The horrific monsters of Tales to Astonish.

As long-suffering readers of this blog'll know, I can barely set foot out of my house without encountering some giant menace to mankind. It may be a giant ant. It may be a giant amoeba. One thing's for sure; it's a whole heapful of trouble.

Sometimes I don't even have to leave the house to do it. A mere trip into my cellar is enough.

Fortunately, being stolid and resourceful as I am, I usually find some way to deal with the menace - one that means I often don't even have to remove my trilby or take my pipe from my mouth.

Amazingly, a quick glance at early issues of Tales to Astonish tells me I'm not alone in this problem.

I don't know what The Ninth Wonder of the World is but it looks so friendly and amiable that I just had to include it here.

For that matter, if that's the Ninth Wonder of the World, just what was the Eighth Wonder?

Look out Man-Thing. Here comes the muddy menace of Monstrom.

It's Gorgilla, an ape so terrifying it earned an extra "G" in its name.

That's nothing. If you think Gorgilla's terrifying, wait till you meet Girgaffe and Anteglope.

I seem to recall Groot turning up once in a Hulk story.

Here, it seems he managed to get destroyed before midnight.

Poor old Groot. It's not been a happy life for him.

And he's from Planet X, which we all know was annihilated in an early issue of The Fantastic Four.

The things on Easter Island.

I always knew something was afoot with those giant heads.

Is it live or is it Mummex?

Droom! "The Living Lizard!"

As opposed to all those dead lizards that cause so much trouble.

The Blip. Another foe I seem to recall coming up against the Hulk.

If I remember rightly, he had the indignity of being mistaken, by the Hulk, for Zzzax.

It's the Stone Men From Saturn.

Not it's not. It's Thor.

Now my head hurts.

Hooray! Gorgilla's back.

I like the cut of Gorgilla's jib. He has a certain enthusiasm about him.

Rommbu. Surely the only monster ever to be named in honour of the deadly shape mankind knows as a rhombus.

The T. J. Eckleburg of terror strikes.

I have to admit it. Out of all the monsters we've seen so far, this is the one that would've disturbed me when I was a child.

Titano rises from the depths.

Moomba. Why do so many of these monsters have names that sound like fun-packed dance crazes?

The creature from Krogarr.

Hold on a moment. Isn't that Kraven's sometime pet Gog?

Does this mean Gog was from Krogarr?

He seems to be coming out of the TV.

So much for that woman in The Ring.