DC Comics

Name	DC Comics
Image
Caption	Logo used since 2024
Status	Active
Country	United States
Headquarters	4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California
Publications	List of publications
Numemployees	approx. 230
Genre	Superhero Fantasy Science fiction Action Adventure
Imprints	List of imprints
Website	https://dc.com/

History

National Allied Publications

National Allied Publications

Golden Age

Golden Age of Comic Books

Pioneers of DC Comics who started in the 1930s
Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson	Jerry Siegel	Joe Shuster	Bob Kane	Bill Finger	Sheldon Mayer	Gardner Fox
Founder of DC Comics	Creators of Superman and Lois Lane		Creators of Batman and the Joker		Early founder	Created various characters

Silver Age

Silver Age of Comic Books
In the mid-1950s, editorial director Irwin Donenfeld and publisher Liebowitz directed editor Julius Schwartz (whose roots lay in the science-fiction book market) to produce a one-shot Flash story in the try-out title Showcase. Instead of reviving the old character, Schwartz had writers Robert Kanigher and John Broome, penciler Carmine Infantino, and inker Joe Kubert create Barry Allen, an entirely new super-speedster with a science-fiction bent. The Flash's reimagining in Showcase #4 (October 1956) proved sufficiently popular that it soon led to a similar revamping of the Green Lantern character, the introduction of the modern all-star team Justice League of America (JLA), and many more superheroes, heralding what historians and fans call the Silver Age of Comic Books.

National radically overhauled its continuing characters—primarily Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman—rather than just reimagining them. The Superman family of titles, under editor Mort Weisinger, introduced such enduring characters as Supergirl, Bizarro, and Brainiac. The Batman titles, under editor Jack Schiff, introduced the successful Batwoman, Bat-Girl, Ace the Bat-Hound, and Bat-Mite in an attempt to modernize the strip with non-science-fiction elements. Schwartz and Infantino revitalized Batman in what the company promoted as the "New Look", with relatively down-to-earth stories re-emphasizing Batman as a detective. Meanwhile, editor Kanigher successfully introduced a whole family of Wonder Woman characters having fantastic adventures in a mythical realm.

Since the 1940s, when Superman, Batman, and many of the company's other heroes began appearing in stories together, DC's characters have inhabited a shared continuity that was later dubbed the "DC Universe" by fans. With the story "Flash of Two Worlds", in Flash #123 (September 1961), editor Schwartz (with writer Gardner Fox and artists Infantino and Joe Giella) presented a conceptual mechanism for slotting the 1930s and 1940s Golden Age heroes into this continuity using the explanation that they inhabited an other-dimensional "Earth 2", whilst the modern heroes exist on "Earth 1", consequently laying the foundations of what was later called the DC Multiverse.

National Periodical Publications

DC's introduction of the reimagined superheroes did not go unnoticed by their competitors. In 1961, with DC's JLA as the specific inducement, Marvel Comics' writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby ushered in the sub-Silver Age "Marvel Age" of comics with the debut issue of The Fantastic Four. Reportedly, DC dismissed the initial success of Marvel's editorial change until its consistently strengthening sales—albeit also benefiting DC's parent company Independent News, as Marvel's distributor—made it impossible to ignore. This commercial situation was highlighted by Marvel's superior sell-through percentage numbers which were typically 70% to DC's roughly 50%, meaning that DC's publications were barely making a profit after returns from the distributors were factored in, while Marvel was making a healthy profit by comparison. Also in 1961, both DC and Marvel increased their cover price from ten cents to twelve cents, while the rival publisher Dell Comics was charging fifteen cents.

At this time, the senior DC staff were reportedly unable to explain how this small publishing house was achieving its increasingly threatening commercial strength. For instance, when Marvel's product was examined in a meeting, the emphasis on more sophisticated character-based narrative and artist-driven visual storytelling was apparently overlooked. Instead, superficial reasons were put forward to account for the brand's popularity, like the presence of the color red or word balloons on the cover, or that the perceived crudeness of the interior art was somehow more appealing to readers. When Lee learned about DC's subsequent experimental attempts to imitate these perceived details, he amused himself by arranging direct defiance of those assumptions in Marvel's publications as sales strengthened further to frustrate the competition.

