Batman #1

Batman gets a book of his own

Batman had been running in Detective Comics since 1939. Detective Comics #38, cover-dated April 1940, introduced Robin, and Robin was an immediate hit: by one account the Boy Wonder doubled the sales of the Batman titles. The publisher first advertised a quarterly magazine starring the pair in early April 1940, a month after Robin's first appearance, and Batman #1 carries a Spring 1940 cover date.

The on-sale date is given two ways. A house advertisement in Detective Comics #39 put it at April 25, 1940; the publication date filed with the U.S. Copyright Office was April 24. The indicia reads "Batman No. 1, Spring 1940 Issue, Published quarterly by Detective Comics, Inc., 480 Lexington Avenue, New York." It cost ten cents for 68 pages. The title stayed quarterly through issue #5 in Spring 1941 and went bimonthly after that.

The cover promises "All brand new adventures of The Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder!" Kane signed it; Jerry Robinson inked the backgrounds and designed the logo.

Four villains in one issue

The book opens with a two-page retelling of Batman's origin, adapted from Detective Comics #33: Thomas and Martha Wayne are murdered while walking home from a movie, and young Bruce vows to war on all criminals. Then come four new stories of 12 or 13 pages each, two with the Joker, one with Hugo Strange and one with a jewel thief called the Cat.

In the first Joker story a new criminal kills famous men, steals their prized possessions and leaves them dead with a smile on their faces, the first appearance of what fans call Joker venom. The Hugo Strange story, in which a mad scientist turns men into rampaging giants, was originally prepared for Detective Comics #38; when Robin arrived in that issue, the Robin-less story was moved here. Its closing fight looks as if it was lifted from the 1933 film King Kong, and the Batplane carries machine guns that Batman uses to kill.

The Cat story is set aboard a cruise ship, where an apparently elderly woman turns out to be a young thief in disguise. She wears no costume yet, and the next issue renamed her Cat-Woman. Finger and Kane wanted a "friendly foe who committed crimes but was also a romantic interest in Batman's rather sterile life," and the story hints that Batman lets her escape. Fillers round out the issue: a western humor strip that never appeared again, a Bob Kane humor feature signed with a pen name, two text stories and a page introducing readers to Kane.

Who made the Joker

The issue carries one signature, Bob Kane's. Kane had negotiated a contract guaranteeing him the sole byline on Batman, so writer Bill Finger, born in Denver in 1914, went uncredited. Kane admitted in a 1980s interview that Finger was responsible for "50 to 75 percent of all the creativity in Batman." Finger died in New York around January 18, 1974, and his name did not appear as an official credit on Batman stories until DC agreed to add it in 2015.

The Joker's creation is still disputed. Kane said, "Bill Finger and I created the Joker. Bill was the writer." Jerry Robinson, hired by Kane in 1939 as a 17-year-old Columbia journalism student, said his sketch of a joker playing card was the starting point, and he confirmed in 2009 that he penciled the Joker card on the first story's splash page. Finger showed Kane a still of Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine in the 1928 film The Man Who Laughs, whose face is fixed in a grin, and that grin became the Joker's.

The Joker was supposed to die in this issue, stabbed in the heart at the end of his second story. Editor Whitney Ellsworth intervened, and a hastily drawn panel showing that the Joker was still alive was added. He went on to appear in nine of the title's first 12 issues.

From a Houston bookstore to $6 million

The finest known copy came from the collection of Billy and William Giles, comic dealers in Houston. Billy Giles bought it in 1982 for $3,000 in cash from the owner of a local bookstore. CGC later graded it 9.4 with white pages, and it remains the only copy at that grade, with none higher.

On January 14, 2021, the Giles copy sold at auction in Dallas for $2.22 million, including the buyer's premium, to a bidder in the United States. Bidding before the live session had already reached $1.95 million. It was then the second-highest price paid for any comic at public sale and broke the record for a Batman comic, the $1.5 million paid for a CGC 7.0 Detective Comics #27 in November 2020.

Lower grades followed it up. A CGC 8.0 that its seller had bought in November 2006 for $80,000 sold at auction in April 2021 for $1,207,500, and another CGC 8.0 brought $1.47 million at auction in September 2021.

