Leading Comics is a 1942–1955 comic book published by what is now DC Comics during the 1940s and early 1950s, a period known to fans and historians as the Golden Age of Comic Books .
12-631: At the title's inception, DC was actually two companies, National Comics (later National Periodical Publications ) and All-American Publications. National and All-American shared some ownership and advertised and co-branded their comics as if they were one company. They also collaborated on All Star Comics , an All-American publication which featured the Justice Society of America , a super hero team including characters from both companies' stables, e.g., The Spectre and Starman from National, The Flash and Green Lantern from All-American. Given
24-454: A result, Liebowitz took over and folded National Allied into Detective Comics. Max Gaines' All-American Publications and Detective Comics Inc. merged to become National Comics Publications Inc. on September 30, 1946. National Comics was renamed "National Periodical Publications Inc." in 1961. Despite the official names "National Comics" and "National Periodical Publications", the company began branding itself as " Superman-DC " in
36-512: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . National Periodical Publications National Comics Publications ( NCP ; later known as National Periodical Publications Inc. or simply National ) was an American comic book publishing company. It was the direct predecessor of modern-day DC Comics . The corporation was originally two companies: National Allied Publications Inc. (also known as National Allied Newspaper Syndicate Inc. and later Nicholson Publishing Co., Inc. ) which
48-615: The Milsteins remaining as managers of the unit until 1971 before the sale. Due to a financial scandal involving price fixing in its parking operations, Kinney National spun off its non-entertainment assets on August 7, 1971 as the National Kinney Corporation , and renamed the remaining Kinney Services as Warner Communications Inc. on February 10, 1972. Steve Ross was the company's sole CEO , president , and chairman . Directors included Charles A. Agemian ,
60-758: The charge as the first DC title to drop its superheroes. With its Summer 1945 issue #15, Leading switched to talking animals , with the introduction of Nero Fox (a fox who was billed as the "jive-jumpin' emperor of ancient Rome "). In issue #23 (February–March 1947 ), Nero Fox was dropped as the cover-featured first story in each issue, to be replaced by Peter Porkchops , a pig (created by Otto Feuer), in his first appearance. Peter appeared in Leading Comics (retitled Leading Screen Comics with #34 in 1948) regularly until issue #77 (August–September 1955). Leading Screen Comics ended with issue #77 (August–September 1955). This DC Comics –related article
72-524: The early 1940s. In 1967, National Periodical Publications was purchased by Kinney National Services . In 1977, the company changed its name to DC Comics . Kinney National Company Kinney Services Inc. was an American conglomerate company from 1966 to 1972. Its successor was Warner Communications . Kinney National's predecessors were Kinney Service Corporation and National Cleaning Contractors Inc., whose merger began in January 1966 and
84-545: The success of the JSA, National decided to develop a team title of its own—this became Leading Comics , #1 (Winter 1941–42) of which debuted the Seven Soldiers of Victory , a team made up exclusively of characters from National's anthology publications: More Fun Comics , Adventure Comics , Action Comics , Detective Comics , and Star-Spangled Comics . Like its predecessor All Star Comics , each issue of Leading
96-649: Was completed in August of the same year. National Cleaning Contractors was founded in 1886 by Louis Frankel and Max Sweig as National Window Cleaning & House Renovating Co., and was later known as National House Cleaning Contractors Inc. The company was formed on August 12, 1966, as Kinney National Services Inc., when the Kinney Parking Company and the National Cleaning Contractors Inc. were merged. The new company
108-486: Was formally founded in September 1971. On November 22, 1971, Kinney Services also bought Television Communications Corporation (which was renamed as Warner Cable in 1973), including its recording studio operations of 1,210,500 common shares. Kinney National also owned wood flooring manufacturer Circle Floor from Seymour Milstein and Paul Milstein , when Kinney's predecessor bought it in 1964 for $ 15 million, with
120-530: Was founded by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson in 1935 to publish New Fun , the first American comic book with all-original material rather than comic strip reprints, and Detective Comics Inc. , which was founded on December 31, 1936 by Wheeler-Nicholson with Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz to publish Detective Comics . Wheeler-Nicholson fell into deep debt to Donenfeld and Liebowitz, and in 1938, Donenfeld and Liebowitz petitioned Wheeler-Nicholson's National Allied into bankruptcy and seized it, and as
132-457: Was headed by Steve Ross . Kinney National Services (later, National was removed from the company name in February 1971 ) was known for purchases and sales: On June 10, 1971, Kinney sold Riverside Memorial Chapel to Service Corporation International . Kinney also announced that it would form a new separate company focused on its parking and cleaning businesses; National Kinney Corporation
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#1732783141688144-611: Was taken up with a single adventure of the SSOV broken into multiple chapters, each featuring one or two heroes. However, the heroes of the SSOV were hardly the company's most popular characters—most of those already being members of the JSA—and the strip lasted through only the first fourteen issues of Leading . When the superhero genre faded in popularity in the late 1940s, DC Comics decided to focus more on other genres, such as science fiction , westerns , humor and romance. Leading Comics led
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