The Penguin first appeared in two consecutive issues of Detective Comics.
DETECTIVE COMICS #58 - "The Penguin"
Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson are visiting an art exhibition when they take note of an odd little man who resembles a penguin. Suddenly, one of the guards announces the two small Watteau paintings have been cut from their frames. All of the meseum's patrons are searched, but the paintings are not found. Later, the odd little man goes to a hotel of one of the biggest racketeers in town, known only as the "Boss," introduces himself as the Penguin and produces the stolen paintings from inside the handle of his umbrella. The Boss lets him join the gang, and soon Penguin is directing all of the mobs activities and planning their jobs.
The next day, Bruce Wayne is at the Stahl Auctioneering House and sees the same odd little man he saw at the museum the day before. Suddenly the lights go ouot, and when they come on again, the Great Columbia Diamond is missing! Later, at the Boss' headquarters, Penguin insists on his share of the money for the robberies he has planned, but the Boss says, "You're gettin' too big for your shoes -- I've gotta teach ya a lesson so's you won't step into mine!" The Penguin replies, "This was bound to occur sooner or later -- might as well get it over with now." He shoots Boss with his umbrella and takes over the mob.
Later, in a waterfront dive, a disguised Batman overhears two of the Penguin's men planning to hit the Stahl Auctioneering House again. Batman is there waiting for them, and manages to overcome them both before the Penguin himself arrives. When the Batman moves to apprehend him, the Penguin subdueshim with knock-out gas fired from guess where? the Penguin then frees him men, steals a jade idol from the vault, and trips the alarm. When the police arrive, they find the Batman just coming to his senses. they take the dazed Batman to a luxurious mansion as a "formality," explaining, "We want you to tell Mr. Boniface what happened to his idol." Just then, in walks Boniface himself: the Penguin!
Boniface alleges that the Batman has been threatening him for weeks, demanding protection money and saying that he himself so well-known that no one would believe Boniface if he spoke up and complained. Boniface presses formal charges, and the police have no choice but to haul him off to the station in a paddy wagon. On the way, however, the Pernguin's men t-bone the police van. The cops are knocked unconscious and the Batman is dazed. Penguin's men haul himback to the mansion, where Penguin explains the frame-up. First of all, his idol was insured, so he'd collect for it being "stolen" anyway. Now that the Batman has "escaped" police custody, if he stays there he's guilty, but if he escapes he runs the risk of being shot by the police.
They tie him up, but he activates his wireless radio (which is now in his boot rather than his belt buckle where it has been all along) and taps out a message in Morse code to Robin that he's being held in the Boniface Mansion on Lincoln Ave. Robin arrives and a fight ensures, but the Penguin gets the drop on them with his umbrella and calls the police. Batman decides to beat a strategic retreat, but for the next several nights a blind man and a street urchin are seen standing outside the Penguin's mansion. They trail him to the gang's next job, in the bowery where a "humble flop house" stands next to the "tall stately building" next door which houses the diamond exchange.
B&R burst in just as the crooks have broken into the vault, but the Pengiun shoots acid at them from his umbrella. He misses (and hits one of his own men in the process), but escapes in the confusion. Batman chases him to the elevated train station nearby. Their scuffle throws them onto the tracks on an oncoming train. Penguin manages to leap aboard the express train on the next track, but Batman is trapped under the local until it departs. Batman is able to clear his name, but the Penguin has gotten away. "Somehow," he speculates, "I feel we'll meet him again!"
DETECTIVE COMICS #59 - "The King of the Jungle"
"Again" comes in the very next issue. Batman knows the Penguin's name and address, so the Penguin switched to a frieght train heading toward the midwest. Inside the boxcar he meets Lefty Larry and Mike the Tramp. He gets their attention by shooting the hat off Mike's head (with his umbrella, 'natch), and outlines his new plan. Mike and Lefty spread to word to all the tramps with criminal records to gather in the hobo jungle (the "jungle" of the title) outside Boswick. His plan to to turn each of the hobos in for their respective rewards, break them out of jail, them split the profits. Coincidentally, Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson happen to be on vacation and are on a train passing through Boswick when Dick spots the Penguin.
