Detective Comics #36 for Sale - First Appearance of Hugo Strange - Where to Buy

Identification plate

Series: Detective Comics (DC, 1937 series)
Issue: #36
Publication date: February 1940
Key date: 1940-02-00
On-sale date: 1939-12-30
Indicia publisher: Detective Comics Inc.
Price: $0.10
Pages: 68

Match the book in your hand against this plate before paying an edition-specific price.

Why this issue matters

First appearance of Hugo Strange - the earliest non-flashback appearance on record for this character. An independent public reference records the same first appearance.

The evidence

Claims here come from the story records for this issue, listed under Sources at the bottom of the file. Character hubs with full evidence tables are coming to this site.

Seq	Story	Type	Pages	Credits	Characters
0	-	cover	1	pencils: Bob Kane; inks: Bob Kane	Batman, Bruce Wayne
3	Professor Hugo Strange	comic story	12	script: Bill Finger; pencils: Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson; inks: Bob Kane; letters: Jerry Robinson	Batman, Commissioner James Gordon, Hugo Strange First, Bruce Wayne
4	Stamps for Census Taking	text article	0.3	colors: ? (red & black letters); letters: typeset
7	The Rantor	comic story	6	script: Jerry Siegel; pencils: Maurice Kashuba; inks: Maurice Kashuba	Bart Regan
8	Claim of Satan	comic story	6	pencils: H. Fleming; inks: H. Fleming	Buck Marshall
9	Rocky Roman	comic story	6	pencils: Don Lynch; inks: Don Lynch	Steve Malone
10	The "Spider"	comic story	6	script: Fox; pencils: Guardineer; inks: Guardineer; letters: Fred Guardineer	Speed Saunders
11	The Purple Mesa	comic story	6	script: Sven Elven; pencils: Sven Elvén; inks: Sven Elvén	Cosmo, the Phantom of Disguise
12	A Climax in Opera	text story	1.67	script: Richard Martin; pencils: Bernard Baily; inks: Bernard Baily
14	Action Comics; Adventure Comics; Detective Comics; More Fun Comics	promo (ad from the publisher)	0.08	colors: ? (red & black letters); letters: typeset
15	More Fun Comics; The Spectre	promo (ad from the publisher)	0.05
16	A Weekend Party at the Mountain Lodge	comic story	6	script: Tom Hickey; pencils: Tom Hickey; inks: Tom Hickey	Bruce Nelson
17	The Lan Chee Tong	comic story	10	script: Jerry Siegel; pencils: Mart Bailey; inks: Mart Bailey	Slam Bradley, Shorty Morgan
18	Six Big Headline Features for the "Big Six" Comic Magazines!	promo (ad from the publisher)	1	letters: typeset

Plus 5.9 pages of advertisements and other matter across 7 sequences, as published.

Where to read it

Collection	Year
Batman Archives #1 ISBN 0-930289-60-9	1990	On eBay ›
The Batman Chronicles #1 ISBN 1-4012-0445-7	2005	On eBay ›
Batman: The Golden Age Omnibus #1 ISBN 978-1-4012-6009-5	2016	On eBay ›
Batman: The Golden Age #1 ISBN 978-1-4012-6333-1	2016	On eBay ›
Batman Arkham: Hugo Strange #[nn] ISBN 978-1-4012-7470-2	2018	On eBay ›

Reading the story costs a fraction of owning the issue. Both routes are on every file.

Before you buy

Golden-age paper is brittle. Ask about page suppleness and check edges for chips in the photos.
Check for trimmed edges, married covers, and clipped coupons - all common on books this old.
Confirm the indicia matches this plate; many golden-age titles changed names mid-run.

Series context

‹ #3536 of 883#37 ›

Sources

Grand Comics Database, issue record (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Wikidata, Q2287724 (Hugo Strange), first-appearance property (CC0)

Found an error in this file? corrections@comicrecord.com