The Funnies #38 for Sale - First Appearance of Dorothy Gale - Where to Buy

Identification plate

Series: The Funnies (Dell, 1936 series)
Issue: #38
Publication date: December 1939
Key date: 1939-12-00
On-sale date: 1939-11-11
Indicia publisher: Dell Publishing Co. 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 Dorothy Gale - the earliest non-flashback appearance on record for this character.

First appearance of The Scarecrow - the earliest non-flashback appearance on record for this character.

First appearance of Toto - the earliest non-flashback appearance on record for this character.

First appearance of Scraps - the earliest non-flashback appearance on record for this character.

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
1	The Funnies Contest	promo (ad from the publisher)	1	colors: ? (red tones); letters: typeset
2	-	comic story	4	script: Hugh Harman; pencils: Rudolf Ising; inks: Rudolf Ising
5	-	comic story	4	script: Edgar Rice Burroughs; pencils: John Coleman Burroughs; inks: John Coleman Burroughs	John Carter, Kantos Kan
6	-	comic story	5	script: V. T. Hamlin; pencils: V. T. Hamlin; inks: V. T. Hamlin	Alley Oop; Ooola; Dinny; Eeny
7	Electric Fish	comic story	0.5	script: William Ferguson; pencils: William Ferguson; inks: William Ferguson
8	Winners of the August Contest	promo (ad from the publisher)	0.5	letters: typeset
9	The Hound of Horror [Part 3]	comic story	5	pencils: Tom Hickey; inks: Tom Hickey
10	-	cartoon	0.5
11	Winners of the July Popularity Poll	promo (ad from the publisher)	0.5	letters: typeset
12	-	comic story	4	script: Gaylord Du Bois
13	-	comic story	4	script: Roy Crane; pencils: Roy Crane; inks: Roy Crane	Wash Tubbs; Captain Easy
14	-	comic story	6	pencils: Al McWilliams; inks: Al McWilliams
15	-	comic story	4	pencils: Al McWilliams; inks: Al McWilliams
16	-	comic story	5	pencils: Walt Spouse; inks: Walt Spouse	Dorothy Gale First, The Scarecrow First, Scraps First, Toto First
17	-	comic story	6
18	Faces	activity	0.3
20	-	promo (ad from the publisher)	0.01
21	-	comic story	1
22	-	comic story	8	script: Bob Gaylord; pencils: Bob Gaylord; inks: Bob Gaylord
23	-	comic story	4	script: Victor Bloom

Plus 3.69 pages of advertisements and other matter across 5 sequences, as published.

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

‹ #3738 of 64#39 ›

Sources

Grand Comics Database, issue record (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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