\
DC Comics

DC Comics

Net Worth

$10,000,000,000

Started in (City)

Started in (Country)

United States

Incorporation Date

01st December, 1934

Bankruptcy Date

-

Founders

  • Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson
  • Jack Liebowitz
  • Harry Donenfeld

About

DC Comics(1934-present), American media and entertainment company whose iconic comic-based properties represented some of the most enduring and recognizable characters in 20th-21st century popular culture. DC Comics is also known as the king of all comic books. Its parent company, DC Entertainment, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. Its headquarters are in New York City. It has been the leader in the industry since its start, many years ago. They paved their way with their styles and strategies and many other comic book industries in America such as their rival Marvel comics, followed them. The history of DC comics has gone on to be a huge part of American culture. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies. The majority of its publications take place within the fictional DC Universe and feature numerous culturally iconic heroic characters, such as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. The universe also features well-known supervillains who oppose the superheroes such as Lex Luthor, The Cheetah, and the Joker. The company has published non-DC Universe-related material, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Fables, and many titles under their alternative imprint Vertigo. Penguin Random House Publisher Services distributes DC Comics' books to the bookstore market, DC Comics and its longtime major competitor Marvel Comics (acquired in 2009 by The Walt Disney Company, WarnerMedia's main competitor) together shared approximately 70% of the American comic book market in 2017, though this number may give a distorted view since graphic novels are excluded. With the sales of all books included, DC is the second biggest publisher, after Viz Media, and Marvel is third. Although the company has had extremely successful projects, its net worth is estimated at around $3 Billion as of August 2020. The Marvel comics, which were not so eager to follow the same path as its rival, started to create their group of superheroes.

Beginning

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 an entirely new super-speedster, updating and modernizing the Flash's civilian identity, costume, and origin with a science-fiction bent. In 1969, NPP was purchased by Kinney National Company, which in turn was bought by Warner Brothers-Seven Arts. For much of its history, the company was colloquially known as DC comics, but it did not officially adopt the name until 1977. 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 (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. 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". 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 intent 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 which gained attention from the mainstream media. DC's extended storylines in which Superman was killed, Batman was crippled and superhero Green Lantern turned into the supervillain Parallax resulted in dramatically increased sales, but the increases were as temporary as the hero's replacements. Sales dropped off as the industry went into a major slump, while manufactured "collectibles" numbering in the millions replaced quality with quantity until fans and speculators alike deserted the medium in droves.

Road to Success

Pulp writer Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson founded national allied publications in 1934. The following year the company published New Fun-the first comic book to feature entirely new material rather than the reprints of newspaper strips. In need of cash, Wheeler partnered with magazine distributors Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz and founded Detective comics Inc., in 1937. Wheeler was unable to repay his debts to his fellow partners and he was soon forced out of the company. A series of mergers in the 1940s led to the creation of a new company called National Periodical Publications (NPP). In 1969, NPP was purchased by Kinney National Company, which in turn was bought by Warner Brothers-Seven Arts. For much of its history, the company was colloquially known as DC comics, but it did not officially adopt the name until 1977. It was able to survive and continue to thrive even when there were times when they had gone through declining periods when comic books were losing interest. However, today they proved to be one of the most successful stories in the comic book industry and are a subsidiary of the Warner Brothers entertainment and also part of Time warner too. With the series came The rise of Batman. There was another line of books known as Action Comics which featured a new superhero named Superman. These two superheroes became quite popular over the years and to this day they are still two of the most popular characters to ever appear in comic books and went on to shine the way for many other superheroes. During the 1950s the industry was under attack as there were not considered to be up to any American Standards for any children and the younger generation too. This company did not continue to keep its success during that time along with other companies too and covered some areas like western and romantic stories but it was their re-emergence of the superheroes which would lead them to a huge recreation of what made them so successful in the comic book industry known as the silver age. In 1965 the industry has introduced a new superhero by the name of flash. This character was created many years ago but was bought back and updated to be placed in more popular times. This time more emotional and personal compelling series were used along with some better storyboards and artwork which helped to liven up the character. The same happened with all the other characters too, which includes batman and superman. In September 2020, DC announced that the service would change its name to DC Universe Infinite and become solely a digital comics subscription service on January 21, 2021. The service would offer currently published DC Comics titles six months after their retail release date (before the change, current comics would arrive a year after their release date), early access to DC Comics' digital-first titles, would feature exclusive comics created for the service, and access to 24,000 titles in DC's back catalog. DC Universe subscriptions will automatically transfer over to DC Universe Infinite. Regarding the original programming, Young Justice seasons 1-4, Titans season 1-3, Doom Patrol seasons 1-3, the first season of Stargirl, and Harley Quinn seasons 1-3 will move to HBO Max to become Max Original series, with new DC series and "key DC classics" also being available on HBO Max

