PLATINUM AGE
pre-1938
Everything before Action Comics #1. The form was still finding itself: mostly bound reprints of newspaper strips, humour anthologies and one-shot magazines, printed in small numbers on paper that rarely survived. Surviving copies are scarce enough that condition expectations differ from every era after it.
12
SERIES
1,063
ISSUES
77
KEY ISSUES
PUBLISHERS OF THE ERA
KEY ISSUES FROM THE PLATINUM AGE
Detective Comics #27
First appearances of Batman and James Gordon.
Detective Comics #38
First appearance of Robin (Dick Grayson). Earliest catalogued appearance of Anthony Zucco.
Detective Comics #75
Earliest catalogued appearance of Alfred Pennyworth.
More Fun Comics #73
First appearances of Aquaman and Green Arrow. Earliest catalogued appearances of Roy Harper and Tom Curry.
Detective Comics #359
First appearance of Batgirl (Barbara Gordon).
Detective Comics #225
First appearance of Martian Manhunter.
Detective Comics #58
First appearance of Penguin.
Detective Comics #66
First appearance of Two-Face. Earliest catalogued appearances of Salvatore Maroni and Gilda Dent.
More Fun Comics #55
Earliest catalogued appearances of Doctor Fate (Kent Nelson), Inza Nelson, Nabu the Wise, and 1 more.
More Fun Comics #52
Earliest catalogued appearances of Spectre and Clarice Winston.
Detective Comics #169
Earliest catalogued appearance of Deadshot.
Detective Comics #140
First appearance of Riddler.
LONGEST RUNS STARTED IN THIS ERA
Detective Comics
1937 · 883 issues
More Fun Comics
1936 · 119 issues
New Adventure Comics
1937 · 20 issues
Junior Scholastic
1937 · 16 issues
New Comics
1935 · 11 issues
New Fun
1935 · 6 issues
More Fun
1936 · 2 issues
New Book of Comics
1936 · 2 issues
The Big Book of Fun Comics
1935 · 1 issues
Action Comics [ashcan]
1937 · 1 issues
Action Funnies [ashcan]
1937 · 1 issues
Federal Men Comics [ashcan]
1936 · 1 issues
Series are placed by the year they began, so a long run appears in the age it started rather than every age it ran through. Where an age begins and ends is a matter of convention, and the edges are argued over. All ages.