This is an accepted version of this page
147-559: Neverwhere is an urban fantasy television miniseries by Neil Gaiman that first aired in 1996 on BBC 2 . The series is set in "London Below", a magical realm coexisting with the more familiar London, referred to as "London Above". It was devised by Neil Gaiman and Lenny Henry and directed by Dewi Humphreys. Gaiman adapted the series into a novel , which was released in September 1996. The series and book were partially inspired by Gene Wolfe 's novel Free Live Free . Richard Mayhew,
294-471: A mythical realm. Since the 1940s, when Superman, Batman, and many of the company's other heroes began appearing in stories together, DC's characters have inhabited a shared continuity that was later dubbed the " DC Universe " by fans. With the story " Flash of Two Worlds ", in Flash No. 123 (September 1961), editor Schwartz (with writer Gardner Fox and artists Infantino and Joe Giella ) presented
441-434: A March 1937 cover date. The themed anthology that revolved originally around fictional detective stories became in modern times the longest-running ongoing comic series. A notable debut in the first issue was Slam Bradley , created in a collaboration between Wheeler-Nicholson, Siegel and Shuster. In 1937, in debt to printing-plant owner and magazine distributor Harry Donenfeld —who also published pulp magazines and operated as
588-508: A Saturday morning live action TV adaptation and gained a prominent position in the mainstream continuity of the DC Universe . As the popularity of superheroes faded in the late 1940s, DC Comics focused on such genres as science fiction, Westerns , humor , and romance . The company also published crime and horror titles, although relatively tame contributions that avoided the mid-1950s backlash against such comic genres. A handful of
735-519: A Scottish man living in London, encounters an injured girl named Door on the street one night. Despite his fiancée's protests he decides to help her; upon doing so he ceases to exist on Earth and becomes real only to the denizens of "London Below", whose inhabitants are generally invisible and non-existent to the people of "London Above". He loses his flat , his job, and nearly his mind as he travels London Below in an attempt to make sense out of it all, find
882-401: A Teenage Werewolf , combining supernatural characters with the mundane popular post WW2 teen-culture. In 1959, the fantasy/sci-fi TV anthology The Twilight Zone began, after the success of its pilot "The Time Element" appeared as a 1958 episode of Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse . In 1962, Ray Bradbury published the dark novel Something Wicked This Way Comes , which has been cited as
1029-650: A US tour, then played in London for several years. It was released as a film of the same name in 1958. The 1954 best-selling novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant details a Faustian deal with the devil in major-league professional baseball; it was made into the successful 1957 Broadway musical Damn Yankees (subsequently revived several times), and then into a 1958 Hollywood film. That same year, Irish-American Leonard Wibberley published Mrs Searwood's Secret Weapon, about an elderly British widow haunted by
1176-430: A clerk for a big New York City company - but suddenly one morning he can speak with and understand animals. In the magical stories of Edward Eager , groups of children are granted wishes or transported through time by invoking spells. This makes the stories a variety of low-fantasy . Possibly the best-known urban fantasy series for children are P. L. Travers ' low-fantasy Mary Poppins stories, set in London between
1323-476: A conceptual mechanism for slotting the 1930s and 1940s Golden Age heroes into this continuity using the explanation that they inhabited an other-dimensional "Earth 2", whilst the modern heroes exist on "Earth 1", consequently laying the foundations of what was later called the DC Multiverse . DC's introduction of the reimagined superheroes did not go unnoticed by their competitors. In 1961, with DC's JLA as
1470-410: A contemporary urban setting. The combination provides the writer with a platform for classic fantasy tropes, quixotic plot-elements, and unusual characters—without demanding the creation of an entire imaginary world. Precursors of urban fantasy are found in popular fiction of the 19th century - and the present use of the term dates back to the 1970s - but much of its audience was established in
1617-488: A copy of Superman. This extended to DC suing Fawcett Comics over Captain Marvel , who was at the time the top-selling comic character (see National Comics Publications, Inc. v. Fawcett Publications, Inc. ). Faced with declining sales and the prospect of bankruptcy if it lost the lawsuit, Fawcett capitulated in 1953 and ceased publishing comics. Years later, Fawcett sold the rights for Captain Marvel to DC Comics, and in 1972
SECTION 10
#17327835209491764-568: A drug-fueled storyline in writer Dennis O'Neil and artist Neal Adams ' Green Lantern , beginning with the story " Snowbirds Don't Fly " in the retitled Green Lantern / Green Arrow No. 85 (September 1971), which depicted Speedy , the teen sidekick of superhero archer Green Arrow , as having become a heroin addict. Jenette Kahn , a former children's magazine publisher, replaced Infantino as editorial director in January 1976. As it happened, her first task even before being formally hired,
1911-442: A fantasy equivalent of Campbell's successful Astounding science fiction magazine; its stories often took place in the present and many had a thoughtful "science-fictional" approach. Writers such as Fritz Leiber ( "Smoke Ghost" , published in 1941), Jack Williamson with " Darker Than You Think " (originally published 1940), H. L. Gold (with his "Trouble with Water" , published in 1939) and L. Sprague de Camp 's " Nothing in
2058-477: A few years, it yielded the popular animated series Static Shock . DC established Paradox Press to publish material such as the large-format Big Book of... series of multi-artist interpretations on individual themes, and such crime fiction as the graphic novel Road to Perdition . In 1998, DC purchased WildStorm Comics, Jim Lee 's imprint under the Image Comics banner, continuing it for many years as
2205-430: A girl who gains special abilities after recovering from an accident, and also grows close to a mysterious new boy at her school. Love triangles also play a prominent part in these and several other urban-fantasy novels. Coming-of-age themes and teen 'voices' also often distinguish young-adult urban fantasy from adult books in the genre. Bruce Coville and Jane Yolen collaborated on Armageddon Summer which places
2352-472: A group of teens with paranormal talents go on the run while fleeing from a persistent band of scientists. Gone , by Michael Grant, follows an isolated town in which adults have mysteriously disappeared, leaving a society of super-powered children behind. In Unearthly , by Cynthia Hand, a girl discovers that she is part angel and gifted with superhuman abilities, leading her to seek out her purpose on Earth. The Immortals series, by Alyson Noël , follows
2499-504: A handful of thematically-linked series he called collectively "The Fourth World" . In the existing series Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen and in his own, newly-launched series New Gods , Mister Miracle , and The Forever People , Kirby introduced such enduring characters and concepts as arch-villain Darkseid and the other-dimensional realm Apokolips . Furthermore, Kirby intended their stories to be reprinted in collected editions, in
2646-433: A hundred thousand drugstores, news-stands, 5-&-10s, cigar stores, groceries, and diners. By doing this, he established a market - not for copies of Shakespeare or Jane Austen - but for collections and book-length versions of popular magazine fiction. In 1899, Harper's Weekly editor John Kendrick Bangs altered fantasy parameters with The Enchanted Type-Writer (a series of humorous short-stories supposedly typed by
2793-456: A major slump, while manufactured " collectables " numbering in the millions replaced quality with quantity until fans and speculators alike deserted the medium in droves. DC's Piranha Press and other imprints (including the mature readers' line Vertigo , and Helix , a short-lived science fiction imprint) were introduced to facilitate compartmentalized diversification and allow for specialized marketing of individual product lines. They increased
