Cover: Nick Cardy

Showcase #76

Aug 1968 · DC · 0.12 USD

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★ 1st appearance — Bat Lash

About this Issue

Showcase #76 (August 1968) introduces Bat Lash, one of the most genuinely unconventional characters DC Comics produced in the Silver Age — a self-professed pacifist, dandy gambler, and reluctant gunfighter who turned every convention of the Western genre on its head at a moment when Spaghetti Westerns and countercultural youth rebellion were reshaping American pop culture. Rather than the stoic, square-jawed frontier hero, Bat Lash arrived with a flower in his hatband, a gourmet's appetite, and a sardonic wit, making him one of the earliest examples of the charming anti-hero in mainstream American comics. The issue launched the character directly into his own seven-issue series, and the title went on to win the Alley Award for Best Western Title in both 1968 and 1969 — a remarkable double in the same years that DC was being remade by talents like Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil. As a Showcase try-out, the issue also represents that title's function as DC's creative laboratory, a proving ground where the publisher took genuine genre risks rather than defaulting to formula.

writer, artist Sergio Aragonés · artist, inker Nick Cardy · letterer Gaspar Saladino · cover Nick Cardy

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (VG) $15

CGC 9.8 · 2 in census $3,448

CGC 9.6 · 3 in census $751

CGC 9.4 · 20 in census $233

CGC 9.2 · 11 in census $214

CGC 9.0 · 13 in census $171

CGC 8.5 · 10 in census $92

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CGC 8.0 · 11 in census $78

CGC 7.5 · 4 in census $63*

CGC 7.0 · 6 in census $45

CGC 6.5 · 1 in census $45*

CGC 6.0 · 6 in census $39

CGC 5.5 · 4 in census $31*

CGC 5.0 · 3 in census $31*

CGC 4.5 · 1 in census $25*

* 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 $14 FN $20 FN $39.95 FN $40 FN+ $47.49 FN $50 FN+ $60 FN/VF $70

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History

The concept originated with Carmine Infantino, newly appointed as DC's editorial director in 1968, and his editor Joe Orlando, who devised the name and the core premise of a loner driven from his family by corrupt authority. They brought in former DC editor and Sugar and Spike creator Sheldon Mayer to write the first story for Showcase #76, though Infantino later claimed to have substantially rewritten it; separately, per interviews published in Comic Book Artist #1 (Spring 1998), Mayer's initial story was actually rejected before the concept was handed to Sergio Aragonés, who plotted and thumbnailed the debut tale. The production method that defined the book was distinctive: Aragonés created the story in thumbnail-sketch form, Denny O'Neil layered in dialogue, and Nick Cardy — then known for his superhero work on Aquaman and Teen Titans — executed the finished art, blending his more dramatic superhero draftsmanship with a lighter, humor-magazine sensibility he had also developed at Mad, Cracked, and National Lampoon. The degree to which Infantino's rewrite of Mayer's script affected the final Showcase #76 story remains unclear across sources, and at least one indexer has additionally credited Cardy as a co-writer on the issue.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance of Bartholomew 'Bat' Aloysius Lash (Bat Lash), DC Comics' Western anti-hero — cover-dated August 1968, on sale June 13, 1968.
The Showcase #76 debut story is titled 'Will He Save the West — or Ruin It?' and runs 23-24 pages; it follows Lash arriving in the town of Welcome, uncovering a poisoning plot, and dispatching outlaws despite his declared hatred of violence.
Character created by committee: concept by Carmine Infantino and editor Joe Orlando; fleshed out by Sheldon Mayer (who wrote the debut script) and Sergio Aragonés (who plotted and laid out the Showcase story); Nick Cardy drew the interior art.
Bat Lash is defined by his pacifist ethos and counterculture visual design — long hair, mustache, and a flower worn in his hatband — a direct subversion of the rugged Western hero archetype.
Before the issue hit stands, DC teased the character in house ads depicting a silhouetted figure with the tagline 'Bat Lash. Will he save the West, or ruin it?' — an unusually aggressive pre-publication marketing push for a try-out title.
The character's reception led immediately to a solo ongoing series, Bat Lash #1–7 (1968–1969), produced bimonthly — one of the fastest Showcase-to-solo-series launches of the era.
Bat Lash (the series launched by this issue) won the fan-voted Alley Award for Best Western Title in both 1968 and 1969.
Showcase #76 and the full original Bat Lash run were collected in Showcase Presents: Bat Lash (DC, 2009), a black-and-white trade paperback also including DC Special Series #16 and backup stories from Jonah Hex #49, #51, and #52; Bat Lash later appeared in Justice League Unlimited (voiced by Ben Browder) and the DC animated films Justice League: Warworld and Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths.