First Penguin NFT

The Story

The Penguin, real name Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, first appeared in Detective Comics #58, cover-dated December 1941, created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. He arrived as a portly gentleman of crime with a top hat, a monocle, and a line of trick umbrellas, and he has stayed one of Batman's oldest and most durable enemies ever since. Where most Gotham villains lean on chaos, Cobblepot plays the long game through his Iceberg Lounge and his grip on the city's underworld, mixing aristocratic polish with real menace.

He travels well outside the comics. Burgess Meredith made him a household name on 1960s television, Danny DeVito played a grotesque version in Batman Returns, Robin Lord Taylor anchored years of Gotham, and Colin Farrell reinvented him for The Batman and the follow-up Penguin series. If you are searching who the Penguin is or where he first appeared, that Detective Comics #58 debut is the starting point, and this VeVe piece is his first step onto the blockchain.

The collectible renders Cobblepot in his signature kit: black top hat, pinstripe pants, monocle, and umbrella, caught mid-scheme. The grayscale Batman Black & White treatment strips out color so the sculpt and linework carry the whole read, from the sneer to the tilt of the umbrella. The pose is taken from a panel in Batman Black & White vol. 1, based on art by Brian Bolland.

Artist: Brian Bolland

Bolland is best known for illustrating Batman: The Killing Joke, one of the most studied Batman stories ever published, along with his long run of cover work for DC. His line is clean, precise, and controlled, the kind of art where every stroke feels placed on purpose. That sensibility suits a Black & White piece, where personality has to come through posture and expression instead of color or motion. Ray Villafane, a sculptor with a background in figure and character work, handled the 3D build.

Edition Breakdown

The Penguin is the Rare tier of the four-piece Batman Black & White Series 3 set that dropped the same day. The other three are a Bruce Timm Harley Quinn (Common), a Dick Sprang Batman (Uncommon), and an Amanda Conner Batman (Ultra Rare). Pull odds on the Penguin ran about 1 in 5.56, the scarcest slot short of the Ultra Rare.

Supply is fixed at 3,250 editions, one of the smallest counts in VeVe's early catalog. One has been burned, leaving 3,249 in circulation. For comparison, the first Joker and the Harley Quinn in this same era each had 7,500 editions, so the Penguin's run is well under half of theirs. No later variants of this piece were released, so this is the only version of the first Penguin NFT. Within the run, serial numbers matter: First Editions and low mints command premiums.

Market Context

This is a genesis-era drop, released while VeVe was only a couple of months old and the collector base was tiny next to today's. The small 3,250 supply is the whole story here. Some holders own multiples, so the number of copies actually listed at any moment is thin, and as VeVe's audience has grown into the millions, competition for a sub-4,000 first has tightened. List price was $43.99 with a 2.50% market fee.

Infrastructure has matured around these early pieces. VeVe completed its migration to the Collect blockchain in January 2026, StackR opened OMI trading in April 2025, and self-custody is rolling out. A first with this little supply is especially sensitive to any uptick in demand.

Collector's Note

For a Batman villain collector, this one is essential. The Penguin is among the oldest names in the rogues gallery, this is his only digital first on VeVe, and the Brian Bolland attribution plus the Black & White pedigree give it provenance most collectibles cannot claim. It is not flashy, no animation, no variants, but the 3,250 count carries the weight. It pairs naturally with the first Joker, Harley Quinn, and Catwoman NFTs.

You can browse listings on the VeVe secondary market, sometimes near or below the original retail. New to the app? Grab $10 off your first purchase before you start browsing.