Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: barbara gordon, batgirl

The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl, Up for Auction

Detective Comics #359 is the first appearance of Batgirl (Barbara Gordon), and it's one key among many that have been on the move lately.  A CGC 9.8 copy went for a record $132,000.00 recently. The cover story, "The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl!" was written by Garnder Fox, penciled by Carmine Infantino, inked by Sid Green, and lettered by Gaspar Saladino, under the editorship of Julius Schwartz. Carmine Infantino penciled the cover, with inks by Murphy Anderson. The character was created by Infantino and Schwartz based on a premise from Batman television series executive producer William Dozer.  There's a Detective Comics #359 (DC, 1967) CGC VF 8.0 Off-white to white pages up for auction in this week's 2021 July 11-12 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122128 from Heritage Auctions.

Although there had been a previous "Bat-Girl" who first appeared in Batman #139 in 1961, DC Comics abandoned the character along with others such as Bat-Mite and Ace the Bat-Hound by 1964 shortly after the dawn of editor Julius Schwartz's tenure over the franchise.  But a few years later, in the wake of the launch of the Batman television series, executive producer William Dozier suggested that the Batman franchise needed more female characters.  As Schwartz would say in his biography:

I asked what kind of girl he had in mind, and it turned out he had already worked out a possible scenario in his head whereby Commissioner Gordon had a daughter who decides to become Batgirl.

Carmine Infantino elaborated on the origins of the character in a 2007 interview:

Batgirl came up in the mid-'60s. The "Batman" TV producer called Julie and said Catwoman was a hit, could we come up with more female characters? Julie called me and asked me to do that. I came up with Batgirl, Poison Ivy and one I called the Grey Fox, which Julie didn't like as much. Bob Kane had had a Bat-Girl for about three stories in the '50s but she had nothing to do with a bat. She was like a pesky girl version of Robin. I knew we could do a lot better, so Julie and I came up with the real Batgirl, who was so popular she almost got her own TV show.

A key DC Comics issue that has been rising in importance in recent times, there's a Detective Comics #359 (DC, 1967) CGC VF 8.0 Off-white to white pages up for auction in this week's 2021 July 11-12 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122128 from Heritage Auctions.

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