The Yellow Kid: The Invention Of DC Comics

Comic books have a long and fascinating history. Comics have been inspiring, and giving people hope for decades. The beginning of the age of comics is debatable; some could say it was with the creation of Superman in Action Comics number one from nineteen thirty-eight, or from Joseph Pulitzer’s publishing of the comic “The Yellow Kid” by Richard Outcault, or even back to paintings on cave walls; but we won’t go back that far. (Ross, Wood) When it comes to the history of comics I see it unnecessary to cover anything before the Golden Age which reigned from nineteen thirty-eight to nineteen forty-nine, but since it is necessary, I will go into it briefly. (Petty) Some could say that comics started with the Pioneer Age in fifteen-hundred; which

The comic was the first appearance of Superman, and his popularity grew so much from there, that DC Comics (which stands for Detective Comics, or at least did when the company was created) changed their company name for many years to Superman Comics. Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. In Supermans early days he was very different; he couldn’t fly, no heat or laser vision or any other vision enhancements, and he didn’t have super-breath. Although he couldn’t fly he could leap over tall buildings in a single bound, and run faster than a train. He wasn’t indestructible but anything less than a bursting shell couldn’t hurt him, and of course he was strong. Something else different about ol’ Supes was his ideology; often Superman would go after corrupt politicians and businessmen, and scare them half to death with his astounding feats (and

(Comic) Bat-Man first appeared in Detective Comics number twenty-seven in nineteen thirty-nine. Bat-Man wasn’t the Batman of today, he was darker and almost the exact opposite of Superman. Bat-Man had no powers and simply used his gadgetry, intelligence, strength, and will to fight the criminal underworld. Also unlike Superman, he wore a mask. Bat-Man was created by Bill Finger, but all of the legal credit is given to Bob Kane who many comic book buffs agree did very little, but is given much of the legal credit, because he threw Siegel and Shuster under the bus, so DC gave him a deal that gives him creator credit for Batman. Batman gets his own comic the same year. Nineteen thirty-nine not only brought about the Bat-man but also brought about other heroes by another company called Timely Comics, which would one day be renamed Marvel. Shortly after the release of Bat-Man, DC saw that superheroes could be successful, and introduced to the world The Flash (Jay Garrick), a character who could run faster than the speed of