2940-996: A market for adventure that was post-apocalyptic , and dystopian . The same timeline introduced popular mail-delivered periodicals in Europe and the Americas ( The Saturday Evening Post (1821), Godey's Lady's Book (1830), and Harper's Weekly (1857)). The success of general-interest magazines led to others targeted at specific readerships: Boys' Own Magazine (1855), and Argosy (1882) among them. All of these magazines published short and serialized fiction features, as well as reportage, instructional articles, illustration, and opinion. Before WW1, fantasy vied for magazine space with westerns, romance, mysteries, military adventure, comedies, and horror. Writers often published stories in multiple genres - among them Arthur Conan Doyle , Robert E. Howard , Isaac Asimov , and Elmore Leonard . A sought-after hallmark for many of these writers
3087-493: A mysterious academy, where a romantic bond develops between a girl born to vampires, and a boy who hunts them. Fallen , by Lauren Kate , revolves around a student named Luce who finds herself drawn to a boy named Daniel, unaware that he is a fallen angel who shares a history with her. Other series, such as Carrie Jones 's Need , have characters moving to new locations but attending public schools while discovering mysterious occurrences elsewhere in their towns. A helping of
SECTION 20
#17327835209493234-490: A particular influence by writers Stephen King , R. L. Stine , and Neil Gaiman . The highly successful TV fantasy series Bewitched began its 8-year run in 1964, with its rival I Dream of Jeannie and a less-successful fantasy show My Mother the Car appearing a year later; The Addams Family based on Charles Addams New Yorker cartoons also debuted in 1964. Chester Anderson 's psychedelic adventure The Butterfly Kid
3381-518: A police officer faces while trying to balance her paranormal cases with life as a single mother ). In addition to books which present largely independent characters, certain stories feature men and women who are regularly partnered on adventures—often with an underlying romantic element. The Jaz Parks series , by Jennifer Rardin , follows the titular Central Intelligence Agency operative and her vampire boss as they combat supernatural threats to national security. Jocelynn Drake's Dark Days novels follow
3528-528: A primer. They would get artists ... and they taught them the ABCs, which amounted to learning Jack Kirby ... Jack was like the Holy Scripture and they simply had to follow him without deviation. That's what was told to me ... It was how they taught everyone to reconcile all those opposing attitudes to one single master point of view. Given carte blanche to write and illustrate his own stories, he created
3675-416: A principal in the magazine distributorship Independent News —Wheeler-Nicholson had to enter into partnership with Donenfeld to publish Detective Comics No. 1, and Detective Comics, Inc. (which helped inspire the abbreviation DC) was formed, with Wheeler-Nicholson and Donenfeld's accountant Jack S. Liebowitz listed as owners. As the company continued to experience cash-flow problems, Wheeler-Nicholson
3822-415: A publishing format that was later called the trade paperback , which became a standard industry practice decades later. While sales were respectable, they did not meet DC management's initially high expectations, and also suffered from a lack of comprehension and internal support from Infantino. By 1973 the "Fourth World" was all cancelled, although Kirby's conceptions soon became integral to the broadening of
3969-658: A romantic interest for Batman named Julie Madison , as well as the Batarang weapon that Batman commonly uses, and the fictional aircraft called the Batplane . The story of Batman's origin was first shown in Detective Comics No. 33 (November 1939), which depicted the death of Thomas Wayne and Martha Wayne by a mugger . The origin story remained crucial for the fictional character after its inception. The Daily Planet (a common setting of Superman)
4116-411: A romantic relationship between two characters. Paranormal romance focuses on a romantic relationship between two characters and how outside forces affect that relationship. The best litmus test to determine if a story is urban fantasy or paranormal romance is to ask the following question: 'If the romance between Character A and Character B were removed, would the plot still stand as a viable storyline?' If
4263-469: A sequel in 2002). In the cinema, the re-write of Dan Aykroyd 's original 1982 science fiction comedy script for Ghostbusters by Harold Ramis replaced the futuristic setting for present day New York City . This effectively enabled the film to be made, and introduced to the mainstream the idea of fantastical events taking place in a real-world setting. Two years later, Gremlins brought another batch of supernatural beings into our everyday world. At
4410-516: A series in the waning years of the 1980s with Burning Water , exploring the life of a contemporary American witch. The Vampire Files [1] by P.N. Elrod featured a vampire detective that begins the series by him solving his own murder. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, the 12-book series pioneered the vampire investigator role. P.N. Elrod has authored more than 25 books and edited many anthologies. She has won numerous awards for her work in establishing
4557-632: A spin-off from Gaiman's The Sandman ), with art by Glenn Fabry . Vertigo changed a character, the Marquis De Carabas, that had been portrayed in the TV series and on the radio as a man from the African Diaspora into a creature with a black skin tone not seen in the real world. The comic is an adaptation inspired by the novelisation, rather than the original TV series. Thus the characters and settings do not generally resemble those seen in
Neverwhere - Misplaced Pages Continue
4704-575: A standard teen romance in the middle of an imagined apocalyptic cult. Boarding schools are a common setting in teen urban fantasy. Rampant , by Diana Peterfreund , follows a group of young women at a cloisters as they train to fight killer unicorns. The House of Night series, by P. C. and Kristin Cast , presents a school where future vampires are disciplined while on the path to transformation, during which several romantic conflicts and other clashes ensue. Claudia Gray 's Evernight novels center on
4851-575: A subgenre called elfpunk on the basis that "Elfpunk is pretty much full of elves and fairies and traditional shit [...] Urban fantasy, though, can have some totally made-up fucked-up creatures." During the late Romantic era, writers of sensational fiction (including Mary Shelley , Dickens , Hoffmann , Le Fanu , Hugo , Poe , Wilkie Collins , Stoker , &c.) wrote melodramas that explored social anxieties induced by new technology, alienation resulting from population shifts to industrial centers, and fear of 'foreign' immigration. Re-imagining
4998-526: A subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery . DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book series first published in 1937. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, the first comic under the DC banner being published in 1937. The majority of its publications are set in the fictional DC Universe and feature numerous culturally iconic heroic characters , such as Superman , Batman , Wonder Woman , Green Lantern ,
5145-523: A subsidiary of Time Warner. In June, the first Tim Burton-directed Batman film was released, and DC began publishing its hardcover series of DC Archive Editions ; these were collections of many of their early, key comics series, featuring rare and expensive stories previously unseen by the majority of modern fans. Much of the restoration work was handled by Rick Keene, with colour restoration performed by DC's long-time resident colourist Bob LeRose . The Archive Editions attempted to retroactively credit many of
5292-575: A substantial and influential work of the genre. Kim Harrison 's Rachel Morgan novels, also regarded as inspirational works, feature a bounty-hunting "witch-born" demon who battles numerous supernatural foes. Multi-genre offerings combine urban fantasy with other established forms (e.g.: police procedurals, as presented in the Peter Grant stories of Ben Aaronovitch , or the Charlie Madigan series , by Kelly Gay , which explores challenges
