The editorial file
121 issues with hand-written notes on the record, growing over time.
121 issues with hand-written notes on the record, growing over time.
| Issue | From the note |
|---|---|
| Action Comics #1 | The book that started the superhero industry. |
| Action Comics #242 | First appearance of Brainiac and of the bottle city of Kandor, mid 1958. |
| Action Comics #252 | First appearance of Supergirl, May 1959, and of Metallo in the same issue. |
| Adventure Comics #247 | First appearance of the Legion of Super-Heroes: Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad arrive from the future to recruit Superboy, April 1958. |
| All-Star Comics #8 | Wonder Woman debuts in an eight page introduction by William Moulton Marston and H. |
| Amazing Fantasy #15 | The first appearance and origin of Spider-Man by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, August 1962, in eleven pages, published in the final issue of a dying anthology. |
| Batman #1 | Batman's solo launch, Spring 1940, and a double first appearance: the Joker debuts in two stories in this single issue, and Catwoman debuts as the Cat. |
| Batman #181 | First appearance of Poison Ivy, June 1966, at the height of the television-era Batman boom. |
| Batman #232 | First appearance of Ra's al Ghul, June 1971, by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams. |
| Batman #251 | The Joker's Five-Way Revenge, September 1973. |
| Batman #357 | First appearance of Jason Todd, March 1983, alongside the start of Killer Croc's introduction, which unfolds as a cameo chain across consecutive issues. |
| Batman: The Dark Knight #1 | The opening book of Frank Miller's prestige-format miniseries, early 1986. |
| Captain America #117 | First appearance of the Falcon, September 1969: Sam Wilson, the first African-American superhero in mainstream comics. |
| Captain America Comics #1 | Joe Simon and Jack Kirby launch Captain America with a cover of Cap punching Hitler that reached newsstands months before Pearl Harbor. |
| Captain Marvel Adventures #18 | First appearance of Mary Marvel, December 1942. |
| Crime SuspenStories #22 | The severed-head cover held up at the 1954 Senate hearings as evidence against the industry. |
| Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 | The death of Supergirl, late 1985, behind one of the most imitated covers in comics. |
| Daredevil #1 | First appearance of Daredevil, April 1964, in the original yellow and black costume, with Bill Everett on art. |
| Daredevil #131 | First appearance of Bullseye, March 1976. |
| Daredevil #168 | First appearance of Elektra, January 1981, in Frank Miller's first issue as writer as well as artist. |
| Dark Horse Presents #1 | Dark Horse's first publication, July 1986, an anthology that would later introduce Concrete and, at #88, Sin City. |
| Dark Horse Presents #88 | The first Sin City instalment, August 1991, beginning Frank Miller's serialized crime story in black and white. |
| Detective Comics #225 | First appearance of the Martian Manhunter, November 1955, nearly a year before Showcase #4. |
| Detective Comics #27 | The first appearance of Batman, May 1939, in the six page Case of the Chemical Syndicate by Bob Kane with Bill Finger. |
| Detective Comics #359 | First appearance of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, January 1967, by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino, introduced ahead of her television debut. |
| Detective Comics #400 | First appearance of Man-Bat, June 1970, with Neal Adams art. |
| Fantastic Four #1 | The start of the Marvel Universe. |
| Fantastic Four #48 | The start of the Galactus Trilogy, March 1966: first appearances of the Silver Surfer and Galactus. |
| Fantastic Four #5 | First appearance of Doctor Doom, July 1962. |
| Fantastic Four #52 | First appearance of the Black Panther, July 1966: T'Challa, Wakanda and the vibranium mound all arrive at once. |
| Four Color #386 | The first appearance of Uncle Scrooge in Carl Barks' Christmas on Bear Mountain, December 1947, hiding inside Dell's endless Four Color anthology. |
| Ghost Rider #1 | Danny Ketch becomes Ghost Rider, May 1990, launching the series that became one of the decade's biggest sellers. |
| Giant-Size X-Men #1 | The new X-Men debut, Summer 1975: first appearances of Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Thunderbird, with Wolverine joining fresh from his Hulk debut. |
| Green Lantern #50 | Hal Jordan becomes Parallax, March 1994, in the Emerald Twilight story that remains among the most argued-about editorial decisions in DC history. |
| Green Lantern #76 | The start of the O'Neil and Adams run, April 1970, with Green Arrow joining the book. |
| Green Lantern #87 | First appearance of John Stewart, the winter of 1971 to 1972, chosen as Hal Jordan's backup during the O'Neil and Adams run. |
| Harbinger #1 | First appearance of Peter Stanchek and the Harbinger Foundation, January 1992, launching early Valiant's flagship. |
| Hellblazer #1 | John Constantine's solo title begins, January 1988, four years after his debut in Swamp Thing. |
| House of Secrets #92 | The first Swamp Thing, mid 1971, in a standalone horror short by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson. |