Challenges

To address the growing market for mature readers DC attempted with its Piranha Press imprint. This was Launched in 1989 with the ongoing title Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children, Piranha was bold, even though not entirely successful, but was an experiment in creator-owned content. Although it lasted only a little longer than Piranha, it published John Wagner’s A History of Violence (1997) and Road to Perdition (1998) by writer Max Allan Collins and artist Richard Piers Rayner. They both were later adapted into award-winning motion pictures. DC’s Vertigo imprint was far more enduring, which began in 1993 as a home for mature-themed horror titles such as Hellblazer, Swamp Thing, and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. Under the leadership of editor Karen Berger, the Vertigo line expanded dramatically to include Grant Morrison’s metafictional secret society saga The Invisibles (1994–2000), Garth Ennis’s acerbic morality play Preacher (1995–2000), Brian Azzarello’s Machiavellian crime story 100 Bullets (1999–2009), Bill Willingham’s twisted fairy tale Fables (2002–15), and Brian K. Vaughan’s apocalyptic bildungsroman Y: The Last Man (2002–08). Other DC imprints included Milestone Media, writer Dwayne has co-founded a comic line, McDuffie that has promoted the work of minority creators; WildStorm, an independent publisher launched by artist Jim Lee that was purchased by DC in 1999; and CMX, a line of Japanese manga comics that were adapted for a North American audience. In some cases, characters that were introduced in imprint titles were later integrated into the mainstream DC universe. The comic book industry experienced a boom in sales during the early 1990s, with books tied to DC’s massive The Death of Superman crossover event sold millions of copies. Such growth proved that they were unsustainable, and by mid-decade, sales had declined to a fraction of their previous levels. However, DC characters found popular success in other media. The visually striking Batman: The Animated Series (1992–95) featured superb writing by Paul Dini and set the stage for later DC animated projects starring the Justice League, the Teen Titans, and the Milestone teen hero Static. In 2010, DC has also begun to produce digital editions of its comics, and the following year DC Comics again rebooted its fictional continuity with a series of comics collectively referred to as the “New 52.” All these superhero characters created have gained a lot of appeal through cartoons and also through live television shows. In the 21st century, only a small part of the revenue generated by DC characters came from the sale of traditional comic books despite the attention given to DC’s core comic business. As more and more superheroes jumped from the printed page to the silver screen, Hollywood took on an increasingly important role for comic publishers. DC scored two early successes with Richard Donner’s Superman (1978) and Tim Burton’s Batman (1989), both of which led to successful franchises. In the 21st century, Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy grossed some $2.5 billion worldwide and Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel (2013) earned more than $600 million. It was mentioned "Even if there is a huge competition in the field you chose, you can still make it if you choose your path of creativity with passion."

Failures

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. On February 18, 2010, DC Entertainment named Jim Lee and Dan DiDio as Co-Publishers of DC Comics, Geoff Johns as Chief Creative Officer, John Rood as EVP (Executive Vice President) of Sales, Marketing, and Business Development, and Patrick Caldon as EVP of Finance and Administration. In October 2013, DC Entertainment announced that the DC Comics offices were going to move from New York City to Warner Bros. Burbank, California, headquarters in 2015. The other units, animation, movie, TV, and portfolio planning had preceded DC Comics by moving there in 2010. DC Entertainment announced its first franchise, the DC Super Hero Girls universe, in April 2015 with multi-platform content, toys, and apparel to start appearing in 2016. Warner Bros. Pictures reorganized in May 2016 to have genre responsible film executives, thus DC Entertainment franchise films under Warner Bros. were placed under a newly created division, DC Films, created under Warner Bros. executive vice president Jon Berg and DC chief content officer Geoff Johns. This was done in the same vein as Marvel Studios in unifying DC-related filmmaking under a single vision and clarifying the greenlighting process. Johns also kept his existing role at DC Comics. Johns was promoted to DC president & CCO with the addition of his DC Films while still reporting to DCE President Nelson. In August 2016, Amit Desai was promoted from the senior vice president, marketing & global franchise management to exec vice president, business and marketing strategy, direct-to-consumer, and global franchise management. DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Digital Networks announced in April 2017 DC Universe digital service to be launched in 2018 with two original series. With frustration over DC Films not matching Marvel Studios' results and Berg wanting to step back to being a producer in January 2018, it was announced that Warner Bros. executive Walter Hamada was appointed president of DC film production. After a leave of absence starting in March 2018, Diane Nelson resigned as president of DC Entertainment. The company's executive management was to report to WB Chief Digital Officer Thomas Gewecke until a new president is selected. In June 2018, Johns was also moved out of his position as a chief creative officer and DC Entertainment president for writing and producing deal with the DC and WB companies. Jim Lee added DC Entertainment's chief creative officer title to his DC co-publisher post. In September 2018, DC became part of the newly-created Warner Bros. Global Brands and Experiences division overseen by President Pam Lifford. In August 2020, DC Comics publisher Jim Lee revealed that all original programming would be migrated over to HBO Max. Speaking to the community aspect of DC Universe, as well as the ability to access the backlog of comics titles, Lee said "there is always going to be a need for that" and that DC was looking at ways to transform the platform so that content would not go away.

Achievements

  • Won individual awards for Best Writer / Best Writer in Comics, Best Artist / Best Artist in Comics, Best New Talent
  • Publication award for Best Comic (British), Best Comic in the World Today, Best Collected Series or Graphic Novel
  • GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book

Subsidies

  • DC Entertainment Inc.
  • Warner Bros. Picture
  • Warner Communication LLC

CEOs

  • Geoff Johns
  • Diane Whelan Nelson