The Batman Adventures #12

A henchwoman written for one episode

Harley Quinn was not born in a comic book. Writer Paul Dini and artist Bruce Timm created her for Batman: The Animated Series, and she first appeared in the episode "Joker's Favor," written by Dini, directed by Boyd Kirkland and broadcast on September 11, 1992. Dini added henchpeople to the episode as comic relief, and Harley was written as the animated equivalent of a walk-on role, meant to appear only once.

The idea had been in Dini's head since 1991, when he watched his college friend, the actress Arleen Sorkin, play a jester in a dream sequence on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. Sorkin voiced the character, and Dini built Harley around her mannerisms and her wisecracking, bubbly personality. Timm designed the look as a simplified supervillain version of traditional harlequin dress.

Her popularity was unexpected. Within a year she had moved from the screen to the page, and this issue is where that happened.

Batgirl's party, Harley's entrance

The Batman Adventures was DC's monthly tie-in to the animated series, launched in 1992 and running 36 issues, two annuals and three specials through 1995. Most issues were written by Kelley Puckett and drawn by Mike Parobeck and Rick Burchett. Parobeck, born in 1965 and raised in Lancaster, Ohio, took over the art from Ty Templeton at issue 7; his fluid, animation-inspired drawing and clean layouts suited the book.

Issue 12's lead story, "Batgirl: Day One," is told in three acts across 22 pages. With Batman out of town chasing a criminal, Barbara Gordon goes to a costume party thrown by an heiress, dressed as a 'Batgirl' in defiance of her father's lectures about Batman's dangerous life. Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn turn up to kidnap the heiress for a ten-million ransom; Catwoman's men, disguised as security guards, knock everyone out so she can steal a diamond displayed one floor up. Barbara foils the kidnapping, recovers the diamond and stuffs her costume in the trash before the police arrive.

Harley is listed in the issue as a villain making her introduction. The issue was edited by Scott Peterson with assistant editor Darren Vincenzo, carried the Comics Code seal, and ran house ads for the Knightfall storyline and Batman #500. Bruce Timm did not draw it: the cover and interior art are by Parobeck and Burchett.

Mike Parobeck died on July 2, 1996, at 30, of complications of type 1 diabetes. He named Batman Adventures #14 as his own favorite work.

Summer 1993

The issue reached stores in the first week of August 1993. Sources differ slightly on the exact day: one comics index gives August 5, a fan encyclopedia gives August 3. That summer DC's main Batman line was deep in Knightfall, the storyline that ran from April 1993 to August 1994 and in which Bane breaks Batman's back in Batman #497.

Outside comics, Jurassic Park had opened on June 11, the Great Flood of 1993 crested on August 1, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn in to the Supreme Court on August 10, and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers debuted on August 28. On September 13, the day the PLO and Israeli leaders signed their peace accord, Animaniacs premiered on Fox Kids.

A few months later, in December 1993, Dini and Timm published The Batman Adventures: Mad Love, a one-shot that told Harley's origin as the Arkham psychiatrist Harleen Quinzel. It won both the Eisner and Harvey awards for best single issue in 1994 and was adapted for television in January 1999.

From cartoon tie-in to modern key

Harley did not enter DC's main continuity until 1999, with Batman: Harley Quinn, and she got her first ongoing series in December 2000. The New 52 relaunch reintroduced her in Suicide Squad in September 2011, and a solo series began in November 2013. Margot Robbie played her in Suicide Squad (2016) and Birds of Prey (2020), and Kaley Cuoco voiced her in the animated Harley Quinn series. Each step pulled more collectors back to the first printed appearance.

Market memory of the book's rise is anecdotal. In June 2020 a longtime collector on a grading-company forum recalled that a 9.8 had been 'basically a $250.00 book' until about two years before the 2016 Suicide Squad film. A 2016 collector's blog reported a 9.8 selling online for $1,800 that spring.

Verified auction prices for CGC 9.8 white-page copies include $5,280 on January 30, 2022, $2,880 on May 8, 2022, $3,000 on September 25, 2022, and $2,880 on January 13, 2024, all at auction. One collector guide describes the $5,280 copy as a newsstand edition; the auction's own lot description does not say so, so this page treats it as unconfirmed. A 2024 collector guide reported newsstand 9.8s changing hands for over $4,000 and regular editions for over $2,000.