However, this ignorance of Marvel's true appeal did not extend to some of the writing talent during this period, and attempts were made to emulate Marvel's narrative approach. For instance, there was the Doom Patrol series by Arnold Drake (who had previously warned DC's management about Marvel's strength), a superhero team of outsiders who resented their freakish powers, which Drake later speculated was plagiarized by Stan Lee to create The X-Men. There was also the young Jim Shooter who purposely emulated Marvel's writing when he wrote for DC after studying both companies' styles, such as for the Legion of Super-Heroes feature. In 1966, National Periodical Publications established its own television arm, led by Allen Ducovny, to develop and produce TV projects, with Superman TV Corporation handling the distribution of NPP's shows.

A 1966 Batman TV show on the ABC network sparked a temporary spike in comic book sales and a brief fad for superheroes in Saturday morning animation (Filmation produced most of DC's initial cartoons) and other media. DC significantly lightened the tone of many of its comics—particularly Batman and Detective Comics—to better complement the "camp" tone of the TV series. This change in tone coincided with the prominent "Go-Go Checks" cover-dress that featured a black-and-white checkered strip at the top of each DC comic (all cover dates between February 1966 and August 1967), a misguided attempt by then-managing editor Irwin Donenfeld to make DC's output "stand out on the newsracks". In particular, DC artist Carmine Infantino complained that the distinctive cover made it easier for readers to spot DC's titles and avoid them in favor of Marvel's titles.

In 1967, Infantino (who had designed popular Silver Age characters Batgirl and the Phantom Stranger) rose from art director to become DC's editorial director. With the growing popularity of upstart rival Marvel Comics threatening to topple DC from its longtime number-one position in the comics industry, he tried to direct DC's focus towards marketing new and existing titles and characters with more adult sensibilities, aimed at an emerging older age group of superhero comic book fans; this was in response to Marvel's efforts to market their superhero line to college-aged adults. Infantino also recruited major talents such as ex-Marvel artist and Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko, and promising newcomers Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil, and he replaced some existing DC editors with artist-editors, including Joe Kubert and Dick Giordano, to give DC's output a more artistic critical eye.

Kinney National / Warner Communications (1967–1990)

In 1967, National Periodical Publications was purchased by Kinney National Company, which purchased Warner Bros.-Seven Arts in 1969. Kinney National spun off its non-entertainment assets in 1972 (as National Kinney Corporation) and changed its name to Warner Communications Inc.
In 1970, Jack Kirby moved from Marvel Comics to DC, at the end of the Silver Age of Comics, in which Kirby's contributions to Marvel played a large, integral role.

As artist Gil Kane described: "Jack was the single most influential figure in the turnaround in Marvel's fortunes from the time he rejoined the company ... It wasn't merely that Jack conceived most of the characters that are being done, but ... Jack's point of view and philosophy of drawing became the governing philosophy of the entire publishing company and, beyond the publishing company, of the entire field ... took Jack and used him as a primer. They would get artists ... and they taught them the ABCs, which amounted to learning Jack Kirby ... Jack was like the Holy Scripture and they simply had to follow him without deviation. That's what was told to me ... It was how they taught everyone to reconcile all those opposing attitudes to one single master point of view."

Given carte blanche to write and illustrate his own stories, he created a handful of thematically-linked series he called collectively "The Fourth World". In the existing series Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen and in his own, newly-launched series New Gods, Mister Miracle, and The Forever People, Kirby introduced such enduring characters and concepts as arch-villain Darkseid and the other-dimensional realm Apokolips. Furthermore, Kirby intended their stories to be reprinted in collected editions, in a publishing format that was later called the trade paperback, which became a standard industry practice decades later. While sales were respectable, they did not meet DC management's initially high expectations, and also suffered from a lack of comprehension and internal support from Infantino. By 1973 the "Fourth World" was all cancelled, although Kirby's conceptions soon became integral to the broadening of the DC Universe, especially after the major toy-company, Kenner Products, judged them ideal for their action-figure adaptation of the DC Universe, the Super Powers Collection. Obligated by his contract, Kirby created other unrelated series for DC, including Kamandi, The Demon, and OMAC, before ultimately returning to Marvel Comics in 1976.

Bronze Age

Bronze Age of Comic Books
Following the science-fiction innovations of the Silver Age, the comics of the 1970s and 1980s became known as the Bronze Age, as fantasy gave way to more naturalistic and sometimes darker themes. Illegal drug use, banned by the Comics Code Authority, explicitly appeared in comics for the first time in Marvel Comics' story "Green Goblin Reborn!" in The Amazing Spider-Man #96 (May 1971), and after the Code's updating in response, DC offered a drug-fueled storyline in writer Dennis O'Neil and artist Neal Adams' Green Lantern, beginning with the story "Snowbirds Don't Fly" in the retitled Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85 (September 1971), which depicted Speedy, the teen sidekick of superhero archer Green Arrow, as having become a heroin addict.