5439-469: A superhero origin story with the reveal of an unnamed planet, later known as Krypton , where he is said to have originated . The issue also contained the first essential supporting character and one of the earliest female characters in any comic, with Lois Lane as Superman's first depicted romantic interest . The Green Hornet -inspired character known as the Crimson Avenger by Jim Chamber
5586-569: A supporting character called James Gordon , the police commissioner of what would later become Gotham City Police Department . Despite being a parody, All-American Publications introduced the earliest female character who became the female superhero Red Tornado (though disguised as a male) in Ma Hunkel who first appeared in the "Scribbly" stories in All-American Comics No. 3 (June 1939). Another important Batman debut
5733-787: A two-week run of Kauzlaric's adaptation. In May 2011, the first school production of Kauzlaric's adaptation was performed at Northwest Academy in Portland, Oregon . In February 2013, Kauzlaric's adaption was performed at Friends Academy in Locust Valley, New York . On 5 April 2013, the Sacred Fools Theater Company in Los Angeles performed the American West Coast premiere of Kauzlaric's adaptation. Originally scheduled to run through 11 May, it
5880-723: A vampire named Mira and a vampire hunter named Danaus, who work together to protect their people from a mutual enemy. Night Huntress , a series by Jeaniene Frost , centers on a half-vampire named Catherine and a vampire bounty hunter called Bones, who gradually become lovers while battling the undead. In contrast to the "professional heroes" found in adult urban-fantasy novels, many novels aimed at young adult audiences follow inexperienced protagonists who are unexpectedly drawn into paranormal struggles. Amidst these conflicts, characters often gain allies, find romance, and, in some cases, develop or discover supernatural abilities of their own. In Kelley Armstrong 's The Darkest Powers series,
6027-399: A way back, and help Door survive as she is hunted down by hired assassins. In London Below the various familiar names of London all take on a new significance: for example Knightsbridge becomes "Night's Bridge", a stone bridge whose darkness takes its toll in human life; The Angel, Islington is an actual angel. London Below is a parallel world in and beneath the sewers. Its inhabitants are
Neverwhere - Misplaced Pages Continue
6174-501: A wholly separate imprint (and fictional universe) with its own unique style and audience. As part of this purchase, DC also began to publish titles under the fledgling WildStorm sub-imprint America's Best Comics (ABC), a series of titles created by Alan Moore which included The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen , Tom Strong , and Promethea . Moore strongly opposed this move, and DC eventually stopped publishing ABC. In March 2003, DC acquired publishing and merchandising rights to
6321-429: Is his own favorite. Retrospective reviews of King's work note that he "brought reality to genre novels", and have remarked that "Jerusalem's Lot is the main character here, a warm-up for what King would later do with his beloved fictional towns of Derry and Castle Rock. We're given a vivid description, details and foibles, before the town is populated with a cast of characters..." Anne Rice published Interview with
6468-635: Is regarded as a seminal work of the genre. Certain staples of urban fantasy novels are also present in television shows. The concept of peaceful coexistence with paranormal beings is explored in the 1996 series Kindred: The Embraced , which focuses on secret vampire clans in San Francisco. Works such as Witchblade present the more common matter of a protagonist attempting to protect citizens. While urban-fantasy novels are often centered on heroines, television programs have regularly featured both genders in leading roles. Shows such as Beauty and
6615-516: Is still being used. The company created a second recurring title called New Comics , first released in December 1935, which was the start of the long-running Adventure Comics series that also featured many anthology titles. By 1936, the group had became Nicholson Publishing. Wheeler-Nicholson's next and final title, Detective Comics , was advertised with a cover illustration dated December 1936 but eventually premiered three months late with
6762-444: Is third. In 1934, entrepreneur Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson founded National Allied Publications , intended as an American comic book publishing company. Its debut publication was the tabloid -sized New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine #1 (the first of a comic series later called More Fun Comics ) with a February 1935 cover date . An anthology title, essentially for original stories not reprinted from newspaper strips , it
6909-456: Is unaware of an entire universe of wizards and magical creatures; and intersections of these domains provide plot material and character dimensionality for the action taking place primarily in the magic universe - and so being a type of high-fantasy . On the other hand, magical charm stories operate mostly in the mundane universe, but where a spell or token provides plot-interest. The protagonist of Robert Lawson 's 1945 Mr. Wilmer works as
7056-399: Is usually found in the setting—typically a large or small city—or even a suburban community in a metropolitan area. Use of contemporary technology (such as automotive vehicles or communications) and everyday community and social institutions (such as libraries, schools/universities, or markets) establish a familiar context. The period in which the action occurs may be the fairly recent past or
7203-539: The Infinite Crisis limited series. Immediately after this event, DC's ongoing series jumped forward a full year in their in-story continuity, as DC launched a weekly series, 52 , to gradually fill in the missing time. Concurrently, DC lost the copyright to "Superboy" (while retaining the trademark) when the heirs of Jerry Siegel used a provision of the 1976 revision to the copyright law to regain ownership. In 2005, DC launched its " All-Star " line (evoking
7350-905: The Flash , Cyborg , and Aquaman ; as well as famous fictional teams, including the Justice League , the Justice Society of America , the Teen Titans , and the Suicide Squad . The universe contains an assortment of well-known supervillains , such as the Joker , Lex Luthor , Deathstroke , the Reverse-Flash , Brainiac , and Darkseid . The company has published non-DC Universe-related material, including Watchmen , V for Vendetta , Fables , and many other titles, under
7497-667: The Green Lantern character, the introduction of the modern all-star team Justice League of America (JLA), and many more superheroes, heralding what historians and fans call the Silver Age of Comic Books . National radically overhauled its continuing characters—primarily Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman—rather than just reimagining them. The Superman family of titles, under editor Mort Weisinger , introduced such enduring characters as Supergirl , Bizarro , and Brainiac . The Batman titles, under editor Jack Schiff , introduced
SECTION 50
#17327835209497644-483: The Phantom Stranger ) rose from art director to become DC's editorial director. With the growing popularity of upstart rival Marvel Comics threatening to topple DC from its longtime number-one position in the comics industry, he tried to direct DC's focus towards marketing new and existing titles and characters with more adult sensibilities, aimed at an emerging older age group of superhero comic book fans; this
7791-795: The Silver Age , the comics of the 1970s and 1980s became known as the Bronze Age, as fantasy gave way to more naturalistic and sometimes darker themes. Illegal drug use, banned by the Comics Code Authority , explicitly appeared in comics for the first time in Marvel Comics' story " Green Goblin Reborn! " in The Amazing Spider-Man No. 96 (May 1971), and after the Code's updating in response, DC offered
7938-448: The cyberpunk sub-genre of science fiction . Sweet Silver Blues a 1987 novel by fantasy author Glen Cook began his Garrett P.I. series. These tales chronicled adventures of a hardboiled detective in a contemporary fantasy world, and were among the earliest to use a fantastic "underworld" in place of the criminals and thugs of Dashiell Hammett , Raymond Chandler , and their followers. Prolific author Mercedes Lackey started
