Cover: Neal Adams & Carmine Infantino

Batman #220

Mar 1970 · DC · 0.15 USD

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“This Murder Has Been ... Pre-Recorded!”

About this Issue

Batman #220 marks a quiet but tangible design milestone in the character's history: it debuts the bold, bat-silhouette-framed logo — co-designed by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano and lettered by Gaspar Saladino — that became one of the most recognizable cover treatments of the Bronze Age. The issue also arrives at the precise editorial moment when Julius Schwartz, writer Frank Robbins, and the rotating art team of Irv Novick, Dick Giordano, and Neal Adams were collectively steering Batman away from the camp residue of the 1966 TV series and back toward his pulpy, noir-detective roots. Its letter column additionally provides a small but historically meaningful piece of Batman biography: editor Schwartz publicly clarified that the surname 'Pennyworth' for Alfred had not been invented by Robbins for Batman #216, but traced back to former DC editor Whitney Ellsworth's work on the Batman newspaper syndicate strip — an early acknowledgment of the character's transmedia continuity. Though not a landmark story in its own right, the issue is a solid specimen of the transitional early-Bronze-Age Batman and has been reprinted repeatedly in prestige collections dedicated to this era.

writer Frank Robbins · artist Irv Novick · inker Dick Giordano · letterer Ray Holloway · cover Neal Adams, Carmine Infantino

ComicBooks.com Value

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Raw (Fine) $34

CGC 9.8 · 10 in census $2,095

CGC 9.6 · 20 in census $495

CGC 9.4 · 34 in census $242

CGC 9.2 · 25 in census $168

CGC 9.0 · 18 in census $139*

CGC 8.5 · 9 in census $112

Show all 17 grades ▾

CGC 8.0 · 12 in census $107

CGC 7.5 · 12 in census $92*

CGC 7.0 · 4 in census $78*

CGC 6.5 · 7 in census $70*

CGC 6.0 · 6 in census $60

CGC 5.5 · 1 in census $50

CGC 5.0 · 1 in census $50*

CGC 4.5 · 2 in census $46*

CGC 4.0 · 3 in census $44*

CGC 3.5 · 1 in census $36*

CGC 3.0 · 2 in census $32*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

More listings for this title

VG $16.5 GD $19.99 VG $24.95 VF $52.93 FINE $64.95 FN/VF $75.45 VF+ $80.33 FN+ · Signed $99

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History

The issue went on sale January 22, 1970, per U.S. Copyright Office filings and trade coverage in The Comic Reader #76, which also documented the new logo's creation. It was produced under editor Julius Schwartz with Carmine Infantino serving as DC's Executive Editor and supplying the cover layout, which Neal Adams then finished — a common collaborative cover arrangement for the Batman titles of this period. Credits for the interior pencils and inks were later confirmed directly from Julius Schwartz's editorial records provided by DC Comics. The story itself is a done-in-one mystery centering on journalist Marla Manning and a murder-by-recording-device plot, representative of Robbins and Novick's ongoing effort under Schwartz to foreground Batman as a detective rather than a costumed brawler.

Trivia · 7 facts

Cover date: March 1970; on-sale date: January 22, 1970 (confirmed by U.S. Copyright Office filings and The Comic Reader #76).
Interior story: 'This Murder Has Been Pre-Recorded!' — script by Frank Robbins, pencils by Irv Novick, inks by Dick Giordano, lettered by Raymond Holloway, edited by Julius Schwartz.
Cover: penciled by Carmine Infantino (layout) and Neal Adams (finish), with logo lettering by Gaspar Saladino — confirmed from Julius Schwartz's editorial records.
First appearance of the bold bat-silhouette Batman logo, co-designed by Dick Giordano and Neal Adams and lettered by Gaspar Saladino, per The Comic Reader #76.
The 'Letters to the Batcave' column includes a Schwartz editorial note clarifying that the surname 'Pennyworth' for Alfred — introduced in Batman #216 — originated with former DC editor Whitney Ellsworth on the Batman newspaper syndicate strip, not with writer Frank Robbins.
Supporting character Marla Manning, a journalist and associate of the Wayne Foundation's Victims Program, appears as the civilian in jeopardy; the villain Nova uses a bomb rigged to a phone booth in the story's climax.
The issue has been reprinted in at least nine collections/editions, including Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams Vol. 2 (2004/2013), Showcase Presents: Batman Vol. 5 (2012), and the Batman by Neal Adams Omnibus (2016).