Batman #6
Batman #6 (cover-dated September 1941) marks a structural turning point for the entire Batman publishing line: it was the first issue released on a bimonthly schedule, reflecting the title's surging readership and setting the production pace that would define DC's Golden Age Batman output for years. The issue introduces the Clock Maker — an eccentric, time-obsessed villain whose ticking-bomb threat to destroy a city foreshadows the elaborately themed antagonists that would become a hallmark of the Batman rogues' gallery. It also deepens the early characterization of Linda Page, Bruce Wayne's nurse girlfriend, through a self-contained adventure involving her father's Texas oil business, demonstrating Bill Finger's use of supporting characters as recurring narrative engines rather than one-off devices.
In "Murder on Parole," a newly released convict becomes the target of a deadly conspiracy, unaware he's part of a larger scheme orchestrated by a shadowy boss. Batman steps in to protect him, but with the killer still at large and the threat far from over, the Dark Knight must stay one step ahead. Written by Bill Finger and illustrated by Bob Kane, with inks by Jerry Robinson and George Roussos, and lettered by Roussos, this 1941 classic features a cover by Bob Kane.
In "Murder on Parole," a newly released convict named Chick Miller finds himself caught in a deadly game after being paroled—only to learn too late that his freedom was a trap set by a shadowy boss pulling strings from the shadows. Batman steps in to protect Miller, but with the killer still on the loose, the hero must stay one step ahead as the hunt for the truth turns deadly.
In "The Clock Maker!" from Batman #6 (1941), the Dark Knight confronts a bizarre criminal who turns the concept of time into a weapon, accusing Bruce Wayne and other wealthy men of "murdering" it—each a suspect in a twisted game of justice. With gears and ticking clocks at the heart of the mystery, Batman must unravel a case that’s as precise as it is perplexing.
In "The Secret of the Iron Jungle," Batman and Robin race to the Page Oil Company fields to stop a corporate sabotage scheme targeting Linda Page’s father, just as a major oil gusher threatens to shift the balance of power in the company. With tensions high and the stakes rising, the Dynamic Duo must navigate a web of deceit beneath the industrial sprawl before the next oil rush turns deadly.
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By mid-1941, the Batman quarterly had proven commercially robust enough for DC — then operating under editor Whitney Ellsworth — to accelerate its publication to a bimonthly cadence beginning with this issue. The increased schedule put new pressure on the small core team of writer Bill Finger, penciler Bob Kane, inker Jerry Robinson, and background artist/letterer George Roussos, who together crafted all four comics stories in the book. To fill the issue's page count, veteran DC writer Gardner Fox contributed a prose text feature titled 'The Rustler,' a common practice of the era used to qualify periodicals for lower postal rates. As the workload grew with subsequent issues, DC would begin supplementing Kane and Finger with ghost artists and additional writers — a transition that #6's accelerated schedule directly precipitated.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover-dated September 1941, Batman #6 was published on June 13, 1941, and was the first issue of the Batman series to appear on a bimonthly (rather than quarterly) publication schedule.
- The issue contains four comics stories, all scripted by Bill Finger and penciled by Bob Kane, with inks by Jerry Robinson and backgrounds and lettering by George Roussos — the core Golden Age Batman creative team.
- The second story, 'The Clock Maker!', introduces and kills off Elias Brock, a.k.a. the Clock Maker — a villainous watchmaker who rigs explosive timepieces to kill wealthy businessmen he holds responsible for 'murdering' time.
- A third story features Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson traveling to Texas to aid the oil business of Linda Page's father, Thomas Page, placing the recently introduced girlfriend character at the center of a self-contained adventure.
- The issue also contains 'Murder on Parole,' in which Batman goes undercover inside a prison to expose a corrupt parole racket — an early example of Finger using disguise and infiltration as storytelling devices.
- A prose text story titled 'The Rustler,' written by Gardner Fox and illustrated by Raymond Perry, is included as a backup feature — a standard Golden Age practice that helped comics qualify for lower magazine postal rates.
- Commissioner James Gordon appears in the Clock Maker story, and the issue credits confirm his role as an active participant in the police investigation alongside Batman and Robin.
- The stories from this era, including Batman #6, have been reprinted in DC's Batman Chronicles trade paperback series and in the Batman: The Golden Age Omnibus hardcover collections.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Batman: The Dark Knight Archives #2 (1995), The Batman Chronicles #4 (2007), Batman: The Golden Age Omnibus #1 (2016), Batman: The Golden Age #2 (2017)
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