| Iron Fist #14 | First appearance of Sabretooth, August 1977, by Claremont and Byrne, introduced as a martial-arts villain years before anyone connected him to Wolverine. |
| Iron Man #55 | First appearance of Thanos, February 1973, along with Drax the Destroyer, Mentor and Kronos, all from Jim Starlin in a single issue. |
| Journey into Mystery #112 | Thor versus the Hulk, January 1965, the fight fans had been writing in to demand. |
| Journey into Mystery #83 | Thor debuts, August 1962, by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby, battling the Stone Men from Saturn. |
| Little Dot #1 | First appearances of Little Dot and, in a backup, Richie Rich, September 1953. |
| Love and Rockets #1 | The Hernandez brothers' magazine-format debut, self-published in 1981 and picked up by Fantagraphics in 1982. |
| Mad #1 | Harvey Kurtzman launches MAD as a colour comic book, October 1952, three years before it became the magazine everyone remembers. |
| Marvel Comics #1 | The book Marvel is named after, October 1939. |
| Marvel Preview #4 | First appearance of Star-Lord, early 1976, in a black and white magazine most readers never saw. |
| Marvel Spotlight #5 | First appearance of Ghost Rider, August 1972: Johnny Blaze, the deal with the devil, and the flaming skull, by Gary Friedrich and Mike Ploog. |
| Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #8 | The origin of the black costume, December 1984. |
| Ms. Marvel #1 | Carol Danvers headlines her own title again, March 2006, in the run that rebuilt the character toward her eventual Captain Marvel identity. |
| Pep Comics #22 | First appearances of Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper and Jughead Jones, December 1941, as a backup feature in a superhero book. |
| Preacher #1 | First appearance of Jesse Custer, Tulip and Cassidy, April 1995, launching the Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon run that became Vertigo's second signature series after Sandman. |
| Sandman #1 | First appearance of Morpheus, January 1989, launching Neil Gaiman's seventy five issue run. |
| Showcase #22 | Hal Jordan becomes Green Lantern, October 1959, by John Broome and Gil Kane. |
| Showcase #34 | Ray Palmer becomes the Atom, late 1961, with Gil Kane art. |
| Showcase #4 | Barry Allen becomes the Flash, October 1956, by Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino. |
| Showcase #6 | First appearance of the Challengers of the Unknown, early 1957, by Jack Kirby. |
| Space Adventures #33 | First appearance of Captain Atom, March 1960, by Steve Ditko. |
| Spawn #1 | Todd McFarlane's Spawn debuts, May 1992, in the launch wave of Image Comics, the creator-owned walkout that reshaped the industry's economics. |
| Strange Tales #110 | First appearance of Doctor Strange by Steve Ditko, July 1963, in a five page backup that nearly nobody noticed at the time. |
| Strange Tales #135 | Nick Fury becomes Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., August 1965, and the organization debuts with him. |
| Superman #75 | The death of Superman against Doomsday, cover-dated January 1993, the most heavily covered comic event of its era and one of the highest selling single issues ever. |
| Superman #76 | The immediate aftermath of Superman's death, February 1993, and part of the Funeral for a Friend arc. |
| Superman #[1] | The first comic ever devoted to a single superhero. |
| Swamp Thing #1 | The Alec Holland Swamp Thing debuts in his own title, late 1972, by Wein and Wrightson. |
| Tales from the Crypt #20 | EC's horror line at its peak, and the kind of book that put comics in front of a Senate subcommittee. |
| Tales of Suspense #39 | Iron Man's first appearance, March 1963, in the original bulky gray armor, drawn by Don Heck from a Lee and Lieber story. |
| Tales of Suspense #52 | First appearance of the Black Widow, April 1964, introduced as a Soviet spy sent against Tony Stark, years before the costume and the defection. |
| Tales to Astonish #13 | The first Groot, November 1960, in a pre-hero monster story where he arrives to abduct a village. |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 | Self-published by Eastman and Laird in May 1984 with a print run in the low thousands, funded by a tax refund and a loan. |
| The Amazing Spider-Man #1 | Spider-Man's own title launches, March 1963, with two stories, a Fantastic Four appearance, and the first appearances of J. |
| The Amazing Spider-Man #121 | The death of Gwen Stacy, June 1973. |
| The Amazing Spider-Man #129 | First appearance of the Punisher, February 1974, introduced as an antagonist hunting Spider-Man, plus the first appearance of the Jackal, by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru. |
| The Amazing Spider-Man #14 | First appearance of the Green Goblin, July 1964. |
| The Amazing Spider-Man #194 | First appearance of the Black Cat, July 1979. |
| The Amazing Spider-Man #238 | First appearance of the Hobgoblin, March 1983. |
| The Amazing Spider-Man #252 | The black costume debuts in Spider-Man's own title, May 1984. |
| The Amazing Spider-Man #300 | The first full appearance of Venom, May 1988, ending the alien costume story in a double sized anniversary issue by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane. |
| The Amazing Spider-Man #31 | First appearances of Gwen Stacy and Harry Osborn, December 1965. |