8085-557: The line further, increasing the number of titles and story pages, and raising the price from 35 cents to 50 cents. Most series received eight-page back-up features while some had full-length twenty-five-page stories. This was a move the company called the "DC Explosion". The move was not successful, however, and corporate parent Warner dramatically cut back on these largely unsuccessful titles, firing many staffers in what industry watchers dubbed "the DC Implosion ". In September 1978,
8232-409: The 1930s-50s with the success of light supernatural fare in the movies (and later on TV). The genre's current publishing popularity began in 1980s North America, as writers and publishers were encouraged by the success of Stephen King and Anne Rice . Urban fantasy combines imaginary/unrealistic elements of plot, character, theme, or setting with a largely-familiar world —combining the familiar and
8379-402: The 1940s -are credited by many current authors for bringing contemporary characters and American settings into the fantasy and horror genres. These early tales, however, differ from current urban fantasy - they present supernatural beings and acts as unnatural, aberrant, and a possible danger to ordinary citizens. Unknown magazine (1939–1943) was conceived by its editor John W. Campbell as
8526-568: The 1942 comic cinema romance I Married a Witch by Rene Clair . Writer Charles G. Finney 's celebrated 1935 experimental novel The Circus of Dr. Lao placed mythical creatures in a contemporary setting to examine the society in a small Arizona town. Gruesome cartoons by Charles Addams began exploring the humorous side of horror in the New Yorker magazine around the same time. Occult detective stories, such as Manly Wade Wellman 's John Thunstone stories - written originally during
8673-531: The 1972 horror movie The Night Stalker . Isaac Asimov 's Azazel stories about a tiny demon (less than an inch tall), most of which were written in the 1980s, take some of their urban character of his mystery stories initially published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine . Dorothy Gilman , a writer known for her genre-merging Mrs. Pollifax "cozy-spy" action novels, wrote The Clairvoyant Countess in 1975 which featured various forms of ESP (and wrote
8820-561: The 1980s and early 1990s. This development is apparent in the increased use of the term in contemporary reviews. Terri Windling 's shared Borderlands universe, made up of a number of anthologies and novels, launched with the eponymous paperback original anthology, Borderland in 1986, followed up by Bordertown , also in 1986. The series was later touted by Neil Gaiman as "one of the most important places where Urban Fantasy began". An article in Tor.com has stated that "some say, Urban Fantasy
8967-461: The American comic book market was shared by DC Comics and its long-time major competitor Marvel Comics (acquired in 2009 by Warner Bros. Discovery's main competitor, The Walt Disney Company ), though this figure may be distorted by the fact that sales of graphic novels are excluded. When all book sales are included, DC is the second largest publisher of comic books, after Viz Media ; and Marvel
SECTION 60
#17327835209499114-538: The Beast , The Dresden Files , Forever Knight , Grimm , Moonlight , and Supernatural are based around male protagonists, while other programs, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer , Charmed , and Witchblade , focus largely on female protagonists. DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (later simply known as DC ) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment ,
9261-490: The Bible as the foundation of his own new company, EC Comics . At that point, "Liebowitz promptly orchestrated the merger of All-American and Detective Comics into National Comics... Next he took charge of organizing National Comics, [the self-distributorship] Independent News, and their affiliated firms into a single corporate entity, National Periodical Publications ". National Periodical Publications became publicly traded on
9408-472: The Changing Man , as well as an increasing array of non-superhero titles, in an attempt to recapture the pre- Wertham days of post-War comicdom. In 1977, the company officially changed its name to DC Comics . It had used the brand "Superman-DC" since the 1950s, and was colloquially known as DC Comics for years. In June 1978, five months before the release of the first Superman film , Kahn expanded
9555-544: The DC Universe, especially after the major toy-company, Kenner Products , judged them ideal for their action-figure adaptation of the DC Universe , the Super Powers Collection . Obligated by his contract, Kirby created other unrelated series for DC, including Kamandi , The Demon , and OMAC , before ultimately returning to Marvel Comics in 1976. Following the science-fiction innovations of
9702-520: The Oaks ), the economics of the market favor series characters, and genre-crossing allows sales along multiple lines. Many urban-fantasy novels are told via a first-person narrative , and often feature mythological beings, romance , and female protagonists who are involved in law enforcement or vigilantism. Laurell K. Hamilton 's Anita Blake series—which follows the investigations of a supernatural Federal Marshal during paranormal cases—has been called
9849-466: The Rules " (1939) presented ghosts , lycanthropes , gnomes , mermaids , demons and more, in a modern setting, with horrific and/or humorous results. The prolific de Camp and his writing partner, war game inventor Fletcher Pratt , also explored urban material with their stories of Harold Shea in the 1940s and Gavagan's Bar stories in the 1950s. The 1940s saw a number of comic ghost-movies; some of
9996-556: The Silver Age Teen Titans led DC's editors to seek the same for the wider DC Universe . The result, the Wolfman/Pérez 12-issue limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths , gave the company an opportunity to realign and jettison some of the characters' complicated backstory and continuity discrepancies. A companion publication, two volumes entitled The History of the DC Universe , set out the revised history of
10143-649: The TV series. This change in tone coincided with the prominent "Go-Go Checks" cover-dress that featured a black-and-white checkered strip at the top of each DC comic (all cover dates between February 1966 and August 1967), a misguided attempt by then-managing editor Irwin Donenfeld to make DC's output "stand out on the newsracks". In particular, DC artist Carmine Infantino complained that the distinctive cover made it easier for readers to spot DC's titles and avoid them in favor of Marvel's titles. In 1967, Infantino (who had designed popular Silver Age characters Batgirl and
10290-590: The UF genre. Shadowrun , a tabletop RPG with a similar concept to the Borderlands universe appeared. Like those earlier books, Shadowrun took place in a future Earth setting (specifically 2050, in the first edition), after the reappearance of supernatural powers and beings. Players could play humans ( cybernetically enhanced or otherwise), elves , dwarves or orcs , all in a dark high tech setting. The more definitely cyberpunk approach (jaundiced and gritty) of
10437-555: The Vampire (a re-working of her own late-60s short story) in 1976 to strikingly mixed critical reviews. Incorporating many genres (horror, eroticism, fantasy, romance, historical fiction), it and its sequels established a new audience for fantasy characters in a real world. Recognizing its potential Alfred A. Knopf editor Victoria Wilson recommended a very substantial advance; later, the paperback rights cost Ballantine Books $ 700,000. The 1974 TV show Kolchak: The Night Stalker
10584-514: The World Wars. As well as eight books, there have been several film and stage adaptations. The high-fantasy Harry Potter phenomenon may soon be in position to overtake Poppins in sales, but not longevity. In an online commentary, author Jeannie Holmes described differences between urban fantasy and paranormal romance : The two share 90% of their genre DNA. However, the main differences are this: Urban fantasy focuses on an issue outside of
10731-620: The alternative imprint Vertigo and DC Black Label . Originally at 432 Fourth Avenue in Manhattan , New York City, the company offices have been located at 480 and later 575 Lexington Avenue , 909 Third Avenue , 75 Rockefeller Plaza , 666 Fifth Avenue , and 1325 Avenue of the Americas . DC Comics was located at 1700 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan until April 2015, when DC Entertainment transferred its headquarters to Burbank, California . DC Comics books are distributed to
