Comic books

We've all as a kid wanted to explore areas beyond our reach and out of our world. Science fiction movies weren't so easily accesable and books...boring to the extreme, from child's perspective of course. That is why we wanted something easy to read and entertaining at the same time. So as any of young readers discovers comic books - his/her life becomes 3 times better.

Even though it all started with a huge variety of subjects and the fields of interests covered in comic books are extremely broad, the most popular genre among the comics is the superhero topic. Originated in 1911 with "John Carter of Mars" Edgar Rice Burroughs, followed by "The Lone Ranger", "Conan the Barbarian" and "The Phantom", obviously with many more between them. However, the growing interest for superheroes was caused by these we know today - Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, X-men and The Avengers.

Let's focus on two main American publishing companies. 

Marvel Comics is the common name and primary imprint of Marvel Worldwide Inc. Marvel started in 1939 as Timely Publications and by the early 1950s had generally become known as Atlas Comics. Marvel's modern incarnations dates from 1961, the year that the company launched The Fantastic Four and other superhero titles created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and many others. Marvel counts among its characters such well-known superheroes as Spider-Man, Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and the X-men.

DC Comics, Inc. is an American comic book publisher. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros., a division of Time Warner. DC Comics is one of the largest, oldest, and most successful companies operating in American comic books and produces material featuring numerous well-known heroic characters, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg, Shazam, Martian Manhunter, Hawkgirl and Green Arrow. The fictional DC universe also features teams such as the Justice League, the Justice Society of America, the Suicide Squad, and the Teen Titans, and well-known villains such as Joker, Lex Luthor, Darkseid, Catwoman, Ra's al Ghul, Deathstroke, Professor Zoom, Sinestro, Black Adam and Brainiac. The company has also published non-DC Universe-related material, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta and many titles under their alternative imprint Vertigo. The initials "DC" came from the company's popular series Detective Comics, which featured Batman's debut and subsequently became part of the company's name.