Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: Who started DC Comics?
Entrepreneur Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson founded National Allied Publications in autumn 1934. The company debuted with the tabloid-sized "" #1 with a cover date of February 1935. The company's second title, "New Comics" #1 (Dec. 1935), appeared in a size close to what would become comic books' standard during the period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books, with slightly larger dimensions than today's. That title evolved into "Adventure Comics", which continued through issue #503 in 1983, becoming one of the longest-running comic-book series. In 2009 DC revived "Adventure Comics" with its original numbering. In 1935, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the future creators of Superman, created Doctor Occult, who is the earliest DC Comics character to still be in the DC Universe.
Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson (January 7, 1890 – 1965) was an American pulp magazine writer and entrepreneur who pioneered the American comic book, publishing the first such periodical consisting solely of original material rather than reprints of newspaper comic strips. Long after his departure from the comic book company he founded, Wheeler-Nicholson's National Allied Publications would evolve into DC Comics, one of the U.S.'s two largest comic book publishers along with rival Marvel Comics.
In 1967, Batman artist 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 attempted to infuse the company with more focus towards marketing new and existing titles and characters with more adult sensibilities towards an emerging older age group of superhero comic book fans that grew out of Marvel's efforts to market their superhero line to college-aged adults. He 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 replaced some existing DC editors with artist-editors, including Joe Kubert and Dick Giordano, to give DC's output a more artistic critical eye.
First issued in 2003 by publisher Image Comics, the comic is written by Kirkman with art by Moore (issues No. 1–6) and Charlie Adlard (issue No. 7 onward). Moore continued to do the covers through issue No. 24.
The first known female superhero is writer-artist Fletcher Hanks's minor character Fantomah, an ageless, ancient Egyptian woman in the modern day who could transform into a skull-faced creature with superpowers to fight evil; she debuted in Fiction House's "Jungle Comics" #2 (Feb. 1940), credited to the pseudonymous "Barclay Flagg". The first widely recognizable female superhero is "Wonder Woman", from All-American Publications, one of three companies that would merge to form DC Comics. In an October 25, 1940, interview conducted by former student Olive Byrne (under the pseudonym 'Olive Richard') and published in "Family Circle", titled "Don't Laugh at the Comics", William Moulton Marston described what he saw as the great educational potential of comic books (a follow up article was published two years later in 1942.) This article caught the attention of comics publisher Max Gaines, who hired Marston as an educational consultant for National Periodicals and All-American Publications, two of the companies that would merge to form the future DC Comics. At that time, Marston decided to develop a new superhero. In the early 1940s the DC line was dominated by superpowered male characters such as the Green Lantern, Batman, and its flagship character, Superman. According to the Fall 2001 issue of the Boston University alumni magazine, it was his wife Elizabeth Hollowy's idea to create a female superhero. Marston introduced the idea to Max Gaines, cofounder (along with Jack Liebowitz) of All-American Publications. Given the go-ahead, Marston developed "Wonder Woman" with Elizabeth (whom Marston believed to be a model of that era's unconventional, liberated woman). In creating Wonder Woman, Marston was also inspired by Olive Byrne, who lived with the couple in a polygamous/polyamorous relationship. In a 1943 issue of "The American Scholar", Marston wrote:
In the United States, pulp magazines such as Harry Donenfeld's "Spicy Detective" featured comics on heroines who lose their clothing, such as Adolphe Barreaux's "Sally the Sleuth" which debuted in 1934. Many of the early comic publishers got their start in the pulps with Donenfeld for instance going on to found DC Comics. Fiction House similarly started as a pulp magazine publisher, but in 1938, released "Jumbo Comics" featuring Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, the first of many scantily clad jungle girls. Fiction House comics routinely featured attractive women on the covers, a trend which later became referred to as 'good girl art.' In 1941, Quality Comics put out "Police Comics" featuring Phantom Lady, a scantily clad crime fighter. Fox Feature Syndicate eventually began publishing Phantom Lady where she was drawn by Matt Baker, one of the most famous 'good girl' artists. Milton Caniff started producing the comic strip "Male Call" in 1943, and Bill Ward came out with "Torchy" in 1944 featuring sexy heroines.
"The Walking Dead" debuted in 2003, published by Image Comics, with art by Tony Moore for the first six issues and Cliff Rathburn shading the art after issue five. Charlie Adlard took over as artist on issue #7, after he was approached by Kirkman. Moore also did the cover art for the first twenty-four issues and the first four trade paperbacks. The remainder were done by Adlard.