10878-762: The answer is 'yes,' chances are good it's urban fantasy. If the answer is 'no,' it's most likely paranormal romance. Use of other forms of media has become a common part of the creation and promotion of urban-fantasy works. "Sometimes the songs influence the book and sometimes it's the other way around, but either way the playlist eventually comes to epitomize the feeling of the book to me." —Christina Henry Several urban-fantasy authors cite music as an inspiration. Certain writers recommend songs or playlists on their official websites, including Courtney Allison Moulton, Jaye Wells, and Sarah J. Maas , who couple their recommendations with links to music-providing services. Publishers have also used music for book trailers, including
11025-587: The antihero. These titles helped pave the way for comics to be more widely accepted in literary-criticism circles and to make inroads into the book industry, with collected editions of these series as commercially successful trade paperbacks . The mid-1980s also saw the end of many long-running DC war comics , including series that had been in print since the 1960s. These titles, all with over 100 issues, included Sgt. Rock , G.I. Combat , The Unknown Soldier , and Weird War Tales . In March 1989, Warner Communications merged with Time Inc. , making DC Comics
11172-594: The best-known today include The Canterville Ghost (a re-making of the original story by Oscar Wilde , Blithe Spirit (based on Noël Coward 's hit London and Broadway play), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (based on an R.A. Dick novel), as well as series-fare Topper Returns , Gildersleeve's Ghost , The Smiling Ghost , plus cartoons and offerings from The Three Stooges , Olsen and Johnson , Walt Disney Productions and Looney Tunes . Bell, Book and Candle opened on Broadway in 1950, playing 233 performances before it went on
11319-571: The bookstore market by Penguin Random House Publisher Services . The comics shop direct market was supplied by Diamond Comic Distributors until June 2020, when Lunar Distribution and UCS Comic Distributors (who were by then dominating direct market distribution on account of the disruption to Diamond caused by the COVID-19 pandemic ) replaced Diamond as the direct market distributor. In 2017, approximately 70% of
11466-413: The brand's popularity, like the presence of the color red or word balloons on the cover, or that the perceived crudeness of the interior art was somehow more appealing to readers. When Lee learned about DC's subsequent experimental attempts to imitate these perceived details, he amused himself by arranging direct defiance of those assumptions in Marvel's publications as sales strengthened further to frustrate
11613-424: The character was revived in DC's new title Shazam! , which featured artwork by Captain Marvel's creator C. C. Beck . In the meantime, the abandoned 'Marvel' trademark had been seized by Marvel Comics in 1967, with the creation of their Captain Marvel , preventing DC from using the name in the title of their own comic series. While DC's Captain Marvel failed to recapture his earlier popularity, he later appeared in
11760-429: The comic book limited series . This publishing format allowed for the deliberate creation of finite storylines within a more flexible publishing format that could showcase creations without forcing the talent into unsustainable open-ended commitments. The first such title was World of Krypton in 1979, and its positive results led to subsequent similar titles and later more ambitious productions like Camelot 3000 for
11907-482: The company. The resulting influx of sophisticated horror-fantasy material led to DC in 1993 establishing the Vertigo mature-readers imprint, which did not subscribe to the Comics Code Authority . Two DC limited series, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller and Watchmen by Moore and artist Dave Gibbons , drew attention in the mainstream press for their dark psychological complexity and promotion of
12054-488: The competition. However, this ignorance of Marvel's true appeal did not extend to some of the writing talent during this period, and attempts were made to emulate Marvel's narrative approach. For instance, there was the Doom Patrol series by Arnold Drake (who had previously warned DC's management about Marvel's strength), a superhero team of outsiders who resented their freakish powers, which Drake later speculated
12201-434: The contemporary universe by manipulating one or more social/technical realities exploded with highly-popular works by Jules Verne , and Doyle's Professor Challenger stories. Jack London 's 1908 dystopian novel The Iron Heel preceded by a year H. G. Wells ' novel The Sleeper Awakes . Karel Čapek , Aldous Huxley , and even Sinclair Lewis (in his novel It Can't Happen Here ) all wrote along this axis, exploiting
12348-547: The direct market in 1982. These changes in policy shaped the future of the medium as a whole, and in the short term allowed DC to entice creators away from rival Marvel, and encourage stability on individual titles. In November 1980 DC launched the ongoing series The New Teen Titans , by writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez , two popular talents with a history of success. Their superhero-team comic, superficially similar to Marvel's ensemble series X-Men , but rooted in DC history, earned significant sales in part due to
12495-512: The distribution of NPP's shows. A 1966 Batman TV show on the ABC network sparked a temporary spike in comic book sales and a brief fad for superheroes in Saturday morning animation ( Filmation produced most of DC's initial cartoons) and other media. DC significantly lightened the tone of many of its comics—particularly Batman and Detective Comics —to better complement the "camp" tone of
12642-723: The end of 2009. By 2007, DC was licensing characters from the Archie Comics imprint Red Circle Comics . They appeared in the Red Circle line, based in the DC Universe, with a series of one-shots followed by a miniseries that led into two ongoing titles that each lasted for ten issues. In 2011, DC rebooted all of its running titles following the Flashpoint storyline. The reboot called The New 52 gave new origin stories and costume designs to many of DC's characters. DC licensed pulp characters including Doc Savage and
12789-450: The example of Atlas/Seaboard Comics and such independent companies as Eclipse Comics —DC began to offer royalties in place of the industry-standard work-for-hire agreement in which creators worked for a flat fee and signed away all rights, giving talent a financial incentive tied to the success of their work. As it happened, the implementation of these incentives proved opportune considering Marvel Comics' Editor-in-Chief, Jim Shooter ,
12936-482: The fantastic is often an element in children's literature, but the two major strands of urban fantasy are well-represented in particular. The hidden-world focuses on stories and characters taking place in a fully-realized domain which operates secretly but simultaneously to the world with which we are familiar. An outstanding example are the Harry Potter books of J. K. Rowling - where our own ( muggle ) world
13083-463: The first comic book to feature the character archetype later known as the "superhero", Action Comics was a sales hit that brought to life a new age of comic books, now affectionately termed the "Golden Age" . Action Comics #1 is credited as featuring the first appearance of Superman, both on the cover illustration and inside the issue, and is now one of the most valuable and sought-after comic book issues of all time. The first Superman tale included
13230-686: The first mention of Batman's utility belt by Gardner Fox . Outside of DC's publishing, a character later integrated as DC was introduced by Fox Feature Syndicate named the Blue Beetle released in August 1939. Fictional cities were a common theme of DC; the first revealed city was Superman's home city of Metropolis , originally named in Action Comics No. 16 (September 1939). Detective Comics No. 31 (September 1939) by Gardner Fox, Bob Kane and Sheldon Moldoff introduced
13377-639: The first recurring Superman enemy referred to as the Ultra-Humanite ; created by Siegel and Shuster, this is commonly cited as one of the earliest supervillains in comic books. The Superman character had another breakthrough when he was given his own comic book series , which was previously unheard of. The first issue, published in June 1939, helped directly introduce Superman's adoptive parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent , also created by Siegel and Shuster. Detective Comics No. 29 (July 1939) included
