DC Comics

About DC Comics

DC Comics is an American comic book publisher, one of the oldest in the United States, that began in 1935 as National Allied Publications and introduced Superman and Batman.

Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson founded the company in New York, and its first title, New Fun, carried a February 1935 cover date. Through mergers and renamings it traded as Detective Comics, Inc., All-American Publications, National Comics Publications and National Periodical Publications, adopting DC Comics as its official name only in 1977, long after readers had used it informally. Superman first appeared in Action Comics No. 1 (June 1938) and Batman in Detective Comics No. 27 in 1939.

The company was independent until 1967, then owned by Kinney National, Warner Communications from 1972, Time Warner from 1990, WarnerMedia from 2018 and Warner Bros. Discovery from 2022. It was based in Manhattan until April 2015, when it moved to Burbank, California.

For book collectors its most important output is the graphic novel. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's Watchmen ran as twelve issues cover-dated September 1986 to October 1987 and was collected by DC in 1987. In 1993 DC launched Vertigo, an imprint for mature readers.