| The Amazing Spider-Man #361 | The first full appearance of Carnage, April 1992, after a last-page cameo in #360. |
| The Amazing Spider-Man #50 | First appearance of the Kingpin, July 1967, inside the Spider-Man No More story with John Romita's single most reproduced page. |
| The Avengers #1 | The Avengers assemble for the first time, September 1963: Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Ant-Man and the Wasp against Loki. |
| The Avengers #196 | The first full appearance of the Taskmaster, June 1980, after a one-panel tease in #195. |
| The Avengers #4 | Captain America returns, March 1964, thawed from the ice and inducted into the Avengers. |
| The Avengers #57 | First appearance of the Vision, October 1968, walking out of the rain in one of John Buscema's most reproduced sequences. |
| The Batman Adventures #1 | The animated-series comic launches, October 1992, in the style that defined Batman for a generation of readers. |
| The Batman Adventures #12 | Harley Quinn's first comic book appearance, September 1993. |
| The Brave and the Bold #28 | The first appearance of the Justice League of America, early 1960, facing the starfish conqueror Starro. |
| The Flash #123 | Flash of Two Worlds, September 1961: Barry Allen crosses to Earth-Two and meets Jay Garrick. |
| The Flash #139 | First appearance of Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash, September 1963. |
| The Incredible Hulk #1 | First appearance of the Hulk, May 1962, by Lee and Kirby, and he is gray: the printing struggled with the color, and he turned green with issue #2. |
| The Incredible Hulk #181 | The first full appearance of Wolverine, November 1974, by Len Wein and Herb Trimpe, following his final panel cameo in #180. |
| The Incredible Hulk #271 | Rocket Raccoon's first color comic appearance, May 1981. |
| The New Mutants #87 | First full appearance of Cable, March 1990, by Louise Simonson and Rob Liefeld. |
| The New Mutants #98 | First appearance of Deadpool, early 1991, by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza, along with the debuts of Gideon and Domino, the latter of whom was later revealed to have been Copycat in disguise. |
| The New Teen Titans #2 | First appearance of Deathstroke the Terminator, late 1980, by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, in the second issue of the book that made the Titans DC's best seller. |
| The Silver Surfer #3 | First appearance of Mephisto, December 1968. |
| The Spectacular Spider-Man #64 | First appearance of Cloak and Dagger, March 1982, in the sister Spider-Man title collectors habitually overlook. |
| The Uncanny X-Men #244 | First appearance of Jubilee, May 1989, in an Australian-outback-era issue that most readers skipped at the time. |
| The Uncanny X-Men #266 | The first full appearance of Gambit, mid 1990. |
| The Walking Dead #1 | First appearance of Rick Grimes, October 2003, by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore, in black and white with a modest first print run. |
| The X-Men #1 | First appearance of the X-Men, September 1963: Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Angel and Iceman, plus Professor X and, in the same issue, Magneto. |
| The X-Men #101 | Jean Grey becomes Phoenix, October 1976. |
| The X-Men #129 | First appearances of Kitty Pryde and Emma Frost, January 1980, opening the Dark Phoenix Saga. |
| The X-Men #141 | Days of Future Past begins, January 1981, behind one of the most imitated covers in comics. |
| The X-Men #4 | First appearances of the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, March 1964. |
| The X-Men #94 | The new team takes over the numbering, August 1975. |
| Thor #337 | First appearance of Beta Ray Bill, November 1983, in the opening issue of Walt Simonson's run. |
| Tomb of Dracula #10 | First appearance of Blade, July 1973, by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan, inside the finest horror series Marvel ever published. |
| Ultimate Fallout #4 | The first appearance of Miles Morales as Spider-Man, August 2011, by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli. |
| Watchmen #1 | The opening chapter of Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons and John Higgins' twelve issue series, September 1986. |
| Weird Science #22 | EC science fiction at its most ambitious, with Wally Wood art that several generations of artists have cited as a starting point. |
| Werewolf by Night #32 | First appearance of Moon Knight, August 1975, introduced as a mercenary hired to capture the book's own lead. |
| Whiz Comics #2 | The first appearance of Captain Marvel by C. |
| WildC.A.T.s: Covert Action Teams #1 | Jim Lee's WildC.A.T.s launches, August 1992, and the Wildstorm line with it. |
| Wonder Woman #1 | Wonder Woman's solo title launches, Summer 1942, months after her All Star Comics #8 introduction and Sensation Comics run began. |
| X-Men #1 [Cover A] | The best-selling single comic book of all time by print run, October 1991, shipped in five variant covers by Jim Lee. |
| X-O Manowar #1 | First appearance of Aric of Dacia, February 1992. |
| Youngblood #1 | Rob Liefeld's Youngblood, April 1992, the first Image comic published. |
| Zap Comix #1 | Robert Crumb's Zap, 1967, sold from a pushcart in San Francisco. |