Join Me in a Weekly Look at the rise of DC Comics

Like most DC Comic fans, we think it all started out with the famous “Action Comics” you know the one with Superman holding up the car. But that’s not the case, it was a being known as Krona. Krona was a renegade immortal that dared to look for answers to the beginning of Time itself, and through his beguilement, evil was unleashed into the DC Universe. And if it were not for this obsession there would be no stories to tell… a world with no evil is boring! A comic book needs a Good VS. Evil story like Batman and The Joker or Superman and Lex Luther.

DC Comic’s brilliant writers and artists began building a Universe that would span decades enthralling readers with unbound imagination. It was a new world and writers began building a complex Universe filled with unimaginable superheroes and dastardly villains. Writers brought to life a world that fans wanted to be a part of… men with abilities of super-strength, x-ray vision and a foundation for Justice and then there were the unique cities like Metropolis, Gotham City, Star City, Midway City, Gateway City and more.

Comic Books began in the 1930’s when the Great Depression had begun, andAdolf Hitler was on the rise to power in Germany. With the threat of a war is on the horizon Americans eagerly sought a distraction and that distraction came in the form of Pulp Magazines. Fans eagerly embraced Pulp Magazines following stories starring the classics like The Shadow, Doc Savage and The Phantom.

Pulp Magazines ruled the roost in the 1930’s. But, in 1932 Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster publishers of Science Fiction wrote a story in their third issue about a poor Joe Shmoe who gained mental powers and began to take over the world, entitled “The Reign of Superman.” Siegel and Shuster would continually revamp the story and soon our beloved hero would have a better story, an orphaned son from a distant world with superhuman abilities.

Actual comic books sized smaller than Pulp Magazines came into existence when salesman M. C. Gaines realized that the “funnies” could be folded up into a more kid-friendly size, roughly seven by ten inches. The very first comic book was born, Funnies on Parade.

In 1934 prolific writer for Pulp Magazines, Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson founded National Allied Publications. The company published new comic books, but it did not take off right away and the company would limp along until the birth of legends Superman and Batman at the end of the decade.

Up Next Week…. 1935 Launch of “New Fun” comic book.

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