Jenette Kahn, a former children's magazine publisher, replaced Infantino as editorial director in January 1976. As it happened, her first task even before being formally hired, was to convince Bill Sarnoff, the head of Warner Publishing, to keep DC as a publishing concern, as opposed to simply managing their licensing of their properties. With that established, DC had attempted to compete with the now-surging Marvel by dramatically increasing its output and attempting to win the market by flooding it. This included launching series featuring such new characters as Firestorm and Shade, the Changing Man, as well as an increasing array of non-superhero titles, in an attempt to recapture the pre-Wertham days of post-War comicdom.

DC Comics

In 1977, the company officially changed its name to DC Comics. It had used the brand "Superman-DC" since the 1950s, and was colloquially known as DC Comics for years.

In June 1978, five months before the release of the first Superman film, Kahn expanded the line further, increasing the number of titles and story pages, and raising the price from 35 cents to 50 cents. Most series received eight-page back-up features while some had full-length twenty-five-page stories. This was a move the company called the "DC Explosion". The move was not successful, however, and corporate parent Warner dramatically cut back on these largely unsuccessful titles, firing many staffers in what industry watchers dubbed "the DC Implosion". In September 1978, the line was dramatically reduced and standard-size books returned to 17-page stories but for a still increased 40 cents. By 1980, the books returned to 50 cents with a 25-page story count but the story pages replaced house ads in the books.

Seeking new ways to boost market share, the new team of publisher Kahn, vice president Paul Levitz, and managing editor Giordano addressed the issue of talent instability. To that end—and following the example of Atlas/Seaboard Comics and such independent companies as Eclipse Comics—DC began to offer royalties in place of the industry-standard work-for-hire agreement in which creators worked for a flat fee and signed away all rights, giving talent a financial incentive tied to the success of their work. As it happened, the implementation of these incentives proved opportune considering Marvel Comics' Editor-in-Chief, Jim Shooter, was alienating much of his company's creative staff with his authoritarian manner and major talents there went to DC like Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, Marv Wolfman, and George Pérez.

In addition, emulating the era's new television form, the miniseries while addressing the matter of an excessive number of ongoing titles fizzling out within a few issues of their start, DC created the industry concept of the comic book limited series. This publishing format allowed for the deliberate creation of finite storylines within a more flexible publishing format that could showcase creations without forcing the talent into unsustainable open-ended commitments. The first such title was World of Krypton in 1979, and its positive results led to subsequent similar titles and later more ambitious productions like Camelot 3000 for the direct market in 1982.

These changes in policy shaped the future of the medium as a whole, and in the short term allowed DC to entice creators away from rival Marvel, and encourage stability on individual titles. In November 1980 DC launched the ongoing series The New Teen Titans, by writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez, two popular talents with a history of success. Their superhero-team comic, superficially similar to Marvel's ensemble series X-Men, but rooted in DC history, earned significant sales in part due to the stability of the creative team, who both continued with the title for six full years. In addition, Wolfman and Pérez took advantage of the limited-series option to create a spin-off title, Tales of the New Teen Titans, to present origin stories of their original characters without having to break the narrative flow of the main series or oblige them to double their work load with another ongoing title.

Modern Age

Modern Age of Comic Books
This successful revitalization of the Silver Age Teen Titans led DC's editors to seek the same for the wider DC Universe. The result, the Wolfman/Pérez 12-issue limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, gave the company an opportunity to realign and jettison some of the characters' complicated backstory and continuity discrepancies. A companion publication, two volumes entitled The History of the DC Universe, set out the revised history of the major DC characters. Crisis featured many key deaths that shaped the DC Universe for the following decades, and it separated the timeline of DC publications into pre- and post-"Crisis".

Meanwhile, a parallel update had started in the non-superhero and horror titles. Since early 1984, the work of British writer Alan Moore had revitalized the horror series The Saga of the Swamp Thing, and soon numerous British writers, including Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison, began freelancing for the company. The resulting influx of sophisticated horror-fantasy material led to DC in 1993 establishing the Vertigo mature-readers imprint, which did not subscribe to the Comics Code Authority.

