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 in 1934 to publish
New Fun, the first
American comic book with all-original material rather than
comic strip reprints, and
Detective Comics Inc., by Wheeler-Nicholson with
Harry Donenfeld and
Jack Liebowitz to publish
Detective Comics. 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 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
DC Comics. ==See also==