The Joker first appeared in Batman #1, published by National Comics in spring 1940. Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson hold credit for the character. Conrad Veidt's role in the 1928 film The Man Who Laughs shaped the visual design. Editor Whitney Ellsworth kept the character after an early plan to kill him in his second story.
Golden Age, 1940 to 1954
Early Joker stories set a pattern. He announced crimes before he committed them. He used a toxin that left victims dead with a grin on the face. Batman #1 has him target Gotham's wealthy residents with poisoned cosmetics. The character appeared in roughly a dozen Batman stories in the 1940s.
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Comics Code years
The Comics Code Authority arrived in 1954. Joker stories shifted toward pranks and gags. Cesar Romero played the role in the 1966 ABC series Batman, with makeup applied over his mustache. The show pushed the comedic version into wide view.
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Return to menace
Batman #251 in 1973 ran "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge" by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams. The story restored the killer. A solo Joker series ran nine issues in 1975. Alan Moore and Brian Bolland released Batman: The Killing Joke in 1988. That book gave the Joker a possible origin and left the account open to doubt. Arkham Asylum as a setting for the character dates to 1974, in Batman #258.
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Film and television
Jack Nicholson played the Joker in Tim Burton's Batman (1989). Heath Ledger played the role in The Dark Knight (2008) and won a posthumous Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Joaquin Phoenix played Arthur Fleck in Joker (2019) and won Best Actor. The sequel Joker: Folie à Deux opened in 2024. Mark Hamill voiced the character in Batman: The Animated Series starting in 1992.
Recent comics
Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo wrote and drew the Joker across their Batman run from 2011 to 2016. Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok released Batman: Three Jokers in 2020. DC has not fixed a single origin story for the character in main continuity.