Two DC limited series, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller and Watchmen by Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, drew attention in the mainstream press for their dark psychological complexity and promotion of the antihero. These titles helped pave the way for comics to be more widely accepted in literary-criticism circles and to make inroads into the book industry, with collected editions of these series as commercially successful trade paperbacks.

The mid-1980s also saw the end of many long-running DC war comics, including series that had been in print since the 1960s. These titles, all with over 100 issues, included Sgt. Rock, G.I. Combat, The Unknown Soldier, and Weird War Tales.

Time Warner / Time Warner Entertainment / AOL Time Warner (1990–2018)

In March 1989, Warner Communications merged with Time Inc., making DC Comics a subsidiary of Time Warner. In June, the first Tim Burton-directed Batman film was released, and DC began publishing its hardcover series of DC Archive Editions; these were collections of many of their early, key comics series, featuring rare and expensive stories previously unseen by the majority of modern fans. Much of the restoration work was handled by Rick Keene, with colour restoration performed by DC's long-time resident colourist Bob LeRose. The Archive Editions attempted to retroactively credit many of the writers and artists who had worked for DC without receiving much recognition during the early age of comic books when individual credits were rare.

The comics industry experienced a brief boom in the early 1990s, thanks to a combination of speculative purchasing—mass purchase of the books as collectible items, with the intention to resell at a higher value (as the rising value of older issues was thought to imply that all comics would rise dramatically in price)—and several storylines gaining attention from the mainstream media. DC's extended storylines in which Superman was killed, Batman was crippled, and Green Lantern turned into the supervillain Parallax, resulted in dramatically increased sales. However, the increases were temporary, and sales dropped off as the industry went into a major slump, while manufactured "collectables" numbering in the millions replaced quality with quantity until fans and speculators alike deserted the medium in droves.

DC's Piranha Press and other imprints (including the mature readers' line Vertigo, and Helix, a short-lived science fiction imprint) were introduced to facilitate compartmentalized diversification and allow for specialized marketing of individual product lines. They increased the use of non-traditional contractual arrangements, including the dramatic rise of creator-owned projects, leading to a significant increase in critically lauded work (much of it for Vertigo) and the licensing of material from other companies. DC also increased publication of book-store friendly formats, including trade paperback collections of individual serial comics, as well as original graphic novels.

One of the other imprints was Impact Comics from 1991 to 1992 in which the Archie Comics superheroes were licensed and revamped. The stories in the line were part of its own shared universe.

DC entered into a publishing agreement with Milestone Media that gave DC a line of comics featuring a culturally and racially diverse range of superhero characters. Although the Milestone line ceased publication after a few years, it yielded the popular animated series Static Shock. DC established Paradox Press to publish material such as the large-format Big Book of... series of multi-artist interpretations on individual themes, and such crime fiction as the graphic novel Road to Perdition. In 1998, DC purchased WildStorm Comics, Jim Lee's imprint under the Image Comics banner, continuing it for many years as a wholly separate imprint (and fictional universe) with its own unique style and audience. As part of this purchase, DC also began to publish titles under the fledgling WildStorm sub-imprint America's Best Comics (ABC), a series of titles created by Alan Moore which included The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Tom Strong, and Promethea. Moore strongly opposed this move, and DC eventually stopped publishing ABC.

In March 2003, DC acquired publishing and merchandising rights to the long-running fantasy series Elfquest, previously self-published by creators Wendy and Richard Pini under their WaRP Graphics publication banner. This series then followed another non-DC title, Tower Comics' series T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, in collection into DC Archive Editions. In 2004, DC temporarily acquired the North American publishing rights to graphic novels from European publishers 2000 AD and Humanoids. It also rebranded its younger-audience titles with the mascot Johnny DC and established the CMX imprint to reprint translated manga. In 2006, CMX took over from Dark Horse Comics' publication of the webcomic Megatokyo in print form. DC also took advantage of the demise of Kitchen Sink Press and acquired the rights to much of the work of Will Eisner, such as his The Spirit series and his graphic novels.

In 2004, DC began laying the groundwork for a full continuity-reshuffling sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths, promising substantial changes to the DC Universe (and side-stepping the 1994 Zero Hour: Crisis in Time! event, which similarly tried to retcon the history of the DCU). In 2005, the critically lauded Batman Begins film was released; also, the company published several limited series establishing increasingly escalating conflicts among DC's heroes, with events climaxing in the Infinite Crisis limited series. Immediately after this event, DC's ongoing series jumped forward a full year in their in-story continuity, as DC launched a weekly series, 52, to gradually fill in the missing time. Concurrently, DC lost the copyright to "Superboy" (while retaining the trademark) when the heirs of Jerry Siegel used a provision of the 1976 revision to the copyright law to regain ownership.