Supply has grown steadily. A forum post in June 2020 counted 844 copies at 9.8 and 1,308 at 9.6. An auction description gave 985 at 9.8 in January 2022 and 1,458 in May 2026. By October 1, 2026, the grading company's own report showed 10,556 Universal-label copies graded, 1,498 of them at 9.8 and none higher.

How to identify it

The original is a 36-page comic with a $1.25 cover price and a September 1993 cover date. The cover shows Batgirl with Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. Inside, Harley's mask is colored red throughout the story, although it is correctly black on the cover.

The issue was sold in a direct edition for comic shops and a newsstand edition. The grading census does not separate the two, so counts above combine both. Collectors pay a premium for newsstand copies.

The story has been reprinted many times, including Batman: The Collected Adventures #2 (1994), a Dollar Comics edition in 2020, Harley Quinn: 30 Years of the Maid of Mischief (2022), DC Finest: Harley Quinn (2025) and a facsimile edition of the whole issue in May 2025. A facsimile copy reproduces the cover, so check the indicia and any reprint markings before treating a raw copy as a 1993 original.

The numbers

Cover price

$1.25 US; $1.60 Canada; 70p UK

Pages

36; the lead story runs 22

Print run

No verified figure. A 2016 collector blog repeats unsourced estimates of 40,000 to 60,000

Census, June 20, 2020

844 at 9.8 and 1,308 at 9.6 (as counted in a collector forum post)

Census, January 2022

985 at 9.8, none higher

Census, May 2026

1,458 at 9.8, none higher

Census, October 1, 2026

10,556 Universal; 1,498 at 9.8, 2,122 at 9.6, 1,751 at 9.4; none higher than 9.8; 10,986 across all labels, 386 of them Signature Series

Newsstand copies

Not counted separately in the census

Timeline

1. 1991

   Paul Dini sees Arleen Sorkin play a jester on Days of Our Lives, the seed of Harley Quinn.

2. 1992

   DC launches The Batman Adventures, its tie-in to the animated series.

3. Sep 11, 1992

   Harley Quinn debuts on television in the episode "Joker's Favor."

4. Aug 1993

   The Batman Adventures #12 goes on sale, cover-dated September 1993, with Harley's first printed appearance.

5. Dec 14, 1993

   The Batman Adventures: Mad Love, Harley's origin story by Dini and Timm, is published.

6. 1994

   Mad Love wins the Eisner and Harvey awards for best single issue.

7. Jul 1994

   Issue 12 is reprinted in Batman: The Collected Adventures #2.

8. Jul 2, 1996

   Artist Mike Parobeck dies at 30.

9. Jan 16, 1999

   Mad Love is adapted as an episode of The New Batman Adventures.

10. 1999

    Harley enters DC's main continuity in Batman: Harley Quinn.

11. Dec 2000

    Harley's first ongoing comic series begins.

12. Sep 2011

    The New 52 reintroduces Harley in Suicide Squad.

13. 2016

    Margot Robbie plays Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad.

14. Jun 20, 2020

    A forum census check counts 844 copies at CGC 9.8 and 1,308 at 9.6.

15. Jan 30, 2022

    A CGC 9.8 sells at auction for $5,280, the highest verified price for the grade.

16. May 2025

    DC publishes a facsimile edition of the issue.

17. Oct 1, 2026

    The grading census shows 1,498 Universal-label copies at 9.8 and none higher.

The world in 1993

• Apr 1993

  DC begins Knightfall, the storyline in which Bane breaks Batman's back.

• Jun 11, 1993

  Jurassic Park opens in theaters.

• Aug 1, 1993

  The Great Flood of 1993 comes to a peak.

• Aug 10, 1993

  Ruth Bader Ginsburg is sworn in as a Supreme Court justice.

• Aug 28, 1993

  Mighty Morphin Power Rangers debuts on Fox Kids.

• Sep 13, 1993

  PLO and Israeli leaders sign a peace accord; Animaniacs premieres the same day.

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, The Batman Adventures #12 is number 59 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 (51 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Harley Quinn was meant to appear in only one episode of Batman: The Animated Series.
• Bruce Timm co-created Harley but did not draw this issue; the art is by Mike Parobeck and Rick Burchett.
• Harley's mask is colored red inside the issue but black on the cover.
• The issue is really a Batgirl story: its title is "Batgirl: Day One."
• Harley did not join DC's main continuity until 1999, six years after this issue.
• More than 10,500 copies have been graded, yet none has ever received a grade above 9.8.