Guides · 8 articles

Publishers & history

Marvel, DC, EC, Timely, Fawcett, Image and the events that shaped the industry.

History
Atlas Comics: Marvel's 1950s horror, fantasy and science-fiction anthologies
Atlas was the name Martin Goodman's comics line used through the 1950s, between Timely and Marvel, after the Atlas News Company that distributed it. It published dozens of genre anthologies — Journey into Unknown Worlds, Strange Tales, Journey into Mystery, Adventures into Terror, Menace, Uncanny Tales — with art by Bill Everett, Joe Maneely, Russ Heath, Gene Colan, John Romita and Jack Kirby. Pre-Code Atlas horror is collected in its own right, and several Atlas anthologies later housed the Silver Age Marvel debuts.
Updated Sep 14, 2026
History
A short history of Marvel Comics: Timely, Atlas and Marvel
Marvel began in 1939 as Timely Comics, publisher Martin Goodman's comics line, whose first issue, Marvel Comics #1 (October 1939), introduced the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner. Through the 1950s the company published as Atlas, mostly genre comics. It became Marvel Comics with the superhero revival led by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko from Fantastic Four #1 (November 1961). Marvel was bought by The Walt Disney Company in a deal completed on 31 December 2009.
Updated Sep 14, 2026
History
A short history of DC Comics
DC traces to National Allied Publications, founded by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson in 1934, whose New Fun #1 (February 1935) was among the first comics of all-original material. Detective Comics, Inc. (1937) gave the company its initials and, with Action Comics #1 (June 1938), Superman. Sister company All-American Publications added Wonder Woman, the Flash and Green Lantern; the firms merged as National Comics Publications in 1946, became part of Kinney National (later Warner) in 1967, and adopted the name DC Comics officially in 1977.
Updated Sep 14, 2026
History
EC Comics: the publisher the Comics Code destroyed
EC Comics was founded in 1944 by M. C. Gaines as Educational Comics and turned by his son William Gaines, who took over after his father's death in 1947, into Entertaining Comics: the 1950 “New Trend” horror, crime and science-fiction line, and Mad (1952). Its artists — Wally Wood, Jack Davis, Graham Ingels, Al Williamson, Harvey Kurtzman and others — made it the most admired publisher of the Golden Age. The 1954 Comics Code made its horror and crime titles unpublishable, and by 1956 only Mad, converted to a magazine, remained.
Updated Sep 14, 2026
History
Fawcett Publications and the Marvel Family: a collector's overview
Fawcett Publications, the Minneapolis magazine house behind Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, entered comics in 1940 with Whiz Comics #2 and Captain Marvel, who became the best-selling superhero of the 1940s. Fawcett's line — Whiz Comics, Captain Marvel Adventures, Master Comics, Wow Comics — was ended by a copyright suit from DC that Fawcett settled in 1953. DC later licensed and then acquired the characters, publishing them as Shazam.
Updated Sep 14, 2026
History
MLJ Magazines: the Golden Age superhero publisher that became Archie
MLJ Magazines was founded in 1939 by Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit and John Goldwater (the initials) and published Golden Age superheroes — the Shield in Pep Comics #1 (January 1940), the first patriotic hero, and Steel Sterling in Zip Comics #1 (February 1940). Archie Andrews debuted in Pep Comics #22 (December 1941) and so outsold the heroes that the company renamed itself Archie Comic Publications in 1946.
Updated Sep 14, 2026
History
Mirage Studios: the publisher of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Mirage Studios was the name Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird gave the company they formed to self-publish Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 in May 1984 from Dover, New Hampshire — a mirage because there was no studio. The black-and-white comic's success made it the model for the 1980s independent boom, and the licensing that followed built a global franchise. Laird bought out Eastman in 2000 and sold the property to Viacom (Nickelodeon) in 2009.
Updated Sep 14, 2026
History
Timely Comics: collecting Golden Age Marvel
Timely Comics was Martin Goodman's comics line from Marvel Comics #1 (October 1939) through the 1940s — the Golden Age incarnation of Marvel. Its big three were the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner and Captain America, and its keys — Marvel Comics #1, Captain America Comics #1, Marvel Mystery Comics, Human Torch #2 (#1), All Winners Comics — are among the most valuable Golden Age books. A CGC 9.4 Marvel Comics #1 sold for 2.4 million dollars in March 2022.
Updated Sep 14, 2026