The Brave and the Bold #81

Dec 1968 · DC · 0.12 USD

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“But Bork Can Hurt You!”

★ 1st appearance — Bork

About this Issue

The Brave and the Bold #81 marks the first appearance of Carl Bork, a Gotham dockworker turned near-indestructible crime boss whose unusual mystical power set him apart from the run-of-the-mill Silver Age villain. The issue also sits squarely within Neal Adams' formative nine-issue run on the title — a stretch that, beginning with #79, redefined how Batman looked and moved on the page and set the visual template for every grim, realistic Dark Knight to follow. That this particular issue pairs Adams' kinetic artwork with the narrative device of splitting the heroes' functions — Batman absorbs punishment while Flash races off on a globe-spanning detective mission — shows the creative team already pushing the team-up format beyond simple two-fisted slugfests. Its sustained reprint history across more than a dozen domestic and international collections confirms that readers and editors alike recognized it as a representative piece of Adams' early, career-defining Batman work.

writer Bob Haney · artist Neal Adams · inker Dick Giordano · inker Vince Colletta · cover Neal Adams

ComicBooks.com Value

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Raw (VG) $15

CGC 9.6 · 10 in census $713

CGC 9.4 · 19 in census $431

CGC 9.2 · 11 in census $203

CGC 9.0 · 18 in census $109

CGC 8.5 · 15 in census $109

CGC 8.0 · 8 in census $76*

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CGC 7.5 · 7 in census $60*

CGC 7.0 · 11 in census $46

CGC 6.5 · 5 in census $43

CGC 6.0 · 4 in census $41

CGC 5.5 · 4 in census $30*

CGC 5.0 none in existence

CGC 4.5 · 3 in census $23

CGC 4.0 · 1 in census $23*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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CGC 9.4 ▾ $500–$600 3 listings

CGC 9.4 $500 CGC 9.4 $520 CGC 9.4 $600

CGC 9.2 $250 1 listing CGC 8.5 $209 1 listing

Raw — VF ▾ $21.45–$36 2 listings

VF $21.45 VF $36

Raw — FN/VF ▾ $32–$60 2 listings

FN/VF $32 FN/VF $60

Raw — FN $22 1 listing

Raw — FINE ▾ $25–$27 2 listings

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Raw / ungraded ▾ $12.77–$72 15 listings

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History

Writer Bob Haney and penciller Neal Adams produced the story under editor Murray Boltinoff, with inking shared by Dick Giordano and Vince Colletta; Carmine Infantino — then DC's editorial director — and Adams collaborated on the cover, with lettering by Gaspar Saladino. The issue went on sale October 31, 1968, carrying a January 1969 cover date, placing it early in the concentrated Adams Batman run that Boltinoff had commissioned after Adams' breakthrough on #79. At the time, Adams was rapidly establishing himself as a force at DC: his realistic anatomy and dynamic page design were already attracting fan attention and award nominations, and Boltinoff's continued assignments gave him the platform to refine the darker, more naturalistic Batman that would soon migrate to the core Bat-titles.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance of Carl Bork (Carl 'King of the Docks' Bork), a criminal Gotham dockworker who gains physical invulnerability through a mystical wooden statue obtained on a South Pacific island.
Written by Bob Haney, pencilled by Neal Adams, inked by Dick Giordano and Vince Colletta, edited by Murray Boltinoff; cover pencilled by Carmine Infantino and Neal Adams, lettered by Gaspar Saladino.
Story title: 'But Bork Can Hurt You!' — the phrase spoken by Bork himself, also used verbatim on the cover blurb and later referenced in the Arrowverse television series 'The Flash.'
The plot divides hero roles structurally: Batman keeps Bork occupied in Gotham while the Flash tracks the source of the villain's power, ultimately destroying the enchanted statue by hurling it into the sun.
On-sale date: October 31, 1968; cover-dated January 1969; 12-cent cover price.
Bork was modernized and reintroduced in JLA #61 (February 2002) and subsequently joined the Power Company, a corporate heroes-for-hire team, extending his presence into the early 2000s DC Universe.
The story has been reprinted more than a dozen times, including in The Best of the Brave and the Bold #2 (1988), Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams Vol. 1 (2003), Showcase Presents: The Brave and the Bold Batman Team-Ups Vol. 1 (2007), and the Batman by Neal Adams Omnibus (2016), among multiple Scandinavian foreign-language editions from 1970 onward.
This issue is part of Neal Adams' nine-issue Brave and the Bold Batman run (#79–86, 93) — the run Wikipedia's history of the series identifies as the title's first sustained Neal Adams Batman work, generating the fan interest that led to Adams' style defining the modern Batman image.