Baby Groot is getting his own comic, just in time for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

At an annual meeting with retailers today, Marvel Comics announced that everybody’s favorite Vin Diesel-voiced, monosyllabic character — give or take an Iron Giant — will get his own comic series.

It’s hard to say that Groot was the breakout star of Guardians of the Galaxy, considering that the majority of the film’s characters were completely unknown to audiences outside of entrenched comic book fans, but Baby Groot certainly stands to be the breakout character of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Fans have been playing a dedicated game of locating the tiny character — all that was left of the massive Groot after his heroic sacrifice in Guardians of the Galaxy — in every new official photo, teaser and trailer from the movie.

I Am Groot will focus on a small Groot, stranded on a strange world and trying to find his way back to his teammates in the Guardians of the Galaxy. The book will be drawn by the artist Flaviano, who has worked on DC Comics’ Grayson and Harley Quinn and Powergirl, as well as Marvel’s Power Man and Iron Fist. It’ll be written by Christopher Hastings, a veteran writer of surreal, pop-culture filled comedy comics like Boom! Studios’ Adventure Time, Marvel’s Deadpool and his own long-running webcomic, The Adventures of Dr. McNinja.

In an interview with ComicBook.com, Hastings said that what initially appealed to him about writing Groot was that he’s “super cute and really funny,” but that the story of I Am Groot eventually grew out of Groot’s limited ability to communicate.

“I started thinking about the Zelda games that Link doesn't talk in,” Hastings said, “and why they manage to have such rich worlds and stories all the same, how to take something like that mute first person character experience and translate it into a comic.”

The first issue of I Am Groot will go on sale sometime May 2017 — likely pretty close to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’s May 5 release date. Here’s the official summary, and a look at the full cover of the first issue:

When the Guardians of the Galaxy get caught in a wormhole, a smaller-than-normal Groot is separated billions of light-years away from the team. Falling to a planet below, Groot discovers he is on an entirely alien and unknown world full of strange creatures and societies. Seriously underdeveloped and with nobody who can understand him, Groot will need to make the journey to the center of this world and find the way back to his family!

Marco D’Alfonso/Marvel Comics