That night, the Penguin turns one of the bums in for a $15K reward. Later, "a pudgy, smartly-gloved hand drops a tiny pellet into the jail's ventilating system." The resultant gas knocks out the guards and the hobos free Mike. Back at the hobo jungle, Batman and Robin go on the offensive, but they, too , are overcome by knockout gas fired from... Aw, you guessed! They come to their senses with their feet tied together, hanging upsidedown from hooks in a box car. That's not much of a "deathtrap," so they quickly free themselves and return to Gotham City. Once there, they consult Batman's "personal rogues' gallery" and learn that Penguin's man "Bignose" is wanted in Memphis, Mike the Tramp in Arkansas, and Lefty in Texas.
Days later, the Penguin runs his scam in Memphis, and Batman deduces that Arkansas will be next. They fly there in the batplane in time to catch Penguin in the act of his next job. He fires teargas, from his boutonniere this time (ha! fooled ya!), but the handle of him umbrella is weighted with lead. Batman and robin pursue him to the Mississippi River where he and his men board a riverboat. A fight ensues. Batman and Robin are knocked overboard, but ride the paddlewheel back on deck. The Penguin attacks Batman with his unbrella-sword, but realizes he is outmatched, jumps overboard and does not resurface.
BATMAN: Well -- the end of the case -- and certainly the end of the Penguin, eh, Robin?
ROBIN: I dunno! I've got a funny feeling --
BILL FINGER: Only the silent waters of the Mississippi know the answer of the Penguin's end, and they won't tell!
Replies
Mike's Amazing World lists appearances by the Penguin between Batman #190 and #257 in #191 (in jail, responds to Batman's announcement he's retiring), World's Finest Comics #172 (imaginary story), Batman #200 (brief bout with Batman in a Scarecrow story), Justice League of America #61 (one of a group of villains in the fight at the climax of a Dr Destiny story), and Batman #201 (plays a prominent role in an ensemble of Batman villains story). The last two were by Fox but not the others.
BATMAN #287 - "Batman-Ex -- As in Extinct!"
The Penguin uses robots of extinct birds or ancestors of birds, starting with a robot pterosaur, to commit crimes. The robot cracks out of a Napoleon statue at Gotham's La Galerie. Batman destroys the robot bird, but Penguin and his gang pull off a jewel robbery. Penguin sends an archeopteriz robot to panic the crowds at Gotham City Music Hall where a movie about Machiavelli is playing. Meanwhile, his gang robs a diner on 1805 Hamilton Street. Batman captures the crooks, but then learns of an attack on the schooner Nelson by a robot Diatryma.
BATMAN #288 - "The Little Men's Hall of Fame!"
The Penguin and his gang raid Royce chemicals plant since the chemical plant is located at Watt Street. Batman battles them and is about to win when Chester Cole, who is looking for Bruce Wayne, appears and defeats Batman. Batman awakens with Cole in the bottom of an empty chemical tank. Batman defeats Penguins mechanical birds.
Disclaimer: I don't have either of these books in my collection.
DETECTIVE COMICS #473:
I first read "The Malay Penguin" in 1985 in issue #3 of the Shadow of the Batman reprint series. Prior to today, I re-read it most recently in 2011 in the Legends of the Dark Knight: Marshall Rogers HC collection. Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers returned the Batman to the style of the 1940s in their run on Detective Comics, and there are still many people to this day who consider theirs to be the definitive version. [citation needed] The quality of the art is obvious, but reading this one issue out of the context of the rest of the storyline serves to emphacize the billiance of the story. The "Hugo Strange" strange story is winding down, but the underlying "Rupert Thorne" narrative serves to tie the individual stories together.
