Cover: Dick Dillin & Sheldon Moldoff

Detective Comics #311

Jan 1963 · DC · 0.12 USD

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★ 1st appearance — Zook★ 1st appearance — Catman

About this Issue

Detective Comics #311 is a dual-debut issue that punches well above the weight of a typical Silver Age anthology: it introduces Cat-Man (Thomas Blake) to the Batman rogues' gallery — a villain whose four-decade arc from lightweight gimmick thief to Gail Simone's morally complex antihero in Secret Six makes this one of the more consequential villain-origin issues of the early 1960s. Equally significant, the Martian Manhunter backup delivers the first appearance of Zook, the extradimensional creature who became J'onn J'onzz's primary sidekick for the remainder of his Detective Comics run and stands as one of the most distinctive (if eccentric) supporting characters of Silver Age DC. Having two durable, still-referenced character debuts in a single issue — one per feature story — is genuinely rare for the period, and it gives #311 a permanent place in both Batman and Martian Manhunter continuity.

In "Challenge of the Cat-Man!", Manhunter faces a bizarre threat when alien criminals from another dimension flee to Earth, only to be captured—leaving behind their mysterious, feline-like pet, Zook. Written by Jack Miller and illustrated by Joe Certa, this 1963 classic blends sci-fi intrigue with the eerie presence of an otherworldly creature, all brought to life in striking detail on a cover by Dick Dillin and Sheldon Moldoff.

Contains 2 stories

Challenge of the Cat-Man!

12.67 pp · Superhero

Batman [Bruce Wayne]Robin [Dick Grayson]Batwoman [Kathy Kane]Cat-Man [Thomas Blake] (villain, introduction)

The Invaders from the Space Warp

11.67 pp · Superhero

Zook (intro)Diane MeadeR'EllMartian Manhunter [John JonesJ'onn J'onzz]

In "The Invaders from the Space Warp," Manhunter faces a wave of interdimensional fugitives who crash-land on Earth, only to find their escape route sealed. With the criminals captured, one strange companion—unnamed but unmistakably alien—slips through the cracks, leaving Manhunter to wonder what kind of threat might still be out there.

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (VG) $49

CGC 9.6 · 2 in census $4,461*

CGC 9.4 · 9 in census $1,545

CGC 9.2 · 3 in census $1,324*

CGC 9.0 · 11 in census $995

CGC 8.5 · 12 in census $602

CGC 8.0 · 17 in census $259*

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CGC 7.5 · 17 in census $259

CGC 7.0 · 13 in census $259*

CGC 6.5 · 23 in census $259

CGC 6.0 · 30 in census $225

CGC 5.5 · 16 in census $185*

CGC 5.0 · 19 in census $171

CGC 4.5 · 20 in census $171

CGC 4.0 · 17 in census $146*

CGC 3.5 · 6 in census $133

CGC 3.0 · 4 in census $93*

CGC 2.5 · 4 in census $82

CGC 2.0 · 1 in census $63*

CGC 1.5 · 2 in census $51*

* 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

GD $115 GD $133.23 CGC 1.5 $139 VG $184 VG $204 VG $204 VERY GOOD $231.56 VG $239.99

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History

The issue carries a cover date of January 1963 but was published on November 29, 1962, a standard newsstand lead-time practice of the era. The Batman lead story was scripted by Bill Finger — Batman's uncredited co-creator, who by this point was still writing for DC as a freelancer despite receiving little public recognition — with interior art penciled and inked by Jim Mooney, a veteran DC ghost-artist who had been quietly drawing Batman stories since 1946 and would later become the definitive Supergirl artist. The cover itself was rendered by Dick Dillin and Sheldon Moldoff, a separate creative pairing from the interior team. The Martian Manhunter backup, 'The Invaders from the Space Warp,' was scripted by Jack Miller and drawn by Joe Certa, the longtime art partner on the J'onn J'onzz strip.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance of Cat-Man (Thomas Blake), created by writer Bill Finger and artist Jim Mooney, in the lead story 'Challenge of the Cat-Man!' — the character's debut in the DC Universe.
First appearance of Zook, the orange-hued, antenna-bearing extradimensional creature who became Martian Manhunter's sidekick, created by writer Jack Miller and artist Joe Certa in the backup story 'The Invaders from the Space Warp.'
Cover date: January 1963; actual on-sale date: November 29, 1962. Published by DC (then National Periodical Publications).
Cat-Man is established as Thomas Blake, a bored, fortune-squandering big-game hunter who models himself after Catwoman and commits cat-themed heists using a catsuit made from ancient African cloth, steel claw-tipped gloves, and a razor-edged 'catarang.'
The DC Database notes that Cat-Man's debut falls exactly 100 issues after Catwoman's most recent Detective Comics appearance (issue #211), and that Blake explicitly references Catwoman's prior reform when adopting his identity.
Interior art for the Batman story is by Jim Mooney (pencils and inks); the cover is by Dick Dillin and Sheldon Moldoff — two distinct creative teams on the same issue.
Batwoman (Kathy Kane) appears alongside Batman and Robin in the lead story, actively opposing Cat-Man — one of her more prominent Silver Age supporting roles.
Zook went on to appear in the Martian Manhunter strip across roughly a dozen additional Detective Comics issues through #326, and the character's debut story has been collected in Showcase Presents: Martian Manhunter Vol. 1 (2007) and Martian Manhunter: The Silver Age Omnibus (2017).