13524-447: The footage to make it look as if it had been shot on film. For this reason, the programme had been lit and shot in a manner appropriate to a film-based production, but the decision to apply the filmisation process was later reversed. In addition to what some considered the old-fashioned appearance of un-filmised video, the lighting set up with film in mind appeared garish and unsubtle on the more clinical medium. Gaiman himself commented that
13671-538: The game's universe exerted its own influence. Anthologist and professor. Dr. Martin H. Greenberg sparked growth in urban fantasy by commissioning established authors to write stories for his many fantasy anthologies (among them Wizards , Witches , Devils , and Faeries ). The commissioned work was juxtaposed with older fiction; it frequently used supernatural elements in contemporary urban settings. Several publications and writers have cited authors Laurell K. Hamilton and Kim Harrison as notable contributors to
13818-501: The genre. Entertainment Weekly , USA Today , and Time have recognized the longevity and influence of Hamilton's stories, while The New York Times and Amazon.com have noted the work of Kim Harrison. Author Courtney Allison Moulton has cited Hamilton's early works among her inspirations. Kelly Gay has noted Hamilton, Harrison, and Emma Bull as primary influences. Jim Butcher 's The Dresden Files series have been described by Barnes and Noble as "the gold standard" for
13965-419: The genre; one of the books from the series was nominated for the 2015 Hugo Award . N. K. Jemisin 's The City We Became features major cities acquiring sentience through human avatars; it won the 2020 BSFA Award for Best Novel and was nominated for the 2021 Hugo and 2020 Nebula Awards. While adult urban fantasy novels may stand-alone (like Mulengro by Charles de Lint or Emma Bull 's War for
14112-403: The ghost of 18th century writer James Boswell ) - introducing a benign revenant in a contemporary setting. Thorne Smith was successful in 1920s-30s, especially his two " Topper " farces about a middle-aged banker's adventures with a couple of ghosts (subsequently made into films, radio plays, and a 1950s television series); Smith's posthumously-released novel The Passionate Witch was made into
14259-578: The ghost of a Powhatan warrior during the London Blitz. British spy-novel writers Adelaide Manning and Cyril Coles (under the pseudonym Francis Gaites, but published in the United States as by Manning Coles ) produced a series of humorous novels from 1954 to 1958 placing ghostly revenants of Franco-Prussian War era into 1950s Paris and Como. Herman Cohen 's teen-horror films for American International Pictures commenced in 1957 with I Was
14406-503: The groundwork for a full continuity-reshuffling sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths , promising substantial changes to the DC Universe (and side-stepping the 1994 Zero Hour event which similarly tried to ret-con the history of the DCU). In 2005, the critically lauded Batman Begins film was released; also, the company published several limited series establishing increasingly escalating conflicts among DC's heroes, with events climaxing in
14553-434: The homeless, but also people from other times, such as Roman legionaries and medieval monks, as well as fictional and fantastical characters. Neverwhere was first broadcast on BBC Two from 12 September 1996. There are six half-hour episodes: The idea for the story came from a conversation between Gaiman and Henry about a possible television series. Henry suggested a story with tribes of homeless people in London. Gaiman
14700-446: The line was dramatically reduced and standard-size books returned to 17-page stories but for a still increased 40 cents. By 1980, the books returned to 50 cents with a 25-page story count but the story pages replaced house ads in the books. Seeking new ways to boost market share , the new team of publisher Kahn, vice president Paul Levitz , and managing editor Giordano addressed the issue of talent instability. To that end—and following
14847-547: The long-running fantasy series Elfquest , previously self-published by creators Wendy and Richard Pini under their WaRP Graphics publication banner. This series then followed another non-DC title, Tower Comics ' series T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents , in collection into DC Archive Editions. In 2004, DC temporarily acquired the North American publishing rights to graphic novels from European publishers 2000 AD and Humanoids . It also rebranded its younger-audience titles with
14994-511: The loss of quality resulting from multi-generational VHS copies actually improved the appearance in this respect. After a two-cassette VHS video release, the six episodes were released in the US and Canada to DVD as a two-disc set on 9 September 2005 in conjunction with A&E Network . Despite the DVDs often being advertised as region 1 , some of the actual discs are region zero. The BBC have released
15141-562: The major DC characters. Crisis featured many key deaths that shaped the DC Universe for the following decades, and it separated the timeline of DC publications into pre- and post-"Crisis". Meanwhile, a parallel update had started in the non-superhero and horror titles. Since early 1984, the work of British writer Alan Moore had revitalized the horror series The Saga of the Swamp Thing , and soon numerous British writers, including Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison , began freelancing for
15288-449: The mascot Johnny DC and established the CMX imprint to reprint translated manga . In 2006, CMX took over from Dark Horse Comics ' publication of the webcomic Megatokyo in print form. DC also took advantage of the demise of Kitchen Sink Press and acquired the rights to much of the work of Will Eisner , such as his The Spirit series and his graphic novels. In 2004, DC began laying
15435-408: The most popular superhero titles continued publication, including Action Comics and Detective Comics , the medium's two longest-running titles. In the mid-1950s, editorial director Irwin Donenfeld and publisher Liebowitz directed editor Julius Schwartz (whose roots lay in the science-fiction book market) to produce a one-shot Flash story in the try-out title Showcase . Instead of reviving
15582-556: The near future, but will typically require merely only casual historical or other special knowledge from the reader. The city-setting is a tool; used to establish a tone, to help move the plot, and may even be acknowledged as a character itself. Urban fantasy is most often a sub-genre of low fantasy (where magical events intrude on an otherwise-normal world) and/or hard fantasy (treating magic as something understandable and explainable), and works may be found mixing with sub-genres of, for example, horror , occult detective fiction , or
15729-634: The novel was created and performed by the Actors Gymnasium in Evanston, Illinois . In 2010, Lifeline Theatre in Chicago performed an adaptation written by Robert Kauzlaric. The eight-week run proved so successful that it was extended another four weeks. The play was viewed by Neil Gaiman and the co-creator of the original BBC series, Lenny Henry, during the extension. In February 2012, Calgary -based theatre company Mob Hit Productions performed
15876-526: The old character, Schwartz had writers Robert Kanigher and John Broome , penciler Carmine Infantino , and inker Joe Kubert create an entirely new super-speedster, updating and modernizing the Flash's civilian identity, costume, and origin with a science-fiction bent. The Flash's reimagining in Showcase No. 4 (October 1956) proved sufficiently popular that it soon led to a similar revamping of
16023-469: The other imprints was Impact Comics from 1991 to 1992 in which the Archie Comics superheroes were licensed and revamped. The stories in the line were part of its own shared universe. DC entered into a publishing agreement with Milestone Media that gave DC a line of comics featuring a culturally and racially diverse range of superhero characters. Although the Milestone line ceased publication after
16170-419: The same time another low-budget supernatural comedy success, Teen Wolf was popular enough to generate a television show, an animated cartoon, and a cinema sequel. Before its run was finished, another general-audience teen comedy with supernatural elements, Buffy the Vampire Slayer , was in production. The term began to come into its present use in the late 1970s; however, its meaning kept shifting during