The Penguin has given Batman several false clues to lead him away from the crime he really has planned. I'm going to assume most of you reading this post have read this story, but if not, here's your chance to match wits with the Batman. The following clues will not be enough to solve the mystery, but they were enough to put the batman on the right track, at least: "We need still no longer! Time is on the wing! Tonight I shall lift the silver bird -- and you will take a dive!" and "Never pitch rolls at a bank!" Good luck!
The Penguin makes an appearance in the previous issue, Detective Comics #472, trying to buy Batman's secret identity but then hears the Joker's laugh. Knowing the Joker's change in attitude since the Silver Age, the Bold Bird of Banditry flies the coop!
Then he is shown in jail in Detective #474 where Deadshot swipes his escape device to break out of prison where he's been for twenty-five years to eventually become a fan favorite!
I almost missed one, but an offhand reference in "Requiem for 4 Canaries" ("When Robin recently nailed the Penguin...") led me to...
DETECTIVE COMICS #492: "The First Bird" is a little eight-page Robin solo story about the Penguin's attempt to steal a pterodactyl egg on display at Hudson University. There's not a whole lot to it, but it does serve as a springboard for...
THE BRAVE & THE BOLD #166:
There has been a jailbreak from Gotham Penitentiary. Among the missing is the Penguin. There wasn't much evidence against him in the "First Bird" case, so his four assistants, agreed to turn state's evidence in exchange for a lesser sentence. When they were released, they all moved to Star City, but the Penguin has vowed to kill them all. The first thing he does in Star City is to take over the local mob, and the second thing is to buy four live canaries as symbols of his revenge. This move will prove to be his downfall, as we shall see. His plan is to kill his former henchmen using "canary-themed" methods.
Batman is patronizing and condescending to BC throughout the story, but she doesn't realize it.
Trivia: Gotham Penitentia ryis located on the northeastern outskirts of Gotham city overlooking Franklin's Bog.
I wrote about this REALLY sexist story HERE!
Wow, six pages of discussion? Ah, those were the days! These days, I feel lucky if my posts get six views.
Well, we did go off-topic! I know! What a shock!
I can't believe that I wrote that you could replace Black Canary with Lois Lane in most Justice League issues and have the same story!
I mean. I still believe that but took such a chance of upsetting someone!
I think my reference to Jim Shooter was because of a (then-)recent discussion of Avengers #200. In any case, I just deleted it.
I probably would have said more about Black Canary here, but this is a Penguin discussion.
I didn’t think I’d read this one, but I remember the irritating scene where Batman intimidates the man Black Canary is questioning, which makes her look incompetent.
The handling of Black Canary reads as if Michael Fleisher based it on how she was written around the turn of the 1970s. Maybe he read those stories to learn about the character and didn't look at later ones. She was less assertive and formidable at that point, and rarely used her sonic scream. Justice League of America #84 and #88 dallied with attraction between Batman and the Canary. In The Brave and the Bold #91 she made a play for the Earth One Larry Lance, and her portrayal here particularly reminds me of that issue.
The present story strikes me as clearly a “remake” of “The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge!” from Batman #251. Fleisher likewise recycled “The Murder of Bruce Wayne!” from World's Finest Comics #58 in Batman #265 and El Papagayo from “Ride, Bat-Hombre, Ride!”, Batman #56 in “Jonah Hex”.
Fleisher wrote a Wonder Woman encyclopedia. The early “Wonder Woman” fairly often finds excuses for stripping women to their underwear, and the final act of the story employs its methods.
If it's not obvious, “the Divine Miss B”, was likely named for Bette Midler.
Binky Norell p.12 looks like he was drawn by Irv Novick. I could believe an unacknowledged party had a hand in the splash page, too.
Batman can't make out the woman's features in the alley, but he can see her hair isn't a wig? Does he moonlight as a perruquier?
She has a cyanide pellet in her mouth? She may not have thought that through.
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