DC Comics

DC Comics traces to National Allied Publications, founded in 1934 by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, whose New Fun #1 (February 1935) was the first American comic book built entirely from original material rather than newspaper strip reprints.

Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz took control in 1938 and folded the company into Detective Comics, Inc., the title that supplied the DC initials. The next three years established the line: Superman in Action Comics #1 (1938), Batman in Detective Comics #27 (1939), and Wonder Woman in All Star Comics #8 (1941).

A 1946 merger with All-American Publications produced National Comics Publications, renamed National Periodical Publications in 1961 and purchased by Kinney National Services in 1967. The company adopted DC Comics as its formal name in 1977 and has been a Warner subsidiary ever since, now under Warner Bros. Discovery.

DC left New York for Burbank, California in 2015. Jim Lee has served as president, publisher and chief creative officer since 2023. Alongside the main superhero line it publishes Black Label, launched in 2018 for readers 17 and up, and Vertigo, the Karen Berger imprint that ran from 1993 to 2020 and returned in 2024.