16317-467: The series on DVD on 23 April 2007. The opening theme tune on the original BBC2 transmission was the same as the music over the closing credits. The opening theme on the Region 2 DVD version is a series of abstract sounds, while the closing music remains intact. The music for the series was made by Brian Eno . Neil Gaiman wrote a novelisation of the television series that was first released in 1996, during
16464-583: The series. The series was published by DC Comics 's Vertigo imprint . The collected volume was also published by Vertigo, in February 2007 ( ISBN 1-4012-1007-4 ). In 2006, a world-premiere stage adaptation of the novel, developed by writer and actress Eve Butler and director Sasha Travis, was produced by the Savannah Actor's Theatre in Savannah, Georgia . In 2008, a stage adaptation of
16611-449: The specific inducement, Marvel Comics' writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby ushered in the sub-Silver Age "Marvel Age" of comics with the debut issue of The Fantastic Four . Reportedly, DC dismissed the initial success of Marvel's editorial change until its consistently strengthening sales—albeit also benefiting DC's parent company Independent News, as Marvel's distributor—made it impossible to ignore. This commercial situation
16758-511: The stability of the creative team, who both continued with the title for six full years. In addition, Wolfman and Pérez took advantage of the limited-series option to create a spin-off title, Tales of the New Teen Titans , to present origin stories of their original characters without having to break the narrative flow of the main series or oblige them to double their work load with another ongoing title. This successful revitalization of
16905-490: The stock market in 1961. Despite the official names "National Comics" and "National Periodical Publications", the company began branding itself as "Superman-DC" as early as 1940 and became known colloquially as DC Comics for years before the official adoption of that name in 1977. DC Comics began to move aggressively against what it saw as copyright-violating imitations from other companies, such as Fox Comics ' Wonder Man , which (according to court testimony) Fox started as
17052-590: The strange. The world does not have to imitate the real world, but can instead be set in a different world or time. Such elements may exist secretly in the world or may occur openly. Fantastic components may be magic , paranormal beings, recognizable mythic or folk-tale plots, or thematic tropes (such as a quest, or a battle of good and evil). Authors may use current urban myths , borrow fictional technologies, or even invent occult practices, as well as using established supernatural characters and events from folklore, literature, film, or comics. The urban component
17199-498: The successful Batwoman , Bat-Girl , Ace the Bat-Hound , and Bat-Mite in an attempt to modernize the strip with non-science-fiction elements. Schwartz and Infantino then revitalized Batman in what the company promoted as the "New Look", with relatively down-to-earth stories re-emphasizing Batman as a detective. Meanwhile, editor Kanigher successfully introduced a whole family of Wonder Woman characters having fantastic adventures in
17346-421: The tales to be adapted are Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series, Patricia Briggs's Mercy Thompson stories, and Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely . Works of urban fantasy have been adapted to or have originated in film and television. Aside from popular ghost and horror films from the 1930s-60s, well-known examples include the 1992 series Highlander and the TV adaptation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer , which
17493-471: The television show's transmission. This was accompanied by a spoken word release on CD and cassette. The text was later re-written for the US market (Gaiman's publisher insisting that many of the references of London were too obscure for US tastes) and a third version is now available which combines elements of both earlier versions of the novel. A nine-issue graphic novel limited series began in June 2005, written by Mike Carey (who had worked on Lucifer ,
17640-471: The title of the 1940s publication ), designed to feature some of the company's best-known characters in stories that eschewed the long and convoluted continuity of the DC Universe. The line began with All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder and All-Star Superman , and All-Star Wonder Woman and All-Star Batgirl was announced in 2006, but neither of these stories had been released or scheduled as of
17787-574: The trailer for Carrie Jones's Captivate , which features the work of songwriter Derek Daisey. Original music is also produced. In 2010, musicians Alexandra Monir, Michael Bearden, and Heather Holley (a songwriter for Christina Aguilera 's Stripped ) collaborated to create songs for Monir's debut novel, Timeless . Book trailers are often used to promote urban-fantasy novels. Publishers such as HarperCollins also produce regular video interviews with debuting authors. Adaptations of urban-fantasy novels have appeared in comic books and manga . Among
17934-422: The use of non-traditional contractual arrangements, including the dramatic rise of creator-owned projects, leading to a significant increase in critically lauded work (much of it for Vertigo) and the licensing of material from other companies. DC also increased publication of book-store friendly formats, including trade paperback collections of individual serial comics, as well as original graphic novels . One of
18081-468: The various "punk" genres. Common themes include coexistence or conflict between humans and other beings, and the changes such characters and events bring to local life. Many authors, publishers, and readers particularly distinguish urban fantasy from works of paranormal romance , which use similar characters and settings, but focus on the romantic relationships between characters. The YA author Scott Westerfeld distinguished between urban fantasy and
18228-401: The writers and artists who had worked for DC without receiving much recognition during the early age of comic books when individual credits were rare. The comics industry experienced a brief boom in the early 1990s, thanks to a combination of speculative purchasing—mass purchase of the books as collectible items, with the intention to resell at a higher value (as the rising value of older issues
18375-479: Was " realism " - although the stories were outrageously fantastic. Dime novels also arrived before the Civil War ; some of the earliest re-printing serials from magazines. Commonly associated with Western adventure, they also encompassed romance and crime-fiction. Robert deGraff founded Simon & Schuster's Pocket Books in 1939, he distributed not only to the 2,800 US bookstores, but also in more than
18522-636: Was a possibility, later confirming in 2017 that he was in fact writing it. "How the Marquis Got His Coat Back" is a short story written by Neil Gaiman and set in the Neverwhere universe. It was published in Rogues , a short story anthology edited by Gardner Dozois and George RR Martin . Audible adapted it as an audio story as well. Urban fantasy Urban fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy , placing supernatural elements in
18669-412: Was alienating much of his company's creative staff with his authoritarian manner and major talents there went to DC like Roy Thomas , Gene Colan , Marv Wolfman , and George Pérez . In addition, emulating the era's new television form, the miniseries while addressing the matter of an excessive number of ongoing titles fizzling out within a few issues of their start, DC created the industry concept of
18816-420: Was an occult detective series featuring a Chicago newspaper reporter uncovering and battling supernatural creatures (e.g. vampires and zombies) in an urban environment. He was unbelieved and unappreciated, considered by his boss, colleagues, the police and the public as something between a crackpot or an insane murderer as he struggles with both real and metaphorical demons in each episode. This series spun off from
18963-482: Was born in Bordertown," which provided "young, beginning writers like Charles de Lint and Emma Bull " with a platform. Emma Bull's 1987 urban fantasy War for the Oaks , where fairy factions battle in present-day Minneapolis , also received interest and attention. Both Bull's novel and the Borderlands books emphasized young, poor, hip protagonists. In this, they had much in common with the usual protagonist of
