Founder Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson | ||
National Comics Publications, Inc. was the comic book company that would become DC Comics.
History
The corporation was originally two companies: National Allied Publications, Inc. (also known as National Allied Newspaper Syndicate, Inc.) which was founded by Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson in autumn 1934 to publish the first American comic book with all-original material rather than comic strip reprints, and Detective Comics, Inc., formed in 1937 with Wheeler-Nicholson and Jack S. Liebowitz, listed as owners. Wheeler-Nicholson remained for a year before being forced out in 1938, and Detective Comics, Inc. purchased the remains of National Allied Publications.
National Allied and Detective Comics, Inc. merged to become National Comics Publications, Inc. on September 30, 1946, which absorbed Max Gaines' and Liebowitz's All-American Publications as well. National Comics was renamed National Periodical Publications, Inc. in 1961.
Despite the official names "National Comics" and "National Periodical Publications", the company began branding itself as "Superman-DC" as early as 1940, and it became known colloquially as DC Comics for years before the official adoption of that name in 1977.