In 2005, DC launched its "All-Star" line (evoking the title of the 1940s publication), designed to feature some of the company's best-known characters in stories that eschewed the long and convoluted continuity of the DC Universe. The line began with All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder and All-Star Superman, while All-Star Wonder Woman and All-Star Batgirl were announced in 2006, but neither of these stories had been released or scheduled as of 2025.

By 2007, DC was licensing characters from the Archie Comics imprint Red Circle Comics. They appeared in the Red Circle line, based in the DC Universe, with a series of one-shots followed by a miniseries that led into two ongoing titles that each lasted for ten issues.

DC Entertainment

In 2011, DC rebooted all of its running titles following the Flashpoint storyline. The reboot called The New 52 gave new origin stories and costume designs to many of DC's characters.

DC licensed pulp characters including Doc Savage and the Spirit which it then used, along with some DC heroes, as part of the First Wave comics line launched in 2010 and lasting through fall 2011.

In May 2011, DC announced it would begin releasing digital versions of their comics on the same day as paper versions.

On June 1, 2011, DC announced that it would end all ongoing series set in the DC Universe in August and relaunch its comic line with 52 issue #1s, starting with Justice League on August 31 (written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Jim Lee), with the rest to follow later on in September.

On June 4, 2013, DC started DC² and DC² Multiverse. DC² was for Batman '66 while DC² Multiverse was for Batman: Arkham Origins.

In 2014, DC announced an eight-issue miniseries titled Convergence which began in April 2015.

In 2016, DC announced a line-wide relaunch titled DC Rebirth. The new line would launch with an 80-page one-shot titled DC Universe: Rebirth, written by Geoff Johns, with art from Gary Frank, Ethan Van Sciver, and more. After that, many new series would launch with a twice-monthly release schedule and new creative teams for nearly every title. The relaunch was meant to bring back the legacy and heart many felt had been missing from DC characters since the launch of the New 52. Rebirth brought huge success, both financially and critically.

In January 2018, DC held an event in the now-defunct Newseum in Washington D.C.. The event featured a pop-up shop with autograph opportunities, panel discussions with stars and producers from Arrow, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, Gotham, Supergirl, and Freedom Fighters: The Ray, comic book authors and artists, and premiere screenings of Black Lightning and Batman: Gotham By Gaslight.

WarnerMedia / Warner Bros. Discovery unit (2018–present)

On February 21, 2020, the Co-Publisher of DC Comics, Dan DiDio stepped down after 10 years at that position. The company did not give a reason for the move, nor did it indicate whether it was his decision or the company's. The leadership change was the latest event in the company restructuring which began the previous month, as several top executives were laid off from the company. However, Bleeding Cool reported that he was fired.

In June 2020, Warner Bros. announced a separate DC-themed online-only convention. Known as DC FanDome, the free "immersive virtual fan experience" was a 24-hour-long event held on August 22, 2020. The main presentation, entitled "DC FanDome: Hall of Heroes", was held as scheduled on August 22. The remaining programming was provided through a one-day video on demand experience, "DC FanDome: Explore the Multiverse", on September 12.

As Warner Bros. and DC's response to San Diego Comic-Con's cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the convention featured information about DC-based content including the DC Extended Universe film franchise, the Arrowverse television franchise, comic books, and video games. The convention also returned for the virtual premiere of Wonder Woman 1984 and returned once again on October 16, 2021.

In August 2020, roughly one-third of DC's editorial ranks were laid off, including the editor-in-chief, senior story editor, executive editor, and several senior VPs.

In March 2021, DC relaunched their entire line once again under the banner of Infinite Frontier. After the events of the Dark Nights: Death Metal storyline, the DC Multiverse was expanded into a larger "Omniverse" where everything is canon, effectively reversing the changes The New 52 introduced a decade prior.

Furthermore, AT&T spun off WarnerMedia to Discovery, forming Warner Bros. Discovery. This merger was completed on April 8, 2022.

In January 2023, DC relaunched their line under the banner of Dawn of DC following the conclusion of Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths and Lazarus Planet. Later that year, Jim Lee was promoted to President of DC in May.

