One of the recognizable villains in Batman's rogues gallery, the Penguin has repeatedly appeared in media outside of comic books (probably most famously portrayed by Danny DeVito in Batman Returns). IGN ranked him #51 in its list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time.

And now he's the star turn in his own high-budget TV show: The Penguin on Max. The Penguin, Matt Reeves' follow up to The Batman is a hit among critics and fans alike. It received a 94% score from critics and a 88% score from fans on Rotten Tomatoes.

The show's success appears to have encouraged some sellers to come off the sidelines and sell Detective Comics #58 (DC 1941), the highly coveted first appearance of the Penguin.

Because most of the Penguin's key issues are from the Golden Age, it's hard to determine whether a show like The Penguin has any effect on their values. Golden Age key issues are so rare and desirable that they just tend to go up regardless of what happens in Hollywood. For example, take a look at the Collectible Price Index (CPI) for the Golden Age for the past five years:

That's just a steady and predictable increase in value over time. These issues are pure cash. The same is true for the Penguin's first appearance in Detective Comics #58 (DC 1941). First of all, this book is exceedingly rare; there are only 98 universal blue labels on the CGC Census.

And although this book is rarely available for sale on public auction, we have seen several recent sales in just the past few weeks. In fact, five copies (or over 5% of the CGC population) of Detective Comics #58 have sold during the past five weeks. It's reasonable to conjecture that the hype surrounding The Penguin may have encouraged several sellers to put their copies up for sale.

On the high end, this exceptionally rare Pedigree copy of Detective Comics #58 sold on September 15th for $26,400 on Heritage Auctions:

This particular copy came from the "Promise" Collection, a collection of over 5,000 high-grade Golden Age comics from a single owner, a young man who died in the Korean War. Preserved in an attic for over 50 years, CGC received the collection for grading in 2021. There are only four copies on the CGC Census that have received a higher grade.

While it's difficult to price this issue since it's so unique, $26,400 actually seems like a low sale for this one-of-a-kind book. During that same auction on Heritage on September 15th, a 7.0 copy of Detective Comics #58 sold for $24,000:

To me, it seems odd that the 8.0 Pedigree copy would sell for only $2,400 more than the 7.0 during the same auction; personally, I think the buyer got a great deal on that sale. Believe it or not, Heritage Auctions sold a third copy of Detective Comics #58 during that same auction; a 5.5 sold for only $10,500.

According to GoCollect, the FMV for a 5.5 is $15,000.

There have been two sales of low-grade copies of Detective Comics #58 during the past month. In early September, a 2.0 sold for $5,280 on Heritage Auctions. On October 6th, a 1.0 sold for $4,051 on eBay after receiving 62 bids.

During a four week span, five copies of Detective Comics #58 sold during public auctions; to me, that's a sign that Hollywood can catalyze even the Golden Age comic book market.