I didn't go looking for this but doing some looking around at Amazon today made me realize that DC Comics is 75 years old. I actually found that out when I came across a CD that was billed as such. In includes something like 30 or 32 cuts...music from such things as the Fleischer Supereman cartoons, Batman TV show, Smallville, John Williams' Superman score, and animated music. I also see that they have coming out on DVD a documentary on the company. I hope this documentary centers mostly on the comic book publishing aspect of the company and less on the TV and movie aspects of their characters which I know a lot about.
This means they started back in 1935. They weren't called DC then. I think there were 2 branches of their company then. Eventually, everything was absorbed into the name National Periodical Publications. I forget when they officially became DC Comics...maybe some time in the 1970s or 1980s. Three of their best-known characters debuted in the first decade of the companies' existence. Superman came out in 1938 in the first issue of Action Comics and Batman debuted a year later in Detective Comics #27...Detective Comics is, of course, where the "DC" in DC Comics comes from. Wonder Woman came out a few years later. Aquaman also came out sometime around 1941, I think. There were versions of Green Lantern and The Flash out in the 40s but not the characters we know today. Yes, I'm a fountain of useless information!
As to Marvel Comics, they were originally called Timely...I'm not sure if it was their first comic but their first super-hero comic as I recall was Marvel Comics in 1939 which featured the first appearances (sort of) of Sub-Mariner and The Human Torch. That comic changed it's name to Marvel Mystery Comics with the 2nd issue.