19110-444: Was charging fifteen cents. At this time, the senior DC staff were reportedly unable to explain how this small publishing house was achieving its increasingly threatening commercial strength. For instance, when Marvel's product was examined in a meeting, the emphasis on more sophisticated character-based narrative and artist-driven visual storytelling was apparently overlooked. Instead, superficial reasons were put forward to account for
19257-467: Was extended an additional two weeks due to its popularity. The play was viewed by Neil Gaiman. In August 2013, Washington, D.C. –based company Rorschach Theatre performed Kauzlaric's adaptation after a successful Kickstarter campaign. A script was written for a film version in 2009 and was optioned by The Weinstein Company . The project has been abandoned since. A radio dramatisation in six parts
19404-628: Was featured in Detective Comics No. 20 (October 1938). This character is known to be the first masked vigilante published by DC. An unnamed "office boy", retconned as Jimmy Olsen 's first appearance, was revealed in a Superman story by Siegel and Shuster in Action Comics No. 6 (November 1938). Starting in 1939, Siegel and Shuster's Superman was the first comic-derived character to appear in other formats, later featuring in his own newspaper comic strip , which first introduced his biological parents Jor-El and Lara . All-American Publications' debut comic series, All-American Comics ,
19551-461: Was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4 Extra in March 2013, written by Dirk Maggs and co-directed with producer Heather Larmour. During one of his book signings Gaiman indicated that it would be released for sale in late 2013. The radio play starred James McAvoy as Richard Mayhew and Natalie Dormer as Lady Door. Since at least 2014, Gaiman said a sequel to the book titled The Seven Sisters
19698-740: Was first named in a Superman newspaper strip around November 1939. Doll Man was the first superhero to be produced by Quality Comics , which DC now owns. Fawcett Comics was formed around 1939 and became DC's original competitor company over the next decade. At the end of 1944, All-American titles began using its own logo to distinguish it from the National comics. All-American Publications , an affiliate concern co-owned by Gaines and Liebowitz, merged with Detective Comics, Inc. on September 30, 1946, forming National Comics Publications . The previous year, in June 1945, Gaines had allowed Liebowitz to buy him out and had retained only Picture Stories from
19845-573: Was first published in April 1939. The series Detective Comics made history as being the first to feature Batman —a Bob Kane and Bill Finger creation—in issue No.27 (March 1939) with the request of more superhero titles. Batman was depicted as a masked vigilante who wore a caped suit known as the Batsuit and drove a car that was later referred to as the Batmobile . The Batman story also included
19992-581: Was forced out after the first year. Shortly afterwards, Detective Comics, Inc. purchased the remains of National Allied (also known as Nicholson Publishing) at a bankruptcy auction and absorbed it. Meanwhile, Max Gaines formed the sister company All-American Publications in 1939. Detective Comics, Inc. soon launched a new anthology title called Action Comics ; the first issue , cover dated June 1938, featured new characters such as Superman by Siegel and Shuster, Zatara by Fred Guardineer , and Tex Thompson by Ken Finch and Bernard Baily . Considered as
20139-418: Was highlighted by Marvel's superior sell-through percentage numbers which were typically 70% to DC's roughly 50%, meaning that DC's publications were barely making a profit after returns from the distributors were factored in, while Marvel was making a healthy profit by comparison. Also in 1961, both DC and Marvel increased their cover price from ten cents to twelve cents, while the rival publisher Dell Comics
20286-457: Was in response to Marvel's efforts to market their superhero line to college-aged adults. Infantino also recruited major talents such as ex-Marvel artist and Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko , and promising newcomers Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil , and he replaced some existing DC editors with artist-editors, including Joe Kubert and Dick Giordano , to give DC's output a more artistic critical eye. In 1967, National Periodical Publications
20433-418: Was initially reluctant to commit, as he feared that making the homeless appear "cool" might cause more young people to attempt to emulate the characters, but decided that the effect could be avoided by making the story more removed from reality. Neverwhere received some criticism for its appearance. One major problem lay in the original plan to shoot on video (for budgetary reasons), and then later " filmise "
20580-632: Was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1968. Also in 1968, the English translation of Italo Calvino 's short-story collection " Le cosmicomiche " made his fantastic tales built around minor scientific details available to the Anglo-American audience that was interested in urban fantasy. After the success of Stephen King 's contemporary horror-story Carrie in 1973, the author introduced supernatural characters (vampires) into his next book, 'Salem's Lot (1976), which he has claimed
20727-470: Was plagiarized by Stan Lee to create The X-Men . There was also the young Jim Shooter who purposely emulated Marvel's writing when he wrote for DC after studying both companies' styles, such as for the Legion of Super-Heroes feature. In 1966, National Periodical Publications established its own television arm, led by Allen Ducovny, to develop and produce TV projects, with Superman TV Corporation handling
20874-456: Was purchased by Kinney National Company , which purchased Warner Bros.-Seven Arts in 1969. Kinney National spun off its non-entertainment assets in 1972 (as National Kinney Corporation ) and changed its name to Warner Communications Inc. In 1970, Jack Kirby moved from Marvel Comics to DC, at the end of the Silver Age of Comics , in which Kirby's contributions to Marvel played a large, integral role. As artist Gil Kane described: Jack
21021-475: Was the introduction of the fictional mansion known as Wayne Manor first seen in Detective Comics No. 28 (June 1939). The series Adventure Comics followed in the footsteps of Action Comics and Detective Comics by featuring a new recurring superhero called Sandman who first appeared in Adventure Comics No. 40 (July 1939). Action Comics No. 13 (June 1939) introduced
21168-417: Was the single most influential figure in the turnaround in Marvel's fortunes from the time he rejoined the company ... It wasn't merely that Jack conceived most of the characters that are being done, but ... Jack's point of view and philosophy of drawing became the governing philosophy of the entire publishing company and, beyond the publishing company, of the entire field ... [Marvel took] Jack and use[d] him as
21315-464: Was thought to imply that all comics would rise dramatically in price)—and several storylines gaining attention from the mainstream media. DC's extended storylines in which Superman was killed , Batman was crippled , and Green Lantern turned into the supervillain Parallax , resulted in dramatically increased sales. However, the increases were temporary, and sales dropped off as the industry went into
21462-421: Was to convince Bill Sarnoff, the head of Warner Publishing, to keep DC as a publishing concern, as opposed to simply managing their licensing of their properties. With that established, DC had attempted to compete with the now-surging Marvel by dramatically increasing its output and attempting to win the market by flooding it. This included launching series featuring such new characters as Firestorm and Shade,
21609-449: Was unlike many comic book series before it. While DC Comics is now primarily associated with superhero comics , the genres in the first anthology titles consisted of funnies , Western comics , and adventure-related stories. The character Doctor Occult —created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in December 1935 and included in issue No. 6 of New Fun Comics —is considered to be the earliest recurring superhero created by DC that
#948051