DC
𐑛𐑰𐑕𐑰
DC (short for Detective Comics, also known as DC Comics, presumably short for Detective Comics Comics) is a US comic book publisher. Along with Marvel, they have a duopoly on US comics.
Their most well-known franchises are undoubtedly Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.
DC also owns various imprints, including Vertigo.
Much like Marvel, they're not the best company. They didn't give Bill Finger credit for co-creating Batman for the better part of a century. They gave Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons a mere 4% royalty each for Watchmen,[1] and promised Moore they'd give him back the rights to Watchmen and V for Vendetta once they went out of print. Then, after the surprise success of the Batman: The Dark Knight Returns trade paperback, they gave them the same treatment, re-releasing them in trade paperback form. Technically, they still haven't been out of print yet, over forty years later.
Quotes
It was something that I'd been aware of theoretically but it takes a while to actually feel it, to actually get a sense of what it means for all of those artists, all of those writers, who've been bled dry by the companies they've worked for. It's after you've met Jerry Siegel, the creator of Superman. He sold Superman to DC for $34.[2] It's after you've met some of these people and realised just how tragically they've been screwed...
— Alan Moore, 1994[1]
References
- "Yeti vs. the Bloodsuckers" Ian Winterton, Interzone, Nov 1994, pp. 28—30
- Note: This was actually $130 back in 1938, equivalent to about $3,000 in 2026 — scarcely better.
Comics: DC | Graphic novel | Limited series | Masked vigilante | Modern Age | Superhero | Watchmen
DC: Batman | DC Compact Comics
