peers. He finally makes a breakthrough, but arrives at what appears to be the pre-historic past. Assuming a failure, the man leaves, never knowing that, in the future he visited, humans had fled to the stars and the Earth had reverted to wilderness.
"My Friend is...Not Quite Human!" by Ditko. 5 pages.
Reprinted from Tales to Astonish (1959) #13.
A French woodcarver is famous for his grotesque carvings for the figureheads of pirate ships. When Napoleon calls upon him to carve a figure of Josephine for his ship, the woodcarver balks, as he hates the way women have shunned him his entire life. Napoleon will not take his refusal, and so the man works, and under the full moon the sculpture comes to life and pledges her love to the sculptor. He finds a gypsy who will turn him to wood so that he and his new love will be together forever. He fails to pay the gypsy the agree-upon sum, and she leaves him as wood, but his lover is made flesh.
"When the Saucer Strikes!" (T-376) by Reinman. 4 pages.
Reprinted from Strange Tales (1951) #71.
A commercial airline pilot on a red-eye flight has a near collision with a flying saucer. The only passenger who was awake at the time claims that he saw nothing, and so the pilot keeps mum about his experience. The passenger later meets with his fellow disguised aliens, telling them that their secret was nearly ruined.