National Comics Publications (NCP; later known as National Periodical Publications Inc. or simply National) was an American comic book publishing company. It was the direct predecessor of modern-day

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

History

The corporation was originally two companies: National Allied Publications Inc. (also known as National Allied Newspaper Syndicate Inc. and later Nicholson Publishing Co., Inc.) which was founded by

Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson (né Strain, January 7, 1890 – September 21, 1965) was an American pulp magazine writer, entrepreneur and military officer who pioneered the American comic book, publishing the first such periodical consisting solely o ...

in 1935Marx, Barry, Cavalieri, Joey and Hill, Thomas (w), Petruccio, Steven (a), Marx, Barry (ed). "Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson: DC Founded" ''

Fifty Who Made DC Great ''Fifty Who Made DC Great'' is a one-shot published by DC Comics to commemorate the company's 50th anniversary in 1985. It was published in comic book format but contained text articles with photographs and background caricatures. Publication ...

'': 5 (1985), DC Comics to publish ''

New Fun ''More Fun Comics'', originally titled ''New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine'',''New Fun'' #v1#1 (Feb. 1935 ...

'',The company debuted in 1935 with the tabloid-sized '' New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine'' #1 with a

cover date The cover date of a periodical publication is the date displayed on the cover, which is not necessarily the true date of publication (the on-sale date or release date); later cover dates are common in magazine and comic book publishing. More unusu ...

of February 1935
''New Fun'' #1 (Feb. 1935)
at the

Grand Comics Database The Grand Comics Database (GCD) is an Internet-based project to build a database of comic book information through user contributions. The GCD project catalogues information on creator credits, story details, reprints, and other information use ...

. The entry notes that while the logo appears to be simply ''Fun'', the indicia reads, "New FUN is published monthly at 49 West 45th Street, New York, N.Y., by National Allied Publications, Inc.; Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, President ... Inquiries concerning advertising should be addressed to the Advertising Manager, New FUN,...." the first

American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical literature originating in the United States, commonly between 24 and 64 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publ ...

with all-original material rather than

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

reprints, and Detective Comics Inc., which was founded on December 31, 1936 by Wheeler-Nicholson with

Harry Donenfeld Harry Donenfeld (; October 17, 1893 – February 26, 1965) was an American publisher. He is known primarily for being the co-owner with Jack Liebowitz of National Periodical Publications (later DC Comics). Donenfeld was also a founder of the Albe ...

and

Jack Liebowitz Jacob S. Liebowitz (; born Yacov Lebovitz, October 10, 1900 – December 11, 2000 Detective Comics ''Detective Comics'' (later retitled as ''Batman Detective Comics'') is an American comic book series published by Detective Comics, later shortened to DC Comics. The first volume, published from 1937 to 2011 (and later continued in 2016), is ...

''. Wheeler-Nicholson fell into deep debt to Donenfeld and Liebowitz, and in 1938, Donenfeld and Liebowitz petitioned Wheeler-Nicholson's National Allied into bankruptcy and seized it, and as a result, Liebowitz took over and folded National Allied into Detective Comics. Max Gaines'

All-American Publications All-American Publications, Inc.The name is spelled with a hyphen per its logo (pictured) and sources includinat Don Markstein's ToonopediaArchivedfrom the original on April 15, 2012. was one of two American comic book companies that merged to fo ...

and Detective Comics Inc. merged to become National Comics Publications Inc. on September 30, 1946. 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" in the early 1940s. In 1967, National Periodical Publications was purchased by Kinney National Services. In 1977, the company changed its name to

History

See also

Notes

References

Further reading