Ask most collectors who published Cartoon Network comics and you will get one answer, usually whichever era they grew up with. The truth is that the licence has moved three times since 1997, each publisher did something completely different with it, and the books from each era are worth very different money.
Here is the whole thing, in order.
How DC got it in the first place
The starting point is a corporate merger rather than anything creative. When Time Warner merged with Turner Broadcasting in 1996, Cartoon Network came with it, and Time Warner already owned DC Comics. The licence effectively moved in house overnight. DC also picked up the Hanna-Barbera rights in the same shuffle, which had previously sat with Archie Comics.
The first book landed in August 1997: Cartoon Network Presents #1, leading with Dexter's Laboratory. That was the beginning of a fifteen year run.
The DC anthology years, 1997 to 2012
DC's approach was almost entirely anthology-based, and the titles changed name every few years as the network's line-up changed. The lineage runs:
- Cartoon Network Presents (1997), the original, multiple shows per issue
- Cartoon Network Starring, the second incarnation
- Cartoon Cartoons (2001 to 2004), back to the multi-show format, focused purely on Cartoon Network's own productions
- Cartoon Network Block Party (2004 to 2009), the humour-led shows
- Cartoon Network Action Pack (2006 to 2012), the action-led shows, running alongside Block Party
Two shows were big enough to escape the anthologies and earn their own ongoing titles: Dexter's Laboratory and The Powerpuff Girls. When those individual runs ended, the characters folded back into the anthologies, Powerpuff Girls into Block Party, the Rowdyruff Boys into Action Pack.
Why the anthologies matter more than they look
This is the part worth knowing if you are sorting a box of them, because those anthologies contain comic book debuts for a lot of shows that never got their own title.
Cartoon Cartoons carried the first comic appearances of Ed, Edd n Eddy, Courage the Cowardly Dog, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Codename: Kids Next Door. Block Party did the same for Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Camp Lazlo, My Gym Partner's a Monkey and Chowder.
Nobody put these away in bags and boards. They were bought by children, read repeatedly, and thrown out in their millions. High grade copies of specific issues are genuinely harder to find than the print runs would suggest, which is the same dynamic that makes early Simpsons books from Bongo worth more than people expect.
Then it stopped, and something much bigger started
Block Party was cancelled in 2009. Action Pack held on until 2012. That was the end of DC's fifteen year run, and it happened just as the licence was about to produce the most successful all-ages comics of the decade.
The BOOM! Studios era, and the biggest IP by a distance
In February 2012, BOOM! Studios launched Adventure Time through its all-ages imprint KaBOOM!. It is not close: this is the biggest thing Cartoon Network comics have ever produced.
The evidence rather than the enthusiasm:
- The first two issues sold out of multiple print runs almost immediately
- It became a New York Times bestselling comic and graphic novel line
- It won Eisner, Harvey and Diamond Gem awards
- Alongside Regular Show, which followed in 2013, it broke sales records for all-ages comic publishing
The creative side explains a lot of that. The first 35 issues were written by Ryan North, later of Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, with Christopher Hastings taking over afterwards. The line pulled in an extraordinary roster of independent talent, including N.D. Stevenson, Lucy Knisley, Jim Rugg and Kate Leth. This was not a cheap licensed cash-in drawn by whoever was available, and that is precisely why it sold.
KaBOOM! built out the whole line around it: Regular Show, Steven Universe, Over the Garden Wall, Clarence, plus Adventure Time spin-offs including Marceline and the Scream Queens and Fionna & Cake.
The UK detail most collectors miss
In Britain, the BOOM! Adventure Time comics were published by Titan Comics. That means UK collectors may hold Titan editions rather than the American BOOM! printings, and they are not the same books. If you are buying or selling, check the publisher on the indicia rather than assuming, because listings conflate the two constantly and the US first printings are the ones with the collector premium.
When it peaked, and when it stopped
The peak runs roughly 2012 to 2016, while the show was at its cultural height and the comic was pulling in readers who did not otherwise buy comics at all.
The decline follows the show. The main Adventure Time series ran from 2012 to 2018, ending at issue 75. The cartoon finished in 2018, and BOOM! launched Adventure Time: Season 11 that October as a twelve issue continuation. It was cut short after six. BOOM!'s final Adventure Time publication came in 2020, and then the line simply stopped.
That is the honest answer to why it ended: licensed comics live and die with the show. Once the series wrapped and the audience moved on, the comics had nothing new to attach to. Season 11 being cancelled halfway through tells you the demand had already gone before the line formally closed.
What followed was roughly a four year silence with no new Adventure Time comics at all, and the back catalogue out of print.
The Oni Press revival, 2024 onwards
In February 2024, Oni Press announced a partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery Global Consumer Products and Cartoon Network, taking the Adventure Time licence from BOOM!.
They started with the back catalogue. Adventure Time Compendium Vol. 1 arrived in October 2024, collecting the entire 35 issue Ryan North run, followed by The Fionna and Cake Compendium in November. Then in April 2025 came an all-new Adventure Time series, the first new comics in more than five years, written as a continuity reboot of both the 2012 comic and the show.
The timing was not accidental. Fionna and Cake landed on streaming in 2023 to strong reviews and a second season, which put the property back in front of an audience. The comics followed the attention, exactly as they always have.
What this means if you have a box of them
- Know which era you are holding. A DC anthology from 2003, a BOOM! Adventure Time from 2012 and an Oni compendium from 2024 are three completely different markets. They are not interchangeable and should never be lumped together in one listing.
- Adventure Time #1 from 2012 is the one to look for, and specifically a first printing, given how many reprints followed. Later printings are worth a fraction.
- Check for Titan versus BOOM! on anything bought in the UK. This is the single most common misidentification in this corner of the market.
- The DC anthologies are undervalued as a group but not individually. Most issues are common. The ones that carry a first comic appearance for a show are the ones worth pulling out.
- Condition matters more than usual. These were children's comics in the truest sense. Almost nobody preserved them, so genuinely high grade copies are scarce regardless of how many were printed.
The short version
DC held the Cartoon Network licence from 1997 to 2012 and published it almost entirely as anthologies, which is where a lot of first comic appearances are buried. BOOM! Studios took over in 2012 and produced Adventure Time, the most commercially successful Cartoon Network comic ever made and a genuine award winner. It declined with the show, was cut short in 2018 and stopped in 2020. Oni Press revived it in 2024 and launched a new series in 2025. In the UK, Titan published the BOOM! material, which is worth checking before you buy.