DC Comics is an American comic book publisher. It is part of DC Entertainment1, one of the companies that makes up Warner Bros. Entertainment, which in turn is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Founded in 1934 as National Allied Publications, it was renamed DC Comics in 1937.
Some of the most iconic characters include Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Arrow, Shazam, Martian Manhunter, Starfire, Nightwing, Raven, Semi Cyborg, Black Canary, Doctor Fate, Robin, Beastie Boy, Zatanna, Plastic Man, Catwoman, Supergirl, Joker and Harley Quinn. Their headquarters were historically located in New York City, but since 2015 they have relocated their offices to Burbank.
The publisher, National Allied Publications,3 owned by entrepreneur Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson4, first published a tabloid-sized magazine called The Big Comic Magazine, with a cover date of February 1935. 5 Beginning with the publisher’s second book, New Comics (December 1935), its publications began to have a size closer to that used in the so-called Golden Age of American comics, slightly larger than current comic magazines. 6 This last title would later become known as Adventure Comics and run until issue 503 in 1983, making it one of the longest-running series at the time.
In 1937, he became a partner at Wheeler-Nicholson to start publishing detective comics due to his debts to magazine publisher Harry Donenfeld’s printing house, It’s an anthology that’s mostly adventurous. That’s how publisher DC Comics (short for Detective Comics) was formed, with Wheeler-Nicholson and Jack Liebowitz (Donenfield’s accountant) as owners. Wheeler-Nicholson stayed with the company for a year, but his financial problems persisted and he was forced to resign. Shortly thereafter, DC Comics purchased what was left of National Allied in a bankruptcy auction.
Not long after, DC Comics released a new title, Action Comics, featuring Superman in its first issue. With its first issue’s cover date of June 1938, Action Comics was the first comic book magazine to feature the character whose prototype soon came to be known as the “superhero,” and it proved to be a bestseller. Publisher DC Comics will soon feature characters like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. DC Comics is a merger of three companies: National Allied Publications, Detective Comics, and All-African Pictures. The first two merged in the late 1930s to become National Comics (later known as National Periodicals), while the third shared part of the office until it was purchased by the first in 1945. At this point “DC” was just an informal logo, usually used on the covers of their publications.
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