ComicsXF interview
I’ve done a (2-part) interview with Mark Turetsky at ComicsXF about Giant Days x Batman, you can read part one now. It deals with how Darwyn Cooke inspired me, and how my friend Rachael Smith helped me work out what to do if I get into trouble with the law.
I just found out thanks to this that “DC Comics” stands for “Detective Comics Comics”. I always thought it was named after Washington DC, like the company was based here originally or something. I mean there’s a Bethesda Softworks, so why not a District of Columbia Comics?
But Detective Comics Comics is just hilariously better.
“D Comics” didn’t poll nearly as well with focus groups.
It actually doesn’t. “DC Comics” actually stands for… “DC Comics”. The “DC” isn’t actually a shortened form of anything, although it *was* derived from “Detective Comics”.
Basically, back in the 30s, what we know of today as DC Comics started out as three separate but closely related companies, one of which was “Detective Comics, Inc.”, which published Detective Comics (really!) and Action Comics (where Superman first appeared). Detective Comics, Inc. was sort of a branch of National Allied Publications; Malcolm Wheeler-Nelson, the publisher of National, was in debt to his printer/distributor Harry Donenfeld, so Donenfeld was brought on as a partner in Detective Comics, Inc. in order to get that comic published. (National Allied was home to characters like Aquaman, Green Arrow, The Spectre, and Doctor Fate.) Donenfeld then used Wheeler-Nelson’s debt to force him out of both companies after about a year.
Then there was All-American Publications, formed by Max Gaines with funding from Donenfeld (after he had forced Wheeler-Nelson out), as long as Gaines took on Jack Liebowitz as a partner (Liebowitz was already a partner with Donenfeld in Detective Comics, Inc.); All-American acted as a sister company to National. All-American had probably the most of what are now considered the “classic” DC characters, including Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, The Atom, Doctor Mid-Nite, Wildcat, Johnny Thunder, Mr. Terrific, Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys (okay, maybe not all of them were classics), and The Gay Ghost. (No, I’m not above cheap humor.)
Anyhoo, National Allied and Detective Comics, Inc. merged to form National Comics Publications in 1946, and soon absorbed All-American as well, forming National Periodical Publications. (By this point, Max Gaines had allowed himself to be bought out by Liebowitz, allowing Gaines to form his own company, EC Comics, which would become (in)famous for its horror comics like Tales from the Crypt, as well as Mad Magazine.) Although National Periodical was the official company name, they did use “Superman-DC” as branding as well, until they officially changed the name to “DC Comics” in 1977. But, again, the name is literally *just* “DC Comics”; the DC doesn’t stand for “Detective Comics”, or anything else.
And this has been your long-winded lesson on comic book history for today. Hopefully it’s been more entertaining than Funky Winkerbean.
Interesting comment, good research, and I always enjoy a mention of W.M Gaines, but you’re wrong, Brian. I know this doesn’t happen often but occasionally the hero takes a fall. “DC Comics” stands for Detective Comics Comics.
“Derived from” is an admission that DC means Detective Comics. I like to think that when the decision was made, everyone in the office laughed.
I am filled with both fear and…curiosity…that this whole thing could turn into yet another thing that the internet has done to Garfield. I hope that never happens. NEVER. But I will definitely be here if it does.
A most fantastic interview
But will that Batman/Susan scene ever actually appear in the course of a story?
No, I drew it as a test
Noel Edmonds fact: he doesn’t think traffic laws should apply to have m, so he bought an old taxi so he could drive in bus lanes. This is not actually how British laws work though, so he just had to settle for being an obnoxious tit to the underpaid council staff whenever he got a fine. Had he any sense, he would realise that as a wealthy individual, most traffic laws functionally don’t apply to him and just quietly pay the fines whenever he got caught like peasant based character actor Tony Robinson.