A comic strip also regularly appeared in the pages of "Doctor Who Magazine". This began as a Marvel Comics publication under the name "Doctor Who Weekly" in 1979 (soon changing to "Doctor Who Monthly"), and the magazine continued to be published after the programme ceased production in 1989. The comic strip has usually featured the current Doctor in a series of adventures independent of the novels and the audios, and with another companion, though several crossovers with the worlds of the audio and literary "Doctor Who" and the comics have occurred. Creators who have worked on the "Doctor Who Magazine" strip include such notables as writer Alan Moore and artists Dave Gibbons, Mike McMahon, and John Ridgway. Selected stories were reprinted in North America by Marvel Comics, which was also the publisher of "Doctor Who Magazine" at the time. "Marvel Premiere" #57 (December 1980) was the first Doctor Who comic published in North America. When "Doctor Who Magazine" was published by Marvel, some characters occasionally crossed over between the "Doctor Who" comic and other titles published by Marvel UK; these include the froglike Venusian businessman Josiah Dogbolter and the robotic bounty hunter Death's Head. In the "Flood Barriers" feature in the trade paperback "Doctor Who: The Flood", it is revealed the comic strip was given the opportunity to show the regeneration of the Eighth Doctor into the Ninth Doctor.
Most of Charlton's superhero characters were acquired in 1983 by DC Comics, where former Charlton editor Dick Giordano was then managing editor. These "Action Hero" characters were originally to be used in the landmark "Watchmen" miniseries written by Alan Moore, but DC then chose to save the characters for other uses. Moore instead developed new characters loosely based on them. The Charlton characters were incorporated into DC's main superhero line, starting in the epic "Crisis on Infinite Earths" miniseries of 1985.
The initial comic-book character called Fighting Yank first appeared in Nedor Comics' "Startling Comics" #10 (September 1941), during the period fans and historians call the Golden Age of comic books. He was created by writer Richard E. Hughes and artist Jon L. Blummer. Later artwork was produced by Jack Binder's studio, and by Elmer Wexler.
Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, the character first appeared in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #1 (March 1963), making him the first member of Spider-Man's rogues' gallery, based on issue publication date, excluding the burglar who murdered Ben Parker (Supercharger was the first Spider-Man supervillain chronologically). He is also well known to be related to Kraven the Hunter. That revealed relationship helped evolve him as a major villain compared to his original depiction of being just a solo villain in the original issue of "The Amazing Spider-Man".
As superheroes began to fade out of fashion in the post-World War II era, comic-book publishers scrambled to explore new types of stories, characters, and audiences. In an attempt to appeal to young female readers, comics companies began introducing some of the first significant female superheroes since Wonder Woman in 1941. These new female leads would include Timely's Blonde Phantom, Golden Girl, Namora, Sun Girl, and Venus, and its teen-humor star Millie the Model; Fox Comics' revival of Quality Comics' Phantom Lady; and DC's Black Canary.
"KoDT" first started in the second issue of "Shadis" magazine in March 1990 when then editor Jolly R. Blackburn decided to draw a simple strip of his own to put on the last page which he called "Knights of the Dinner Table". The first comic only contained B.A. and Bob. Over the next three issues Blackburn continued to draw his own comics (adding in Dave and Brian), but by the sixth issue he had acquired other comics and replaced "KoDT" with them. Readers, however, demanded the return of the "Knights" strip. It was brought back in the eighth issue and lasted into the 21st.
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. 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.
Wolfman said when he pitched the series to DC, he realized it was going to be a completely new beginning for the DCU. "I knew up front, and they did too, how big this was going to be," he said. "But, no-one knew how well it would sell, or whether it would sell at all. It was a risk DC was willing to take, because my thoughts were that DC needed a lot of help at that time, and they did too." Wolfman also said he saw it as an attempt to improve DC's reputation for storytelling. Many readers at the time saw them as old fashioned.
In autumn 1934, having seen the emergence of "Famous Funnies" (1933) and other oversize magazines reprinting comic strips, Wheeler-Nicholson formed the comics publishing company National Allied Publications. While contemporary comics "consisted ... of reprints of old syndicate material", Wheeler-Nicholson found that the "rights to all the popular strips ... had been sewn up". While some existing publications had included small amounts of original material, generally as filler, and while Dell Publishing had put out a proto-comic book of all original strips, "The Funnies", in 1929, Wheeler-Nicholson's premiere comic – "New Fun" #1 (Feb. 1935) – became the first comic book containing all-original material. As author Nicky Wright wrote,
First issued in 2003 by publisher Image Comics, the series was created by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore (who was later replaced by Charlie Adlard from issue #7 onward, though Moore continued to do the covers through issue #24.) "The Walking Dead" received the 2010 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series at San Diego Comic-Con International.
Smallville is a fictional town and the childhood and adolescent hometown of Superman in comic books published by DC Comics. Smallville was first named in "Superboy" vol. 1 #2 in 1949. It is the setting of many "Superboy" comics, which depict the original Superboy (Superman as a boy) defending Smallville from various evils as well as, occasionally, the young Lex Luthor.
The Hulk is a fictional superhero appearing in publications by the American publisher Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of "The Incredible Hulk" (May 1962). In his comic book appearances, the character is both the Hulk, a green-skinned, hulking and muscular humanoid possessing a vast degree of physical strength, and his alter ego Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, a physically weak, socially withdrawn, and emotionally reserved physicist, the two existing as independent personalities and resenting of the other.