In February 2026 the CGC 9.4 changed hands again, in a private sale for $6 million to a buyer who stayed anonymous. It was packaged with a CGC 8.5 Superman #1 that sold for $7 million, $13 million in all. The price nearly tripled the 2021 auction record.

How many survive

No verified print run for Batman #1 turned up in the sources used for this page. What can be counted is the grading census. In mid-January 2021 CGC listed 272 copies of Batman #1: slightly fewer than half in Universal (unrestored) grades, about half restored, and a handful in Qualified and Signature Series grades. A report on the January 2021 sale counted 124 unrestored entries.

By February 2026 the census showed 174 Universal entries, only seven of them graded 8.5 or better, and still just one at 9.4 with none higher. That single copy is the one that set both records.

Legacy

The Joker and Catwoman, both introduced in this issue, became the best-known members of Batman's rogues gallery. The issue's stories have been reprinted dozens of times, from DC's 1974 Famous First Edition to full facsimile editions in 2023 and 2025.

Jerry Robinson, who inked backgrounds, lettered and did some penciling on the issue, later campaigned for Superman's creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and helped win them lifetime stipends and creator credit from DC in December 1975. Bill Finger's credit took another 40 years.

The numbers

Cover price

10 cents

Pages

68

Frequency

Quarterly through #5, then bimonthly

Print run

No verified figure found

Census, mid-January 2021

272 copies; slightly under half Universal, about half restored; one at 9.4, none higher

Unrestored entries, January 2021

124

Census, February 2026

174 Universal entries; seven at 8.5 or higher; one at 9.4

Timeline

1. 1939

   Bob Kane hires 17-year-old Jerry Robinson as an inker and letterer.

2. Apr 1940

   Robin debuts in Detective Comics #38; the Hugo Strange story drawn for that issue is held for Batman #1.

3. Apr 1940

   The new quarterly Batman is first advertised, about a month after Robin's debut.

4. Apr 24, 1940

   Publication date filed with the U.S. Copyright Office for Batman #1.

5. Apr 25, 1940

   On-sale date given in a house ad in Detective Comics #39.

6. 1941

   Batman #5 (Spring 1941) is the last quarterly issue; the title goes bimonthly.

7. Jan 1974

   Bill Finger dies in New York, still uncredited on Batman.

8. 1982

   Houston dealer Billy Giles buys the copy later graded CGC 9.4 for $3,000 in cash.

9. Nov 2006

   A copy later graded CGC 8.0 is bought for $80,000.

10. 2015

    DC agrees to credit Bill Finger as Batman's co-creator.

11. Jan 2021

    The census lists 272 copies of Batman #1, one at 9.4 and none higher.

12. Jan 14, 2021

    The CGC 9.4 Giles copy sells at auction in Dallas for $2.22 million, a record for any Batman comic.

13. Apr 2021

    The CGC 8.0 copy bought in 2006 sells at auction for $1,207,500.

14. Sep 2021

    Another CGC 8.0 sells at auction for $1.47 million.

15. Nov 2023

    DC publishes a facsimile edition of the full issue.

16. Feb 2026

    The CGC 9.4 copy sells privately for $6 million, alongside a Superman #1 sold for $7 million.

The world in 1940

• Feb 7, 1940

  Walt Disney's Pinocchio premieres.

• Feb 10, 1940

  Tom and Jerry debut in the cartoon Puss Gets the Boot.

• Feb 29, 1940

  Gone with the Wind wins eight Academy Awards.

• Apr 1, 1940

  Census day for the 16th U.S. Census.

• Apr 10, 1940

  After Germany invades Denmark and Norway, the United States freezes Danish and Norwegian assets.

• May 15, 1940

  The first McDonald's opens in San Bernardino, California.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Batman #1 is number 6 of 100 in the comics entries of the FLOAT 100. 92 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (5 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The Joker was meant to die in his second story; a panel showing he survived was added at the editor's request.
• The Hugo Strange story was drawn for Detective Comics #38 and moved to Batman #1 when Robin took over that issue.
• Catwoman's first story calls her only "the Cat," and she wears no costume.
• The finest known copy was bought for $3,000 in cash in 1982.
• Bill Finger, who wrote every Batman story in the issue, received no official credit until 2015.
• Jerry Robinson, who penciled the Joker's playing card on the first splash page, was 17 when Kane hired him in 1939.