Detective Comics #20 - First Appearance of The Crimson Avenger, Printings and Contents

Identification plate

Series: Detective Comics (DC, 1937 series)
Issue: #20
Publication date: October 1938
Key date: October 1938
On-sale date: September 7, 1938
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 The Crimson Avenger - the earliest non-flashback appearance on record for this character.

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

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

First appearance of Wing How - 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	pencils: Leo O'Mealia; inks: Leo O'Mealia
1	Don't Miss: The Masked Ranger	promo (ad from the publisher)	1	letters: typeset
2	The Jade Buddha	comic story	6	script: Gardner Fox; pencils: Fred Guardineer; inks: Fred Guardineer	Speed Saunders
3	French Colonials	text article	0.5	letters: typeset
6	The Island of Wanatoba, Part 2	comic story	6	script: Will Ely; pencils: Will Ely; inks: Will Ely	Larry Steele
7	The Door of Death	comic story	6	script: H. Fleming; pencils: H. Fleming; inks: H. Fleming	Buck Marshall
8	Saving Senator Barkly	comic story	8	script: Siegel; pencils: Shuster; inks: Shuster	Sally Norris, Bart Regan
9	The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu, Part 4	comic story	4	script: Leo O'Mealia, Sax Rohmer; pencils: Leo O'Mealia; inks: Leo O'Mealia	Dr. Fu Manchu; Sir Dennis Nayland Smith; Dr. Petrie
10	Give and Take	text story	1.9	script: Paul Dean; pencils: Fred Guardineer; inks: Fred Guardineer	Detective Bedford; Sir Charles Knight; Wen Tung (villain)
12	The Song of Death [Part 1]	comic story	6	script: Gardner Fox; pencils: Tom Hickey; inks: Tom Hickey	Bruce Nelson
13	Block Buster	comic story	6	script: Jim Chambers; pencils: Jim Chambers; inks: Jim Chambers	The Crimson Avenger First, Wing How First, Lee Travis First, Wing First
14	Boat Race of Doom	comic story	6	pencils: Sven Elvén; inks: Sven Elvén; letters: Sven Elven	Cosmo, the Phantom of Disguise
15	The Magician	comic story	13	script: Jerome Siegel; pencils: Joe Shuster; inks: Joe Shuster	Slam Bradley, Shorty Morgan
16	Here's Good News!	promo (ad from the publisher)	1

Plus 1.6 pages of advertisements and other matter across 4 sequences, as published.

Where to read it

Collection	Year
Detective Comics: 80 Years of Batman #[nn] ISBN 978-1-4012-8538-8	2019	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

‹ #1920 of 883#21 ›

Sources

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

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