Later that year, Schulz approached United Feature Syndicate with the one-panel series "Li'l Folks", and the syndicate became interested. By that time Schulz had also developed a comic strip, usually using four panels rather than one, and to Schulz's delight, the syndicate preferred that version. "Peanuts" made its first appearance on October 2, 1950, in seven newspapers. The weekly Sunday page debuted on January 6, 1952. After a slow start, "Peanuts" eventually became one of the most popular comic strips of all time, as well as one of the most influential. Schulz also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip, "It's Only a Game" (1957–59), but he abandoned it after the success of "Peanuts". From 1956 to 1965 he contributed a single-panel strip, "Young Pillars", featuring teenagers, to "Youth", a publication associated with the Church of God.
Jor-El was first referred to indirectly in "Action Comics" #1 in 1938, which only mentioned a scientist who sends his son to Earth. He made his first full-fledged appearance in the "Superman" newspaper comic strip in 1939, where his name was spelled as "Jor-L". His name first appeared as being spelled "Jor-el" in the "Superman" novel "The Adventures of Superman" (1942) written by George Lowther. Later comic books capitalized the "E" in "El." Jor-El's first appearance in an actual comic book was in "More Fun Comics" #101. After the introduction of DC Comics' multiverse system in the 1960s, it was established that the version of Superman's father during the Golden Age of Comic Books was named "Jor-L", and he lived on the Krypton of the Earth-Two universe. However, "Jor-El" was the father of the Silver Age version of Superman, and he lived on the Krypton of the Earth-One universe.
Letterer and logo designer Ira Schnapp defined the DC Comics look for nearly thirty years. Starting in 1940, he designed or refined such iconic logos as "Action Comics", "Superman", "The Flash", and "Justice League of America", while also creating the distinctive appearance of DC's house ads and promotions. (Schnapp also designed the Comics Code Authority seal, which was a fixture on comic book covers from all major companies for over forty years.)
Despite the official names "National Comics" and "National Periodical Publications", the company began branding itself as "Superman-DC" as early as 1940, and the company became known colloquially as DC Comics for years before the official adoption of that name in 1977.
The company began to move aggressively against what it saw as copyright-violating imitations from other companies, such as Fox Comics' Wonder Man, which (according to court testimony) Fox started as a copy of Superman. This extended to DC suing Fawcett Comics over Captain Marvel, at the time comics' top-selling character (see "National Comics Publications, Inc. v. Fawcett Publications, Inc."). Faced with declining sales and the prospect of bankruptcy if it lost, Fawcett capitulated in 1953 and ceased publishing comics. Years later, Fawcett sold the rights for Captain Marvel to DC—which in 1972 revived Captain Marvel in the new title "Shazam!" featuring artwork by his creator, C. C. Beck. In the meantime, the abandoned trademark had been seized by Marvel Comics in 1967, with the creation of their Captain Marvel, forbidding the DC comic itself to be called that. While Captain Marvel did not recapture his old popularity, he later appeared in a Saturday morning live action TV adaptation and gained a prominent place in the mainstream continuity DC calls the DC Universe.
After the release of "", DC Comics became the "Star Trek" comic licensee, publishing stories from 1984 set in the movie era (see "Star Trek DC comics"). In 1988, the series ended when Paramount withdrew its license at the advice of Richard Arnold following a series of disputes between Arnold and DC Comics, specifically with the comic's main author, Peter David. After a year's hiatus DC's second "Star Trek" series was launched with an adaptation of "". Original stories took place in the large gap between "Star Trek V" and "", but did not continue from the previous series, so storylines from that series were either ignored or rewritten. Although more limited in scope than the first series due to restrictions from Paramount – which included a prohibition by Richard Arnold against the creation and use of original and non-series-related ongoing characters in the comic stories – and the controversial removal of Peter David as head writer, the series still lasted 80 issues. Howard Weinstein, who like David was also a "Star Trek" novelist, took over writing the comic with issue No. 20, and used the opportunity to flesh-out some of the changes between "Star Trek V" and "VI", such as Sulu's promotion to captain of the "Excelsior".
In December 2013, DC Comics announced the series would launch in May 2014, with Keith Giffen, Brian Azzarello, Dan Jurgens, and Jeff Lemire writing. The series would start with a #0 issue, released on Free Comic Book Day on May 3, 2014, with issue 1 releasing later in the month. Artists on the series include Ethan Van Sciver, drawing the zero issue, along with Jesus Merino, Aaron Lopresti and Jurgens, as well as others who will be added as the series goes from one issue to the next. Lemire stated the series is "an exploration of DC's past, present and its future," with the writers trying "to explore the nature of what a hero is." It was also revealed that Ryan Sook would provide the covers, as well as character designs, for the series.