Detective Comics #38

A Watson for the Batman

Batman had debuted in Detective Comics #27. By early 1940 artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger were discussing a sidekick. "Robin was an outgrowth of a conversation I had with Bob," Finger said. "Batman needed a Watson to talk to." The new character was also meant to draw younger readers to the strip.

The name came from Jerry Robinson, the teenage assistant who inked and lettered the feature. "I came up with Robin because the adventures of Robin Hood were boyhood favorites of mine," he recalled. The original costume's medieval look drew on N.C. Wyeth's Robin Hood illustrations, which Robinson used as reference.

Robin was a hit. His arrival is credited with doubling the sales of the Batman titles.

The Flying Graysons

The 12-page lead opens: "The Batman. That amazing, weird figure of night, at last takes under his protecting mantle an ally in his relentless fight against crime..." Its splash page repeats the cover.

Dick Grayson, a young circus acrobat, watches his parents, the Flying Graysons of the Haly Circus, die in a fall arranged by gangsters working for Boss Zucco, and he overhears the killers. Batman steps in to save the boy, trains him and makes him his partner, and the two gather the evidence to put the criminals away.

The rest of the 68-page issue is a typical anthology of the time: a Spy story written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and drawn by Maurice Kashuba, Red Logan, the Crimson Avenger by Jack Lehti, a stamp-collecting page, a Johnson Smith & Co. mail-order ad, and a short book review of Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped.

The kid from Columbia

Jerry Robinson was born January 1, 1922. In 1939 he was a 17-year-old journalism student at Columbia University when Bob Kane hired him as an inker and letterer. He rented a room in the Bronx near the Kane family's apartment, where Kane used his bedroom as a studio.

That spring the Joker appeared in Batman #1 (Spring 1940). The credit is disputed: Kane said he and Finger created him, while Robinson said he created the character, inspired by Conrad Veidt in The Man Who Laughs.

Robinson later became a newspaper cartoonist and served as president of the National Cartoonists Society from 1967 to 1969. In 1975 he backed Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in their fight with DC, helping them win lifetime stipends and creator credit. He died December 7, 2011.

Spring 1940

The issue reached newsstands March 6, 1940. Pinocchio had opened February 7, Tom and Jerry debuted February 10, and Gone with the Wind won eight Academy Awards on February 29.

April 1 was the date of the 16th U.S. census. On May 15 the first McDonald's opened in San Bernardino, California, and nylon stockings went on sale, with nearly 5 million pairs sold that day. On September 16 the act creating the first peacetime draft was signed, and in November Franklin Roosevelt won a third term.

The first sidekick, and the ones after

Robin is described as the first superhero sidekick, and his success started a craze that spread through nearly every publisher. Dick Grayson himself grew up on the page: he was a founding member of the Teen Titans in The Brave and the Bold #54 in 1964, and became Nightwing in Tales of the Teen Titans #44 (July 1984).

The Robin name passed to others. Jason Todd debuted in Batman #357 in 1983 and was killed in 1988's "A Death in the Family" after a reader poll.

Census and sales

No print run for this issue was found. CGC's population report, viewed October 1, 2026, lists 96 Universal-label copies: one at 9.4, one at 9.0, six at 8.0 and one at 7.5. Restored copies outnumber most grades, with 70 on the census, and the total across all labels is 171.

The two best copies have sold before. A CGC 9.4 from the Allentown pedigree sold at auction for $120,750 in October 2002 and for $107,550 in May 2009; a CGC 9.0 sold for $46,000 in March 2003.

The CGC 8.0 that sets this entry's price came from the Lester Schilke collection. Its auction listing called it the best copy the auctioneer had seen in more than 15 years, only the second unrestored copy it had handled with white pages, and noted that the cover's solid green and orange areas expose any flaw. It sold for $132,000 in January 2025, when the census showed six copies at 8.0 and two higher.

The numbers

Cover price

10 cents

Pages

68; the Robin story runs 12

Print run

No verified figure found

Census, January 2025

6 at CGC 8.0, 2 higher

Census, October 1, 2026

96 Universal: 1 at 9.4, 1 at 9.0, 6 at 8.0, 1 at 7.5; 70 restored; 171 across all labels

Timeline

1. Jan 1, 1922

   Jerry Robinson is born.

2. 1939

   Bob Kane hires Robinson, a 17-year-old Columbia journalism student, as inker and letterer.

3. Mar 6, 1940

   Detective Comics #38 goes on sale, per its copyright filing.

4. Apr 1940

   Cover date of #38: origin and first appearance of Robin.

5. 1940

   Batman #1 (Spring 1940) introduces the Joker.

6. 1964

   Dick Grayson is a founding member of the Teen Titans in The Brave and the Bold #54.

7. 1983

   Jason Todd, the second Robin, debuts in Batman #357.

8. Jul 1984

   Dick Grayson becomes Nightwing in Tales of the Teen Titans #44.

9. 1988

   Jason Todd is killed in "A Death in the Family" after a reader poll.

10. Oct 10, 2002

    The Allentown pedigree CGC 9.4 sells for $120,750 at auction.

11. Mar 8, 2003

    A CGC 9.0 sells for $46,000 at auction.

12. May 21, 2009

    The Allentown CGC 9.4 sells again, for $107,550.

13. Dec 7, 2011

    Jerry Robinson dies.

14. Jul 1, 2024

    A CGC 7.5 sells for $90,000 at auction.

15. Jan 2025

    The Lester Schilke CGC 8.0 sells for $132,000 at auction; the census then shows six copies at 8.0, two higher.

16. Oct 1, 2026

    CGC report lists 96 Universal copies, six at 8.0, one at 9.0, one at 9.4.

The world in 1940

• Feb 7, 1940

  Walt Disney's Pinocchio is released.

• Feb 10, 1940

  Tom and Jerry debut in "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.

• May 15, 1940

  The first McDonald's opens in San Bernardino; nylon stockings go on sale.

• Jul 27, 1940

  Bugs Bunny makes his debut.

• Sep 16, 1940

  The Selective Training and Service Act creates the first peacetime draft.

• Nov 5, 1940

  Franklin D. Roosevelt wins a third term.

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, Detective Comics #38 is number 32 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 (40 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Robin's name came from Jerry Robinson's boyhood love of Robin Hood, and his first costume drew on N.C. Wyeth's illustrations.
• Bill Finger said Batman "needed a Watson to talk to."
• The cover billed Robin as "the sensational character-find of 1940."
• Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel wrote the Spy story in the same issue.
• Restored copies make up 70 of the 171 copies on CGC's census.
• Robinson was 17 and a Columbia journalism student when Bob Kane hired him.