Logo

• The November 1941 DC titles introduced an updated logo. This was almost twice the size of the previous version and the first with a white background. The name "Superman" was added to "A DC Publication", effectively acknowledging both Superman and Batman. This logo was the first to occupy the top-left corner of the cover, which is where the logo has generally resided ever since. The company began to refer to itself in its advertising as "Superman-DC".
• When Jenette Kahn became DC's publisher in late 1976, she commissioned graphic designer Milton Glaser to design a new company logo. Popularly referred to as the "DC bullet", this logo premiered on the February 1977 titles. Although it varied in size and colour, was at times cropped by the edges of the cover, and was briefly rotated by 4degrees, the logo remained essentially unchanged for almost three decades. Despite the various logo changes since 2005, the old "DC bullet" continues to be used only on the DC Archive Editions series.
• On May 8, 2005, a new logo (dubbed the "DC spin") was unveiled, debuting on DC titles in June 2005 with DC Special: The Return of Donna Troy No.1 and the rest of the titles the following week. As well as being used for comics, the new logo was designed for DC properties in other media, including films since Batman Begins (with Superman Returns showing the logo's normal variant), the TV series Smallville, the animated series Justice League Unlimited and others, as well as for collectibles and other merchandise. The "DC Spin" logo was designed by Josh Beatman of Brainchild Studios and DC executive Richard Bruning.
• In March 2012, DC unveiled a new logo designed by Landor Associates, which consists of a letter "D" peeling back to reveal the letter "C". The logo was intended to signify the concept of superheroes having "dual" identities and was adaptable across different mediums.
• In May 2016, in conjunction with the DC Rebirth, DC replaced the "peel" logo with a circular logo reminiscent of the 1972 logo.
• In July 2024, an updated version of Glaser's 1977 "Bullet" logo was unveiled during San Diego Comic-Con, as well as an accompanying intro sequence featuring Superman for DC Studios.

Gallery

Imprints

List of DC Comics imprints

Active

• DC (1937–present)
• Elseworlds (1989–2010, 2024–present)
• Vertigo Comics (1993–2020, 2024–present)
• Sandman Universe (2018–present)
• WildStorm (1999–2010, 2017–present)
• Earth-M (1993–1997, 2018–present)
• DC Black Label (2018–present)
• Hill House Comics (2019–present)
• DC Graphic Novels for Young Adults (2020–present)
• DC Graphic Novels for Kids (2020–present)
• DC Horror (2021–present)
• DC Compact Comics (2024–present)
• DC All In (2024–present)
• Mad (1953–present)

Defunct

• DC Archive Editions (1989–2014; replaced by DC Omnibus)
• Piranha Press (1989–1993; renamed Paradox Press)
• Impact Comics (1991–1993; licensed from Archie Comics)
• Amalgam Comics (1996–1997; jointly with Marvel Comics)
• Helix (1996–1998; merged with Vertigo)
• Tangent Comics (1997–1998)
• Paradox Press (1998–2003)
• WildStorm Productions (1999–2010)
• America's Best Comics (1999–2005)
• Homage Comics (1999–2004; merged to form WildStorm Signature)
• Cliffhanger (1999–2004; merged to form WildStorm Signature)
• WildStorm Signature (2004–2006; merged with main WildStorm line)
• CMX Manga (2004–2010)
• DC Focus (2004–2005; merged with main DC line)
• Johnny DC (2004–2012)
• All Star (2005–2008)
• Minx (2007–2008)
• Zuda Comics (2007–2010)
• First Wave (2010–2011; licensed from Condé Nast Publications and Will Eisner Library)
• Young Animal (2016–2021)
• DC Ink (2019; replaced by DC Graphic Novels for Young Adults)
• DC Zoom (2019; replaced by DC Graphic Novels for Kids)
• Wonder Comics (2019–2021)

See also

• Batman Day
• DC Collectibles
• DC Cosmic Cards
• DC Extended Universe
• DC Studios
• List of comics characters which originated in other media
• List of current DC Comics publications
• Lists of DC Comics characters
• List of films based on DC Comics publications
• List of television series based on DC Comics publications
• List of unproduced DC Comics projects
• List of video games based on DC Comics
• Publication history of DC Comics crossover events

Notes

Citations

• DC Publishing Laying Off 3 Percent of Its Workforce, The Hollywood Reporter, January 23, 2019, August 13, 2020, McMillan, Graeme, September 18, 2020, live
• Time Warner Inc., March 31, 1994, Form 10-K, I-35, live, United States Securities and Exchange Commission, February 24, 2017
• Brent Lang, Matt Donnelly, April 14, 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery Exploring Overhaul of DC Entertainment (EXCLUSIVE), April 17, 2022, Variety, en-US, April 14, 2022, live
• June 1, 2022, Inside David Zaslav's Overhaul of the Warner Bros. Movie Division , , Analysis, Fuster, Jeremy, Gonzalez, Umberto, TheWrap, June 5, 2022, en-US, June 5, 2022, live
• Jung, Michael, May 7, 2020, What Does DC Comics Stand For?, March 2, 2024, ScreenRant, en, April 29, 2021, live
• Galloway, Ryan, July 5, 2021, What Was The First DC Comic?, September 11, 2021, We Got This Covered, en-US, September 11, 2021, live
• The Impact Of The Flash On The Superhero Genre And Pop Culture, COGconnected, June 2023, The Flash is a significant superhero in the DC Universe. However, the hero has made a huge impact on other parts of the pop culture as well.
• Skryabin, Valentin Yurievich, Analysing Joker: an attempt to establish diagnosis for a film icon, BJPsych Bulletin, 45, 6, 329–332, December 2021, 10.1192/bjb.2020.146, 33407973, The Joker is considered one of the most recognisable and iconic fictional characters in popular culture and one of the best comic villains., 8727382
• DC Comics Inc., dead, September 21, 2008, hoovers.com/dc-comics-inc., October 18, 2008
• Miller, John, 2017 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops, Comichron, January 23, 2018, Share of Overall Units—Marvel 38.30%, DC 33.93%; Share of Overall Dollars—Marvel 36.36%, DC 30.07%, January 23, 2018
• Viz Manga Sales are Destroying DC, Marvel in Comic Market, Magulick, Aaron, goboiano.com, October 8, 2017, October 10, 2017, dead, October 10, 2017
• Ron Goulart's Great History of Comics Books, Ron, Goulart, Ron Goulart, Contemporary Press, 1986
• Benton, Mike, The Comic Book in America: An Illustrated History, Dallas, Texas, Taylor Publishing, 1989, 17–18
• The 100 Most Influential Pages in Comic Book History, Vulture, February 22, 2020, April 16, 2018, June 24, 2020, live
• New Fun, #1 (Feb. 1935), Grand Comics Database
• Wolk, Douglas, 75 Years of the First Comic Book Superhero (It's Not Who You Think), Time, February 22, 2020, July 5, 2010, February 22, 2020, live
• Wilson, John, 10 Things Everyone Forgets About DC's Dr. Occult, CBR, February 22, 2020, December 16, 2019, February 22, 2020, live
• New Comics, December 31, 2012, live, Grand Comics Database
• Fertig, Mark, Take That, Adolf!: The Fighting Comic Books of the Second World War, Fantagraphics Books, 2017
• Klein, Todd, July 8, 2013, The DC Comics Offices 1930s–1950s Part 1, July 1, 2024, Todd's Blog, en-US, July 1, 2024, live
• Superman's debut sells for $1M at auction, Associated Press, Crain's New York Business, February 22, 2010, March 11, 2010, live
• Wallace, Daniel, Dolan, Hannah, 1930s, DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle, Dorling Kindersley, 2010, London, United Kingdom
• Cronin, Brian, Who Was the First Comic Book Masked Vigilante?, CBR, February 22, 2020, January 20, 2018, February 22, 2020, live
• Hall, Richard A., The American Superhero: Encyclopedia of Caped Crusaders in History, 2019, ABC-CLIO, en
• Wallace, Daniel, Superman: The Ultimate Guide to the Man of Steel, Dorling Kindersley, 2013, London, United Kingdom
• Jimmy Olsen, dcuniverse.com, February 22, 2020, February 22, 2020, live
• Superman: The Golden Age Sundays 1943–1946, Tumey, Paul, The Comics Journal, April 3, 2019, May 29, 2014, live
• Batman – The Complete History: The Life and Times of the Dark Knight, Les, Daniels, 2004, Chronicle Books
• Don Markstein's Toonopedia: The Red Tornado, toonopedia.com, February 23, 2020, May 28, 2024, live
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External links

• Mike's Amazing World of Comics
• DC Database Fandom